All highway collisions have the potential to seriously hurt you and anyone else involved. But head-on car accidents are perhaps the deadliest. Two (or more) vehicles crashing directly into each other at highway speeds creates a tremendous force that our bodies are not built to withstand. Life-altering disabilities or death are the frequent results.
A recent incident on a Missouri highway provides a sad example. The State Highway Patrol reports that two women were seriously hurt when their vehicles collided head-on on Hwy. 47. One of the women was driving eastbound when her car crossed the median into the westbound side of the road.
The car crashed into a westbound pickup truck with two people inside. The truck’s passenger was seriously hurt and had to be airlifted to the hospital, as did the car’s driver. Both vehicles were totaled.
What causes drivers to end up on the wrong side of the highway?
We don’t know how the car ended up on the wrong side of the highway. But wrong-way driving tends to happen because of these reasons:
- Distracted driving
- Drunk driving
- Speeding
- Drowsy driving
- An illegal attempt to pass
- The driver swerved to avoid an obstacle in the road, such as an animal
With the possible exception of the last scenario, these are all examples of negligent driving. There is never an excuse for driving drunk, being distracted by your cellphone or breaking traffic laws. When a driver commits one of these acts and somebody gets hurt in a resulting car accident, the driver might be liable for the victim’s medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering and more under state personal injury law.