A head-on collision in Yakima last month sent four people to the hospital. The accident occurred around 9:00 p.m. on May 13 in the eastbound lane of the Nob Hill overpass at Interstate 82. Among the injured was a pregnant woman, although early reports were that no one received any life threatening injuries in the accident.
Head-on collisions are often serious and produce some of the worst injuries of any car accident. Statistics show that although head-on collisions account for only about two percent of all accidents in the United States, they result in about 10 percent of all fatal car accident injuries.
There are a number of reasons why head-on collisions produce a disproportionate number of fatalities. One reason deals with physics. When two vehicles are traveling at 60 mph toward each other and they collide, the net effect is of a vehicle hitting a stationary object going 120 mph. The sheer force of the impact is, therefore, much more severe than in other types of accidents. Because of the force exerted on the people inside the cars, serious back, neck and head injuries may occur.
If you have been injured in a head-on collision, and the other driver was the one who left his or her lane and caused the accident, then you may be entitled to compensation for those injuries. Negligence, a legal term that refers to blame or fault, is typically easier to determine in a head-on collision than in other types of accidents. A head-on collision is caused by one driver leaving his or her lane and crossing over a center line into another vehicle’s lane. A less common scenario has a driver entering an entrance ramp going the wrong way or turning onto a one-way street going the wrong way. In any of these scenarios, driver negligence probably played a role in the accident.
What causes a driver to cross over the center line? There are, of course, numerous reasons why a driver may veer over the center line; however, some are more common than others. Falling asleep at the wheel is one of the most frequently given reasons by a driver for why he or she drifted out of the proper lane of traffic. Even if the driver wakes up as the car bounces over a center divider, it is often too late to correct the mistake. Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is another common reason why a driver may cross over the center line into another lane of traffic and cause a head-on collision. Various distractions, such as talking or texting on a cell phone, talking to other passengers or children in the vehicle, applying makeup or eating, may also cause a driver to take his or her eyes off the road long enough to drift out of the proper lane of traffic and into the oncoming traffic.
If you have been injured in a head-on collision, or any other type of Yakima car accident, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries. Contact the car accident lawyers at Mariano Morales Law at (509) 853-2222 for a detailed evaluation of your potential case.
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