A head-on accident involving three vehicles on the morning of Aug. 18 on North Carolina Highway 68 left two road users dead and debris scattered across the busy roadway. An additional two vehicles were damaged when their drivers were unable to avoid pieces of the wreckage. The accident caused traffic to be halted in both directions as rescue workers and investigators went about their duties.
According to the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the head-on accident was caused by the driver of a car who was attempting to pass a slower-moving vehicle in a no-passing zone near Oak Ridge. Police say that while attempting this ill-advised maneuver, the car’s driver struck an oncoming box truck head-on. The wrong-way driver then struck the car that he had been trying to pass. Rescue workers arrived at the car accident scene to find that both the car and box truck had left the highway and the box truck had overturned.
The driver of the car making the passing maneuver was pronounced dead by emergency medical services personnel at the scene, and the badly injured box truck driver was rushed by paramedics to a nearby medical facility. However, he succumbed to his injuries in the ambulance and was pronounced dead upon arrival.
Accidents involving wrong-way drivers often result in catastrophic injuries or death, and the negligent motorists responsible sometimes face civil as well as criminal sanctions. Establishing liability is crucial in car accident lawsuits, but it may be simpler for personal injury attorneys to clear this hurdle when police reports indicate that the driver concerned was intoxicated, fatigued, distracted or driving recklessly at the time of a crash. When police reports are inconclusive, attorneys may conduct their own inquiries. These efforts could include checking the accident site for security cameras or eyewitnesses that may not have spoken to the police.