Violent Crash Outside San Antonio
A vicious car wreck on the Northwest Side, in which one car hit another one head-on, left a man dead and a woman clinging to life at a local hospital.
According to police, a woman in a Dodge Caravan was traveling westbound on Highway 1604 between the Bandera and Hausman exits, when she drifted over the grassy median and directly into the path of an oncoming Honda Civic. The man behind the wheel was unable to avoid the collision, and when the two vehicles met, he was killed instantly. Bystanders attempted to revive the man by performing CPR, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The woman was badly injured and transported to University Hospital, where she was placed in the intensive care ward. Police have yet to determine a cause for the crash.
Wrong-Way Collisions
This is the term that traffic safety experts use to describe head-on wrecks that occur on a multi-lane divided highway, like Loop 1604. These types of wrecks are quite rare (about 3 percent of the total) but they have a fatality rate up to 27 times that of normal car crashes, making wrong-way wrecks the most dangerous type of vehicle collision. Nearly all these crashes take place on rural and semi-rural roads. Some of the most prominent contributing causes to these cashes include:
Alcohol Impairment: Almost two-thirds of wrong-way crashes involve at least one driver with a BAC of over .15, or twice the legal limit.
Unsafe Operator: One in five one-way drivers have a suspended or revoked license; the adverse action is typically related to an unsafe driving metric, like a DUI charge or conviction.
Speed: Some drivers fail to slow down on a sharp curve which causes them to lose control of their vehicles, so velocity is often a factor even if the car was not exceeding the posted speed limit.
Medical Condition: There are few concrete statistics, but some researchers suspect that medical impairment may be second only to alcohol impairment.
Because of the high-velocity nature of these collisions, they normally involve catastrophic personal injury and property damages. So, victims are normally entitled to compensation for both economic and non-economic damages. Punitive damages are also available in some cases.
If you or a loved one was injured or killed in a car crash, you have a limited amount of time to act. So, contact an experienced New Braunfels personal injury attorney today. Home and hospital visits are available.
Sources:
http://www.foxsanantonio.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/one-man-dead-after-fatal-car-crash-sw-side-18106.shtml#.VmXdNyuvzYg
http://www.ksat.com/news/one-killed-in-accident-in-nw-san-antonio-1604-eastbound-shutdown
http://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SIR1201.pdf
