Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
Police accident investigators, auto accident attorneys and traffic safety experts, among others, understand the many and varied causes of single-vehicle traffic accidents. As some of the top causes, driver error, weather conditions, road surface type and even defective equipment can be found toward the top of the list. When it comes to faulty vehicle equipment, this can also include tires, failure of which have been known to result in some serious accidents. In fact, a blown tire can actually precipitate a crash that can either injure or kill the car’s driver and/or its occupants.
Regardless of the category of traffic accident, be it a car, truck or motorcycle crash, investigators must always consider the entire range of possible causes in order to weed out the unlikely ones and home in on the more probable. While it’s possible to say that most of the motoring public is used to seeing multi-vehicle collisions, such as a car being hit by a commercial delivery truck or a motor scooter being struck by an SUV at a four-way intersection, single-car crashes are nonetheless fairly frequent occurrences.
Taking into account the human factor in a roadway wreck, a sudden medical emergency affecting the driver of a vehicle — like a heart attack or stroke — can cause the man or woman to pass out or otherwise lose control of his or her vehicle. On the highway this can certainly be a deadly occurrence, especially at interstate speeds. Yet, even on secondary roads where the posted speed may only be 35 or 45mph, losing control and leaving the roadway can also result in a potentially fatal crash.
Even with today’s passive automotive safety equipment, an impact with a fixed object, such as a utility pole, guard rail, or large tree can result in certain critical and possibly fatal injuries. This is apparently what happened in a recent accident in Davidsonville, MD.
As Maryland personal injury lawyers, our charge is to represent victims of auto-related collisions. In cases of single-vehicle wrecks, if driver error can be ruled out, then other factors, such as the ones previously mentioned, must be considered. To paraphrase a famous fictional sleuth, “Once one rules out the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Well, it doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes kind of mind to deduce the cause of many auto and trucking-related crashes, but it does take experience.
The recent instance to which we were referring involved a sedan carrying to individuals in Anne Arundel County. That vehicle, which was being driven by a 36-year-old woman, reportedly left the roadway along a stretch of Patuxent River Rd. in an area that has seen other accidents, most recently a wreck that injured five people back in April of this year.
According to news reports, the driver and Davidsonville resident, apparently was not able to negotiate a curve in the road, resulting in the vehicle crashing into a nearby tree. The crash occurred late on a Friday night, after which it took emergency crews more than 15min to extricate the driver and teenage boy from the mangled sedan. After freeing the victims, the two were choppered out to Baltimore’s Shock-Trauma center for treatment, but sadly doctors could save neither one of them. News articles indicated that the woman died from her injuries the morning after the crash, followed later in the afternoon by the death of the 14-year-old teen.
2 Fatally Injured In Davidsonville Accident, EyeOnAnnapolis.net, September 1, 2012
Accident on Patuxent River Road Sends Five to Hospital, SouthRiverSource.com, April 19, 2012