Being in the right doesn’t always mean one is safe from danger on the road. The reason we say this is that there are many people out there who may feel that when they have the right-of-way, it’s another person’s problem if they are injured in a Rockville, Frederick or Gaithersburg car crash. The problem with this thinking is that sometimes, a motorist can be “dead right,” which doesn’t help him or his family, not in the least.
As Maryland car and truck accident attorneys and Washington, D.C., personal injury lawyers, it is our job to help victims and their families recover from sometimes devastating passenger car, commercial truck and motorcycle wrecks. And it shouldn’t come as any surprise that people involved who are injured, either seriously or fatally, may have considered themselves completely in the right when it came to proper roadway etiquette.
Unfortunately, as we said, being dead right is not something that most people would aspire to. Life is too precious to rely on a red light or stop sign to protect one against serious bodily injury or death. This is why, as auto and trucking accident lawyers and drivers ourselves, we suggest that every motorist exercise a high degree of caution whenever he or she travels on Maryland roadways.
Not long ago, the wife of a St. Mary’s County commissioner was critically injured in a car crash at the intersection of Millstone Landing Rd. and Rte 235. According to news reports, the 46-year-old Lexington Park woman suffered life-threatening injuries when the car she was driving was broadsided by another vehicle as she turned onto the highway during her morning commute.
Based on police reports, Maria Morgan apparently had the green light as she was turning onto the highway when her 2008 Audi was hit on the left side by a northbound Ford pickup truck driven by 26-year-old Mechanicsville woman. The force of the collision shoved the Audi into a third vehicle that was waiting to turn onto Millstone Landing Rd.
Morgan was flown from the crash scene by a Maryland State Police helicopter for treatment at Prince George’s Hospital Center, while the driver of the pickup was taken by ambulance to St. Mary’s Hospital. The driver of the third car, a Nissan Armada, was not injured in the three-vehicle wreck.
Based on news accounts, Morgan was unconscious the following day and still in critical condition. The woman’s husband, a county commissioner, said she suffered contusions to the brain, although doctors hadn’t observed any swelling as of the time of the news report. In addition to her apparent brain injury, Morgan also received several broken bones in the lower half of her body and was on a respirator following the collision.
Reports indicate that the local sheriff’s department concluded that neither speed nor alcohol seemed to be the cause of the crash, however police were still seeking additional witnesses to accident to give police additional information concerning the wreck. No information was provided as to the condition of the pickup driver, Michelle Malone of Mechanicsville, MD.
St. Mary’s commissioner’s wife hospitalized after crash, SoMdNews.com, July 13, 2011