1 dead, 1 hurt injured in Missouri wrong-way head-on car accident

Car accidents are nearly impossible to avoid when a driver is driving the wrong way on a street in the evening hours. An unwary driver who is not expecting to encounter a vehicle traveling the wrong way in their lane has little time to react and may be unable to avoid a head-on car accident. One recent Missouri accident became fatal when a 19-year-old driver went the wrong way along an area highway.

Police report that the young woman entered the eastbound lane of Interstate 70 but was heading westbound near mile marker 151.4 when the fatal collision occurred. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the head-on accident happened at around 3 in the morning and involved the woman’s Nissan Xterra along with another driver’s Hino straight truck. The 19-year-old woman died at the scene of the accident, and the truck driver was seriously injured.

Emergency personnel transported the man to University Hospital in Columbia, Missouri to receive treatment for the significant injuries that he suffered in the collision. Both vehicles were destroyed. Reports indicate that only the male truck driver was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident. They did not indicate why the young woman was traveling the wrong way along the Interstate, however.

Regardless of why, it is possible that the woman’s estate could face liability in a personal injury lawsuit should the truck driver who was injured in this head-on car accident file such a claim. Personal injury lawsuits are typically available for individuals who have been injured by the negligence of another party. They allow such injured parties to receive financial restitution for medical expenses and other damages that arise from an accident like this one, once liability has been established.

Source: St. Peters, MO Patch, “St. Peters Driver Seriously Injured in Fatal Head-On Crash,” Joe Barker, Dec. 10, 2012