Red-light violation suspected in Jefferson City injury accident

Jefferson City Police believe that a St. Peters, Missouri, man failed to stop for a red light Saturday afternoon, leading to an injury accident at the intersection of Madison Street and Highway 50. Police say that the man’s Dodge truck slammed into a Nissan in the intersection shortly before 2:30 in the afternoon.

A Jefferson City woman who was driving the Nissan and a passenger in the St. Peters man’s Dodge suffered personal injuries in the intersection accident. Emergency responders took the two accident victims to Capital Region Hospital for treatment of undisclosed personal injuries.

Traffic control officials have a variety of tools that can be used to promote safety at an intersection. Stop signs and red lights are generally placed at intersections with the specific intent to promote safety on Missouri roads. Yet, every year, accidents at controlled intersections injure many people in Missouri, just like anywhere else in the country. Many Americans suffer serious injury, including the potential for fatal injuries, related to red light violations.

Red-light violations may seem to be more associated with broadside, or T-bone-type, accidents. But, these violations may also involve rear-end collisions if a driver fails to stop for other cars waiting for the light to change. Head-on collisions, other types of crashes also may arise from a red light violation.

These ideas may seem fairly obvious in some ways, but today’s story highlights how each individual crash may fall into some general type of crash, while the specific events and potential injuries involved in a single crash may still have unique factors, which may need individualized legal analysis.

Source: Connect Mid-Missouri KCRG, “Two injured in Saturday afternoon accident,” Jan. 18, 2014