Police Officer Injured in Crash into a Building

CHADBOURN, NC- Cbs17.com writes that a police officer sustained severe injuries in an early morning crash in Chadbourn this week. The officer was responding to a call and had his lights and sirens activated when he drove into the intersection of Railroad Street and South Brown Street.*

The police vehicle collided with an SUV causing the SUV to overturn. The officer’s car then struck a building. Reports indicate that the officer and the two individuals in the SUV were all injured in the crash. None of the injuries are life-threatening, but the police department stated that the officer sustained severe injuries. 

Police are still investigating the collision. Images from the scene show the mangled police car, which suffered severe damage to its front end. A beam in the building is cracked and had been pushed on an angle. The wreckage in the building appears significant, but reports did not indicate whether or not the structure was compromised. 

Car-into-building collisions are severe crashes that occur about 60 times every day and kill hundreds of people every year. Many of these incidents are simply driver errors, such as when a person mixes up the pedals or takes a turn at too high of a rate of speed. In other instances, crashes between vehicles or drunk drivers cause these severe wrecks.

Safety advocates state that road design and parking lot design creates the risk of these collisions. Cars often park directly facing a building, and this design flaw creates a situation where it is far too easy for a driver to travel straight into a structure. Barriers and lower speed limits may help reduce the risks of people being injured in the incidents. 

Accident News is a safety and education initiative from Montlick & Associates, designed to help people better understand and thereby avoid common accident causes.  To learn more about our injury prevention programs, including iridesafe.com - click here. We hope you are never in an accident, but if you or family member are injured, call Montlick & Associates 24/7 for your free consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333) or use our live chat at Montlick.com.

Sources:https://www.cbs17.com/news/north-carolina-news/nc-police-officer-seriously-injured-after-crashing-into-building/ and https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/02/19/you-arent-even-safe-from-a-car-inside-a-building/