Tragic Head-On Collision Kills Two in Davidson County, North Carolina (NC)

DAVIDSON COUNTY, NC- The dispatch.com writes that a terrible wrong-way crash killed two people this week in North Carolina. The crash took place on US Interstate 85 in the morning when a driver was traveling the wrong way against the flow of traffic.*

Police reports indicate that a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe was heading southbound in the northbound lanes of the interstate when it collided head-on with a 2015 Chrysler passenger car. The impact caused the Tahoe to overturn and land on the shoulder of the roadway. The Chrysler ended up in the road. Both of the drivers died at the scene of the wreck. 

The driver operating the Tahoe was a 72-year-old man from Henderson. The driver of the Chrysler was a 24-year-old from Greensboro. A 24-year-old woman from Greensboro was a passenger in the Chrysler and was injured in the crash. Responders transported the woman to the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center for treatment. 

While police stated that the cause of the deadly head-on wreck was that the Tahoe was traveling in the wrong direction, the incident is still being investigated, and other factors may also have contributed to the wreck. Officers do not know why the driver was heading against the flow of traffic when the incident occurred. 

The crash led to the closure of the northbound traffic lanes for several hours. 

Wrong-way crashes kill about 300 to 400 people in the United States annually. These are often extremely severe because they involve head-on impacts at high speeds. Road designers try to prevent these collisions by making it difficult for a driver to enter a divided highway heading in the wrong direction. 

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 a 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.the-dispatch.com/news/20200606/two-dead-after-head-on-collision-on-i-85-saturday

https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/other_topics/wwd/