Tragic Head-On Crash Kills One on Highway 218 in Monroe, North Carolina (NC)

MONROE, NC- Wcnc.com writes that an investigation is underway this week involving a head-on collision in North Carolina on NC 218. The wreck led to one fatality and injured multiple other people. The cause of the crash is not clear, but it appears that at least two vehicles were involved, if not more. The authorities shut down a section of the highway following the wreck.*

Head-on collisions carry high risks of deadly injuries. In the United States, about ten percent of traffic deaths are the result of head-on impacts, and yet, these collisions only account for about two percent of all traffic accidents. Road designers take steps to prevent these collisions, including by adding barriers between lanes of traffic. Concrete and even cable barriers are often enough to deflect cars and stop them from traveling into oncoming traffic lanes. There are situations where cars collide with the barriers and cause severe injuries as well, but these incidents tend to be less damaging on average than are head-on impacts, especially in cases where the vehicles involved are traveling at high speeds. 

Unfortunately, even barriers are not able to prevent all head-on impacts. About 300 or 400 people in the United States die every year in crashes caused by wrong-way drivers. Wrong-way accidents are those in which a car enters a divided interstate or highway traveling against the traffic flow. In many situations, the drivers who cause such incidents enter the highway on an exit ramp. Studies indicate that more often than not, the drivers who make such devastating errors are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Impairment explains the drastic error that these motorists make because road designers go to great lengths to prevent such mistakes. Wrong-way crashes often happen on high-speed roads causing them to be extremely dangerous.

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.wcnc.com/article/traffic/one-dead-in-head-on-union-county-crash/275-c7e569d2-6069-4843-8148-21f2e9b8f843

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-on_collision 

https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/other_topics/wwd/#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20WWD,related%20fatalities%20that%20occur%20annually.

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

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268075815_Statistical_Characteristics_of_Wrong-Way_Driving_Crashes_on_Illinois_Freeways