Tragic Head-On Collision Kills Three in Horry County, South Carolina (SC)

HORRY COUNTY, SC- Myrtlebeaconline.com writes that a crash occurred this week on Highway 31 overnight. The incident, which killed three people, happened close to the Robert Edge Parkway exit.*

A Jeep appears to have been traveling northbound in the southbound lanes when it struck a Mini Cooper. The drivers of both cars died in the impact, along with a passenger who was in the Jeep. One person, a passenger in the Mini Cooper, survived the collision, and responders transported that person to the hospital. The authorities have not yet released the names of the victims involved in the deadly wreck.

Some of the deadliest crashes in the United States are head-on collisions. Statistics suggest that while greater than one out of every ten fatal crashes throughout the country involves head-on impact; overall, just two percent of all collisions take place head-on. Those numbers show just how dangerous head-on collisions are to the life and safety of vehicle occupants. Road designers often install traffic barriers in an effort to find cars crossing over the center line and striking another vehicle. Unfortunately, even such efforts are not always an effective way to prevent crash-related fatalities. 

Wrong-way crashes are head-on collisions that take place because of driver enters a divided highway or Interstate traveling against the designated flow of traffic. This can happen when a driver makes an illegal upturn or because a driver enters the road on what is intended to be an exit ramp. Such mistakes are severe, and road designers go to great lengths to try to prevent people from making these types of errors. In many cases, the drivers who cause these crashes are under the influence of alcohol or other substances. 

About 300 to 400 people die in wrong-way car crashes annually in America. These numbers only represent a small percent of all vehicle-related deaths. However, the reason wrong-way crashes kill a relatively small number of people is not that they are not extremely deadly but because few drivers travel the wrong-way on undivided roads. 

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.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article246536568.html

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