A recent accident in Mint Spring has left one woman dead and another seriously injured. The accident is an unfortunate example of the deadliness of head-on collisions.

The recent local accident occurred during the morning rush hour on Lee Jackson Highway. A 27-year-old woman from Staunton was traveling south to her job in Lexington, as a 74-year-old woman from Middlebrook was traveling north to her office in Staunton. Authorities would later disclose that the two women worked for different office locations of the same company. As the cars neared Stagecoach Road in Mint Spring, law enforcement revealed that, for reasons still under investigation, the 74-year-old woman crossed the double-yellow line and collided head-on with the younger woman’s vehicle. The younger woman was killed instantly. The older woman was taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville with life-threatening injuries, and was listed as being in serious condition.

Head-on collisions are an uncommon form of accident; only an estimated 2% of all traffic accidents annually are classified as head-on collisions. That said, these deadly accidents account for a disproportionate 10% of all roadway fatalities. In a head-on collision involving two vehicles, the energy of the vehicles and their opposing speeds traveling toward each other is combined, generating a great deal of force when impact occurs. This makes head-on crashes one of the deadliest forms of motor vehicle accident.

Head-on collisions are frequently associated with negligent or reckless driving behaviors. For instance, drivers who are distracted by a text or email are frequently to blame for head-on collisions. The amount of time required to look away from the road to read messages on a phone is enough time to miss important signage warning of upcoming bends in the road, or to allow the vehicle to drift outside lane lines. Likewise, drunk drivers are also frequently responsible for head-on collisions due to impaired drivers’ inability to remain in their lane of traffic. Head-on collisions may also result when a driver attempts to pass another car by crossing into the opposing lane of traffic and fails to judge the speed of oncoming traffic accurately.

If you or someone you love has been seriously injured or killed in an accident caused by another driver’s reckless or negligent behavior in Virginia, contact the knowledgeable, compassionate, and effective Charlottesville personal injury lawyers at Buck, Toscano & Tereskerz for a consultation on your case, at 434-977-7977.

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