During an accident, the Missouri residents occupying the vehicles involved can suffer a variety of injuries depending on several factors such as the force of the impact, whether the vehicle hits other objects and whether the vehicle flips. Injuries sustained in rollover accidents, for example, can be severe and even fatal due to the risk of being thrown around — or out of — the vehicle as it rolls. It is nearly impossible to predict the path the vehicle will take after the initial impact.
For instance, on one Missouri road, a vehicle hit a curb, and the 27-year-old driver lost control of the car. This seemingly minor action caused the vehicle to slide across the roadway, careen into a ditch and fly into a utility pole. The impact with the pole cut the car in two, but the vehicle still had sufficient momentum to flip several times before finally coming to a rest on its roof.
At some point during the crash, the driver was ejected. He suffered injuries described as life threatening and, at recent report, was still in critical condition at a local hospital. His passenger, an 18-year-old woman, succumbed to fatal injuries at the scene. At present, officials are still attempting to determine what factors led to the accident.
The woman’s family will most likely be interested in those answers as well. Not only might it help them achieve some closure regarding her loss, but those details could also help establish negligence on the part of the driver in a wrongful death claim. Satisfying a Missouri court that the death of their loved one was caused by the negligence of another could result in an award of damages as is often the case in rollover accidents.
Source: abc17news.com, “Rock Bridge student killed in car crash in Columbia”, May 3, 2015
