Sometimes it takes Missouri law enforcement officials longer to determine the factors behind a deadly crash because the driver believed responsible does not survive. Head-on collisions on highways are often extremely violent impacts due to the speeds at which both vehicles are traveling. It is not unusual for one or more people to die in these accidents, including the wrong-way driver.
Often, further investigation is needed in order to figure out how a driver ended up traveling in the wrong direction. This is the question that officials here in Missouri are asking after a wrong-way driver clipped one car and then slammed head on into another on Interstate 29 at approximately 3:20 a.m. on a recent Thursday morning. The wrong-way driver died, and the woman in the other vehicle was reported as being in stable condition despite having suffered serious injuries.
In another Thursday morning accident in Northland, a pedestrian was killed on the 169-Highway. The victim was walking in the lanes of travel at around 5:15 a.m. Again, officials could have trouble ascertaining why the man was in the middle of the highway.
Since it appears that both of the deceased individuals in these crashes are believed to be largely responsible for their own demises, their families might not have any legal recourse. However, the woman who was injured in the crash with the wrong-way vehicle could file a personal injury claim against the estate of the driver. If she prevails in proving negligence, she could be awarded damages often seen in head-on collisions.
Source: fox4kc.com, “Two metro men killed in Northland crashes identified“, Stephanie Graflage, Kathy Quinn and Matt Stewart, March 3, 2016
