The top reason for wrong-way accidents

Head-on collisions generally have a higher chance of leading to a fatality than other types of car accidents. Even with safety systems in place, these are accidents that happen at the highest rate of speed, and so they are inherently very dangerous.

One place where these accidents should never happen is on a one-way road. An example would be the local interstate highway system. Once you have entered the roadway, you should never have traffic coming directly toward you. All cars that are entering around you should be using on-ramps to merge in with the flow of traffic. All traffic moving the other direction should be separated by a median or a wall.

Even so, studies have found that wrong-way car accidents that lead to fatalities are just getting more common. Why do they happen?

Impairment by the offending driver

There are other reasons, but the biggest one is just impairment. In about 60% of cases, the driver who causes this type of accident is impaired. Most of the time, that impairment comes from alcohol. However, impairment from things like marijuana or pills could also play a role.

One fact about these crashes is that, in 87% of cases, those who caused the accidents were alone in the car. This suggests that simply having a passenger could drastically lower the odds of a wrong-way crash because it is very uncommon for two people to be so impaired that they would each make such a critical driving error – – although it does happen.

Exploring your legal options

If you’ve lost a loved one in a wrong-way accident, or if you suffered serious injuries, you may need to seek financial compensation. Be sure you know how to explore all of the legal options at your disposal.