Two individuals were injured recently in a head-on collision in Ohio. Sadly, this is the third in a series of wrong-way automobile accidents in the Cleveland area in just the last few months. Thankfully, no one was killed in this most recent crash, but others have not been so lucky.
This last accident occurred early on a recent Friday morning when one of the drivers was apparently traveling the wrong way, heading west in the eastbound lanes of I-90. At the scene, firefighters were forced to spend nearly half an hour freeing one of the drivers from the remains of his mangled vehicle. Both of the drivers were said to have been in critical condition when they were transported from the crash site.
Just last month, a 75-year-old was killed on the same interstate when he also mistakenly drove his vehicle in the wrong direction. A few days after that incident, yet another driver died in a four-car wrong-way collision. The Ohio Department of Transportation has begun putting up markers and signs in addition to those already in place to try to keep other drivers from making the same deadly error.
It is said that at least three-quarters of wrong-way automobile accidents in Ohio involve a severely-impaired driver under the use of drugs or alcohol, so traffic signs and alerts can only do so much. The most recent crash remains under investigation, and police will doubtless attempt to ascertain whether alcohol or drugs were a contributing factor. Regardless of their findings, the injured driver traveling the correct direction on the interstate likely has grounds for a personal injury claim, and the advice and support of a Cleveland-area attorney experienced in car crash claims may prove indispensable.
Source: news5cleveland.com, “Two hurt in head-on wrong-way crash on Interstate 90 in Bratenahl overnight“, Mike Vielhaber, Tara Molina, Nov. 17, 2017
