Traffic signals and signs are not designed to aggravate or inconvenience drivers. In Ohio and elsewhere, their primary intent is to control the flow of traffic and prevent car accidents. When drivers fail to heed them, they put the lives of everyone in their vicinity at risk for serious or fatal injuries.
On a recent Sunday afternoon shortly before 1:30 p.m., a baby paid the ultimate price of another driver’s failure to obey a stop sign. Troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol arrived at the scene to discover two vehicles occupied by several people were involved in the accident. When the vehicle that ran the stop sign slammed into the other vehicle, it shoved it off the road and flipped over. It was mentioned that several occupants were not properly restrained at the time.
During the impact, many of the second vehicle’s occupants flew out of it. The injuries ranged from non life-threatening to life-threatening. More than one child occupied the vehicles at the time of the crash, and no further information regarding the deceased infant was released. In addition, the current conditions of the survivors were not known at last report.
Several people and their families will feel the devastation of this crash, including substantial financial losses seen in other car accidents. Pursuing restitution for those losses could be possible through the filing of personal injury claims by the surviving victims and a wrongful death claim by the family of the deceased child. An award of damages allowable under Ohio law could provide the resources needed to financially recover from this tragedy.
