Dangers on Iowa's Interstate Highways and Roads

This week of Thanksgiving we are covering auto accidents in Iowa and we've done a good job of covering all the fatalities and personal injury accidents as reported by the Iowa State Patrol. Today we will have three additional personal injury accidents that lawyers see quite often; not all result in claims, but injury prevention is our reason for blogging about them.

The first is a deer collision as is the second accident. Not much you can do about those other than to plan your trips either before or after dusk and dawn to avoid the high movement frequency times. In the first accident it happened at 6:10 p.m. on November 17, 2010 (Jefferson County) and the second much later than dusk at 9:40 p.m. on November 16, 2010 in Monona County. Where lawsuits creep into the picture is in analyzing how a driver may have reacted to a deer to avoid colliding with it; and whether the driver was somehow distracted and that's a reason they didn't see the deer. So in the first collision you have only the one car. But in number two there are two vehicles involved.

This third collision is a one-vehicle accident involving driver reaction to both driving and going off the road. The first question we have is whether distractions caused him/her to leave the roadway and second after the loss of control started how did the driver react?

Full Reports

A crash occurred in Jefferson County on November 7, 2010

VEHICLE #1 WAS NORTH BOUND ON COUNTY RD STOCKPORT RD/W-30 A DEER CROSSED INTO THE PATH OF #1 AND WAS STRUCK.

A crash occurred in Monona County on November 6, 2010

Unit 1 was northbound on I-29 when a deer ran out in front of unit 1. Unit 1 struck the deer and lost control. Unit 1 then entered the median and rolled. Unit 1 came to rest on it's side in the traveled portion of I-29 southbound. Unit 2 was traveling southbound and could not see that unit 1 was laying on the driver's side in the middle of the traveled portion. The driver of unit 2 said that he could see other vehicles stopped to the right and left of unit 1(see attached statement). Unit 2 was unable to stop and struck unit 1 in the rear causing unit 1 to spin around. Unit 2 then pulled off onto the shoulder and stopped.

A crash occurred in Hamilton County on November 6, 2010

VEH #1 DROPPED OFF THE LEFT SHOULDER, OVER CORRECTED INTO THE RIGHT SIDE GUARD CABLE BEFORE ENTERING THE MEDIAN AND ROLLING OVER. VEH #1 WAS TOWING A LIVESTOCK TRAILER LOADED WITH ONE COW, WHICH SEPARTED FROM THE TOW VEHICLE BEFORE ROLLING OVER.