The Lombardi Law Firm Blog

Wrong-way Drivers Collide in Texas, Tennessee and Illinois.

Here today are four more wrong-way collisions from around the country. As you can see all four, from four different states are drunk drivers. With the economy in recession I have to wonder if this will only get worse.

Dallas, Texas - July 2009 – Letter to the Editor “Nothing will work” states that putting more signs up will not help stop wrong-way drivers due in part to drunk drivers being totally unaware they are the one’s going the wrong way and being unable to read a sign. Interesting point the author is making.

Kingsport, Tennessee- Driving the wrong-way on Stone Drive leads to drunk driving and drug charges.  The incident is reported to have happened at around 1:35 a.m. on a Saturday.

Green Bay, Wisconsin - July 2009 – Main Street driver just before 1:00 a.m. crashed head-on into another car. Alcohol was involved.

Chicago, Illinois – July 2009 – Reported on a lawyer’s blog, I-55 about 6:30 a.m. the driver was 25-years old charged with DUI and driving the wrong way on an Interstate highway.  In another report of this wrong-way incident on Stevenson Expressway the reporter has it the car entered the wrong-way using the incorrect entrance ramp but doesn’t say which exit ramp.

Wrong-way avoidance helpful suggestion – July 2009 - While it won’t help with drunk drivers or drugged drivers, the elderly and those unfamiliar with their surroundings may find help with using a GPS device that warns about wrong-way turns.  These systems run from $60 to $2,000.  The news story can be found at the Press-Enterprise from California.

Wrong-way drivers are causing deaths in America’s interstate highway system all across the United States. Wrong-way collisions can have several causes and there are things we can do to educate ourselves from being involved in one. With two vehicles traveling towards one another at 70 mph death is almost certain.  So what can you do to avoid being in one?

For several months I’ve collected news items on wrong-way collisions and have analyzed where, when and how they occurred. There have been so many that I can only cover the month of July for 2009 and that is enough to provide us with 70 separate wrong-way collisions from hundreds of news stories.  From these news reported collisions that here are the general causes and how we can avoid being one of those who die from a wrong-way driver coming towards us at 50 to 70 mph.

I became interested in this subject back in November 2008 when I wrote, Interstate Highway Safety: Part I - Ghost drivers continue to be a problem on U.S. Interstate Highways and followed up with Interstate Highway Safety - Ghost Drivers – Part II. Since then other InjuryBoard members have written and the discussion has become varied and lively. So do a search on the InjuryBoard and see what the lawyer in your state has said about wrong-way drivers or “ghost riders”.

Labels: ghost riders I-235 I-29 I-35 I-370 I-380 I-5 I-680 I-80 I90 injury or death Interstate safety iowa lawyer or attorney Lombardi semi-truck wrong-way collisions