The head-on collision shown in a picture posted to the WAVY-TV 10 website occurred on the Crittenden Bridge across Chuckatuck Creek in Suffolk, Virginia (VA). Both drivers of the vehicles involved suffered serious injuries in the wreck and were transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for medical treatment.
Police have not announced the cause of the car crash near the border between Suffolk and Isle of Wight County, VA, but the details published in the Suffolk News Herald on April 23, 2011, reminded me of an accident involving two other cars that happened on the Chincoteague Causeway that connects the mainland of Virginia’s Eastern Shore with Chincoteague Island via Va. 175. That bridge wreck occurred on April 4, 2011, and claimed the lives of two Virginia brothers.
That earlier fatal head-on collision was caused by one car crossing the center line of the two-lane bridge and traveling the wrong way before smashing into the other vehicle. It also produced major injuries for the two people who survived the accident.
Drivers on any two-way highway must stay on their side of the road in order to keep themselves and everyone else safe and alive. A moment’s distraction, speeding around a curve, passing other vehicles unsafely and even falling asleep at the wheel because of fatigue can put cars and trucks in the wrong lane at the wrong time and in exactly the wrong place — in the path of another oncoming car or truck.
EJL