A pickup truck that entered westbound I-64 in Huntington, West Virginia by going the wrong way up an exit ramp onto Wes 17th Street/U.S. 52 collided with an SUV at around 3 am on March 9, 2012. The high-speed head-on collision left the truck’s driver and passenger dead and all five members of a North Carolina (NC) family in the SUV badly injured.
Police could not immediately determine why the man driving the pickup was using an exit ramp to get onto the interstate near the border between West Virginia, Kentucky (KY) and Ohio (OH). Officials did tell the Herald-Dispatch, however, that the vehicle registered in Athens, OH, had apparently traveled a long distance on U.S. 52 before wrecking.
The impact was so catastrophic that emergency personnel could not cut the bodies of the deceased from the pickup at the scene. An autopsy will be needed to determine whether the at-fault driver was impaired by drugs or alcohol. The mother, father and three young children injured in the crash were all hospitalized and listed in critical condition later on the day of the crash.
Regardless of the cause, all wrong-way and head-on accidents are devastating. This West Virginia wreck is merely the latest to leave some people dead and others likely facing lifelong struggles to overcome difficulties created by accident-related injuries. Both the family members of the person whose life was lost and the injured victims should contact experienced West Virginia wrongful death and personal injury attorneys to discuss their options for recovering compensation for everything the head-on collision has cost them.
EJLÂ