Going too fast to stay in one’s own lane on a narrow rural road seems to have created a deadly situation in Louisa County, Virginia (VA). Shortly before 9 am on August 12, 2015, an 18-year-old driver who police believe to have been speeding along Belle Meade Road through the town of Bumpass went left of center and collided head-on with a car traveling in the opposite direction. The teen lost his life in the wreck, and the female driver of the other vehicle sustained serious injuries. A 1-year-old riding in the car with the woman who survived escaped injury, perhaps because the toddler was secured in a baby seat.
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Drivers wind up on the wrong side of two-lane roads for many reasons, Some of those can be unavoidable and potentially excusable, such as when a person has to swerve to avoid another accident that has just occurred or when a seizure strikes without warning. Speeding and taking curves too widely or getting distracted behind the wheel and taking one’s eyes off the traffic ahead are avoidable errors that no driver should allow him or herself to make.
The consequences of crossing into the path of other vehicles are simply too great, too deadly, to risk. Two more central Virginia families have now learned that lesson in the worst ways possible. One has lost a son, and the other is facing a long and likely difficult recovery for its mother. The at-fault driver’s insurance coverage will remain in effect until any claims by the injured victim and her loved ones are settled, but the real comfort could only come from others learning the lesson to drive carefully and attentively.
EJL