Police in Wilmington, NC say that a two-car accident early this morning was caused by one driver running a red light. The accident, which occurred on South 17th Street and Wooster Street, led to several road closures for the remainder of the morning commute.
A spokesperson with the Wilmington Police Department said the driver was traveling down Wooster when he ran a red light and smashed directly into another vehicle. The car then flipped over and rolled several times before coming to a stop.
Police say two people were taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries and that the driver of the first car will be charged with running the red light.
The NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System reports that red light running crashes alone caused 762 deaths in 2008. Beyond the high cost of lost lives, the report estimates that 165,000 people are injured every year by red light runners. It may come as a surprise to many people, but according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), half of the people killed in red light running crashes are not the red light runners themselves, but instead unsuspecting, law-abiding motorists.
Crashes caused by running North Carolina red lights are almost always T-bone crashes, where the front of one vehicle collides with side of another. Since the side of an automobile is one of the weakest points, it is far more vulnerable to the deadly force of an impact. This makes T-bone crashes especially dangerous and more likely to cause injury or death than other types of crashes with similar force.
If you have been involved in a North Carolina car, motorcycle or truck accident and are not sure how to move forward, it might be helpful to check out my firm’s answers to some frequently asked questions regarding car accident claims. For instance, you may be wondering what types of damages an injured person can recover or how you can go about calculating and recovering money for lost wages. For these answers and more, read my firm’s North Carolina car accident FAQs.
Here’s a Google Map showing the location of the accident:
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