Police say their continued investigation of a deadly accident that occurred in mid-June in Wilson, NC led them to discover that the driver’s decision to run a red light was the cause of the terrible wreck. According to police, a 66-year-old man died in the June 17th crash near the intersection of Ward Boulevard and MLK Jr. Parkway.
Authorities say it was after talking with several eyewitnesses that they were finally able to unravel what happened that night. The witnesses revealed that the 66-year-old in a 1991 Cadillac DeVille ran through a clearly red light before entering the intersection. The driver of the Cadillac then crashed into a Honda Accord and a Ford pickup truck, which were both in the lane of traffic. The crash was so severe that the driver of the Cadillac died from the injuries.
Police say that the 18-year-old driver of the Honda and the 26-year-old driver of the Ford both received serious injuries in the accident. Additionally, a 33-year-old pedestrian was also injured in the accident. Police said the crash sequence is still unknown and it’s possible that other circumstances contributed to the wreck.
As this crash demonstrates, red light accidents are frequently deadly. The NHTSA reports that red light running crashes alone caused 762 deaths in 2008. Though the lost lives are already serious, the problem becomes even more grave when the 165,000 injuries caused every year are taken into account.
Just like the accidents in this case, 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 deadly and more likely to cause serious injury than other types of crashes.
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.
Here’s a Google Map showing the location of the deadly red light crash in Wilson, NC:
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