Three people died and a driver got arrested following a fatal two-car crash in Nash County, North Carolina (NC), on the night of March 2, 2018. The fatal wreck just south of Middlesex illustrates the dangers of speeding, especially on in residential areas between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am.
State Highway Patrol troopers received the call about the collision a little before 10:30 pm. Responding to the scene at the intersection of Nash Street/NC 231 and Hales Avenue, they found a man and woman in one vehicle dead and a passenger trapped in a Mustang suffering from injuries that would soon kill him.
Investigators determined that the driver of the Mustang was traveling “at a high rate of speed” along Nash Street when he collided with the other car, which was attempting to turn left from Nash onto Hales Avenue. The at-fault driver survived with injuries that required hospital treatment, and he now faces at least one charge each for speeding and for causing a death while operating a motor vehicle.
The speed limit along the stretch of Nash Avenue where the deadly collision happened is 35 mph. The roadway has few streetlights, and several residential neighborhood streets, including Hales, intersect with Nash. While news reports do not include the detail of how fast the at-fault driver was going, it is clear from the other knowable information that exceeding the posted speed limit in area of low visibility and the likelihood that other vehicles would be turning from or entering the highway would set the stage for a serious crash.
Speeding increases braking time, so even if someone going too fast sees a crash risk ahead, he or she may not have the ability to slow down or stop before causing a collision. During 2016, the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles recorded 89,839 crashes in which speed played a factor. Those wrecks resulted in 47,681 injuries and 424 deaths, or 32.2 percent of the total traffic fatalities for the year.
Evidence of speeding gives the families of the deceased victims strong grounds for filing wrongful death claims. One of the families is likely to experience resistance from the insurance company because their loved one was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. Working with a knowledgeable and caring Carolina wrongful death attorney will help the family fight through this tactic because the state’s seatbelt law makes it clear that failing to buckle up cannot be used as a reason to deny insurance claims.
EJL