Two teen brothers sustained serious injuries after being hit head-on by a wrong-way driver on I-85 in Spartansburg, South Carolina (SC), early in the morning of June 13, 2014. The accident occurred at the exits for New Cut Road and Broadcast Drive at 4:19 am, and the at-fault driver who had been traveling south in the northbound lanes of the interstate also suffered injuries that required hospitalization.
Police did not release information on what led the woman behind the wheel of the wrong-way car to enter the highway using an exit ramp. The interchange where the head-on collision happened has a multiple cloverleaf design, so simple driver confusion could be to blame. At the same time, drunk and drugged drivers have a high risk for going the wrong way on the interstate. Drowsy driving, a distinct possibility so early in the day — or so late at night, depending how one counts the hours between midnight and 6 am — can also cause a person to lose focus on which ramp to use.
Regardless of what explanation law enforcement officials find for this auto accident, little is likely to excuse the woman driving the wrong-way vehicle from her liability for injuring the 17-year-old and 19-year-old teenagers in the car she hit. Every driver must ensure he or she enters and exits interstates in the correct directions. Everyone involved in this South Carolina crash may be lucky to have survived, but each person no doubt also faces months or years of difficult and expensive recovery following an accident that should have been so easy to avoid.
EJL