How wrong-way highway accidents happen
Most car accidents seem to happen in an instant, but none happen more quickly than a wrong-way crash on the highway. Two vehicles traveling 55 miles per hour or faster toward each other can close the distance of a football field in seconds. The force of impact is so violent that the people involved are lucky if they survive.
Tragically, many victims do not make it. Recently, two drivers were killed in a wreck on Interstate 26. The crash happened southeast of Greenville in Lexington County. Few details were available immediately after the incident, but authorities said that one of the drivers, a 34-year-old woman, was driving west on the eastbound side when she collided with the other driver, who was 17.
How do drivers end up on the wrong side of the highway?
We may never know for sure how the older driver wound up on the wrong side of the interstate. But this type of dangerous mistake tends to happen for one of three reasons:
- Drunk driving
- An older driver affected by poor vision or senility
- Driving alone, so there is no passenger to warn the driver that they are entering through an exit lane
The first cause is a clear form of negligence. The second scenario arguably could be too, if the motorist is no longer competent to drive but does so anyway. As far as the third bullet point, driving by yourself is not negligent. But if a solo driver negligently misses the “Do Not Enter” sign and nobody else is in the vehicle to alert them, the driver’s failure to notice their mistake is likely their own fault under South Carolina law.