Rollover accidents can result in rather serious, if not life-threatening injuries. As Maryland personal injury lawyers and car accident attorneys, I and my staff have seen dozens of automobile, motorcycle and trucking accident victims throughout our careers.
Most traffic accidents result in some kind of bodily injury, but when it comes to rollovers, head and neck injuries are much more common. Depending on the circumstances, an occupant who is not belted-in can occasionally be ejected from the vehicle during the crash, which usually means severe injuries and many times can result in an untimely death.
It’s a sad fact that a family who loses a bread-winner — such as a single working mom or a father who is trying to hold down multiple jobs to support the family — has a much harder time of it when a motor vehicle fatality takes a life. That moment can come quickly and unexpectedly — there is never a good time for any life altering car accident to happen, especially to the survivors.
Not long ago, a Hagerstown resident was critically injured during a single-vehicle accident along Burnside Bridge Road. According to police, 45-year-old Jeffrey Rehfeld was driving his pickup truck in Sharpsburg near the 18300 block of Burnside Bridge Rd in the late afternoon. Just after 4pm, the man apparently lost control of the truck, which went off the right side of the road, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Based on police reports, Rehfeld must have overcorrected, causing the truck to skid across the road, then after hitting an embankment it rolled at least one time. Emergency responders arriving at the scene of the crash apparently provided medical aid to the motorist before transporting him to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.
At the time of the news report, the victim was listed in critical condition. Washington County Sheriff’s Office will likely investigate the causes of the crash, although no mention was made as to whether defective vehicle equipment was to blame for the driver initially losing control of the truck.
Hagerstown man critically injured in crash, HeraldMail.com, August 31, 2010