Being injured in a multi-vehicle roadway accident is not an uncommon experience for those unlucky enough to have been caught in a car, truck or motorcycle crash. For those who have survived a serious highway wreck, there is no doubt that any injuries sustained in such a collision could have ranged from cuts and bruises to neck and back injury, or even closed-head trauma.
Survivors of horrific traffic accidents may end up with compound fractures, internal injuries, severely limbs, and temporary or permanent paralysis. Regardless of the type of severe injury, it’s a fair bet that anyone injured in a high-speed crash or serious multi-vehicle collision may be facing weeks or months of hospitalization followed possibly by a period of rehabilitation.
All of this time spent away from work can cause financial trouble if the victim is a primary breadwinner. Even if there are two earners in the family — a husband and wife, for instance — the loss of half a family’s income, even for a short time can put a strain on everyone concerned. But all this is relatively unimportant when one considers those who don’t survive a fatal car or commercial trucking accident.
In this regard, we were reminded of the families who lose loved ones to senseless traffic collisions every day in this county. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, I and my staff have felt the pain of those who will never hear a husband or wife’s voice; young children who will never know their mother; sons who will grow up without the guidance of their father. No amount of compensation can bring back a family member killed as a result of another driver’s negligence.
Not long ago, a 30-year-old man died when he apparently lost control of his vehicle along a stretch of Md 194 just before Crum Rd. in Frederick County. According to Maryland State Police, Stephen Wisner, a resident of Walkersville, MD, was headed northbound in a Pontiac sedan when for some reason the car crossed the centerline and into the oncoming lanes. The accident occurred a few minutes before 3pm on a Saturday afternoon.
Based on police reports, the Pontiac side-swiped the first vehicle, a Chevy Impala, then smashed head-on into a Ford sport utility vehicle. As a result of the collision the Ford SUV ended up off to the side of the roadway in a nearby ditch; both the Pontiac and the Chevy sedan remained in the middle of the highway.
Upon arrival of police and other first responders, Wisner was pronounced dead at the scene. Based on reports from the Maryland State Police, helicopters carried the seriously injured victims to hospitals for medical treatment. Fifty-five-year-old Pamela Droneburg, the driver of the SUV, was medevaced to R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore along with 19-year-old Kimberly Droneburg, one of the Ford’s other four occupants.
The two remaining people in the SUV — Pamela and Kimberly Droneburg — received non-life-threatening injuries in the crash. that weren’t life-threatening, according to police. An infant also riding in the SUV, along with the driver of the Chevy sedan, was taken via ambulance to Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown. Both the baby and the Chevy’s driver did not have serious injuries and were later released from the hospital, according to police.
There was no mention of whether the Pontiac had some kind of mechanical problem which caused the driver to lose control and crash into the opposing vehicles. At the time of the news article, police investigators still had no clues as to the specific cause of the crash, or why the driver ended up drifting into oncoming traffic.
One dead in three-vehicle crash, WTOP.com, November 20, 2011