As a Baltimore car and trucking accident lawyer, I am constantly aware of the preciousness of life. Looking at the news from day to day I am also reminded of the fragility and transitory nature of our lives here on Earth. This is especially true when it comes to the tens of thousands of unnecessary injuries and deaths that occur on our nation’s highways and city streets each year.
To anyone who picks up a newspaper or follows the evening news, it will come as no surprise that we as drivers live but scant moments away from possible death or severe injury. A recent news article brought that thought home lately when I read of a former Maryland resident who lost her life on a highway out West where she lived with her family.
According to reports, 40-year-old Kristen Ardinger Karn formerly of Hagerstown, MD, died recently following a tragic head-on car crash in Wyoming earlier this month. The accident occurred on a Monday morning while Karn was driving along a stretch of Highway 22 when her 2005 GMC Yukon was hit head-on by another vehicle.
Based on information from local highway patrol officers, a Ford F-150 pickup truck being driven eastbound by 40-year-old Cresencio Perez-Avila for some reason drifted into Karn’s lane. Highway patrolmen said a preliminary investigation showed that Perez-Avila’s truck went left of the centerline and collided with Karn’s vehicle.
Emergency crews arriving at the crash site pronounced Perez-Avila dead at the scene, while they administered medical attention to Karn before she was flown by helicopter to a regional medical center for further treatment. Amazingly, Karn’s child, who was in the right rear passenger seat.
Sadly the woman died from her injuries the next day. According to reports, Karn’s family and friends said the accident happened just when the woman’s life was beginning to peak; she had not long ago given birth to her first child.
Former Hagerstown woman dies after Wyoming crash, Herald-Mail.com, August 11, 2010