Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
Traffic accidents, like many unexpected events, can bring terrible and irreversible consequences to the victims involved in the roadway collision. For many people who are reading this right now, there is a rather good chance that you or someone you know will be caught up in some kind of highway wreck during your lifetime. Whether that accident includes serious bodily injuries, a fatality or maybe just bumps or bruises will depend on the circumstances surrounding the crash, but could have just as much to do with fate as anything else.
The unknown is always a difficult area to plan for, not to mention that predicting the future has yet to be perfected to any meaningful degree. This is essentially why insurance companies exist and why drivers and other owners of motor vehicles purchase insurance policies. As Maryland automobile accident attorneys and personal injury lawyers, my firm is dedicated to helping the victims of car, truck and motorcycle accidents recover what they can following a serious or even fatal car crash. With the cost of medical care and long-term physical therapy and rehabilitation, it’s easy for hospital and other related costs to mount up after a traffic collision.
Personal injury accidents can result in extensive bodily injury, which many people can eventually recover from physically and emotionally, but some do not. In the case of a fatal passenger car or commercial trucking wreck, the families of the victims must pick up the pieces emotionally as well as financially. And while the death of a parent can place a family in dire financial straits, the loss of a child or teenager to a senseless car crash is something that few family members ever get over.
We mention this because of a tragic event that happened earlier this year around high school prom time. According to news reports immediately following a fatal single-vehicle traffic accident, two high school sweethearts passed away during what should have been the highlight of the school year. Just as any incident that kills or injures a child or young adult, friends and family can only wonder what these young people may have achieved in later life. Memories are a poor substitute for the living, breathing and happy individuals who are lost every year to tragic events such as this.
Base on police reports, Brendon Colliflower and Samantha Kellywere apparently on their way home from Saturday night prom activities in West Virginia when the car in which they were riding left the roadway, slid down a nearby incline and hit a tree. Police reports indicate that both of the teenagers died at the scene of the accident. Sadly, police reports indicate that the Honda sports car was traveling at a high rate of speed and that Colliflower likely lost control of the speeding vehicle prior to the crash. At the time of the news report, police had not yet given an estimate as to how fast the Honda S2000 was going at the time of the wreck.
Based on information from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the couple were seniors at Williamsport High School in Washington County, MD. The two teens had reportedly been at their school prom, which had been held in Shepherdstown, WV, and were on their way back to their homes in Maryland around 11:45pm before the fatal traffic accident occurred.
At the time of the news report, police did not know exactly what caused the crash, it is possible for some single-vehicle accidents to be caused by either driver error or a mechanical problem with one or more critical vehicle control systems, such as steering, braking or tires/suspension; something as simple as a blown tire while a car is traveling at a high rate of speed can cause the driver to lose control and result in a crash. At the time of news articles, police were also waiting on toxicology results, thought authorities stated that there were no obvious signs of drugs or alcohol having been a factor in the fatal car wreck.
Williamsport High School Seniors, Killed In Crash, WUSA9.com, May 7, 2012