Firefighters in Texas used cutting equipment to free a 60-year-old woman from the windshield of a pickup truck after a collision in Baytown on May 16. Police say that the accident was caused by a driver who did not understand that a blinking yellow light required her to yield to oncoming traffic. The collision occurred in the vicinity of State Highway 146 and Chambers Town Center at approximately 11:00 p.m.
According to Baytown police, the driver told officers that she thought a blinking yellow light gave her the right of way. The truck collision occurred when her truck pulled into the path of an oncoming pickup truck as she attempted to make a left turn. Police say that they have ruled out alcohol as a contributing factor, but they did report that the driver making the left turn had been issued a citation.
The collision caused the pickup truck to roll into a ditch, and a helicopter was called in to transport both of the vehicle’s occupants to an area medical facility for treatment. Authorities later reported that the man and woman are both expected to recover from their injuries. The driver responsible for causing the accident was not hurt.
Negligence must generally be established in order for a lawsuit stemming from a road traffic accident to be successful, but the drivers responsible for causing a collision do not always admit that they acted recklessly. When the circumstances surrounding a crash are unclear, a personal injury attorney may conduct an investigation to determine if negligence played a role. Such investigations could involve the close scrutiny of police reports as well as interviews with witnesses. An attorney could also take photographs of the accident scene to establish road conditions and examine video footage taken by security cameras in the vicinity.
Source: KHOU Houston, Two seriously injured after driver runs traffic light, KHOU staff, May 17, 2015
