Seasoned Personal Injury Lawyers

Serving Metro New York

Police tried to stop wrong-way driver before fatal accident

On Behalf of | Nov 17, 2016 | Car Accidents |

Three people were killed in a wrong-way driving accident that occurred just after 11 a.m. on Nov. 7. According to reports, an elderly man was driving northbound in the southbound lanes of New York State Route 481 before he collided head-on with another vehicle. The wrong-way driver and two occupants of the second vehicle died in the accident.

Witnesses reported seeing the wrong-way driver near the Caughdenoy exit ramp, but the driver continued traveling in the wrong direction for seven miles before the crash. Several police officers attempted to stop the driver, but they were unable to get his attention while they followed him in the northbound lane. A witness saw four or more police cars following the driver at one point.

The elderly man hit the second vehicle and a third vehicle just after he crossed into Oswego County. His car then flipped over onto the shoulder of the road. The elderly driver and two passengers in the second vehicle died in the crash, and the driver of the second vehicle was sent to the hospital. People who were in the third vehicle sustained non-life threatening injuries. A state trooper told reporters that an autopsy would be performed to determine what might have caused the elderly man to drive the wrong way.

Head-on collisions often prove to be fatal to occupants of one or more of the vehicles. The surviving family members of people who were killed in such an accident that was caused by a driver going the wrong way may want to meet with an attorney to discuss filing a wrongful death lawsuit. If the negligent driver also was killed in the collision, the family might name the at-fault motorist’s estate as a defendant.

Source: Syracuse, “3 dead on Rt. 481 after elderly wrong-way driver plows into oncoming traffic,” Douglass Dowty, Nov. 7, 2016

Archives