According to a report from 11 Alive, five people were killed and another was seriously injured in a Newton County head-on collision. The Saturday afternoon accident took place on the busy State Route 142 just north of Adams Circle in Covington just after 3 PM, when a pickup truck and a van collided. The five fatalities were all in one vehicle and were all dead at the scene, leading Sgt. Jack Redlinger, of the Newton County Sheriff’s Office to state that it’s one of the deadliest accidents he has ever responded to.
The driver of the other vehicle was transported to Piedmont Newton Hospital in critical condition. All lanes of the roadway were blocked for hours in both directions for hours as the crash investigation was conducted. At the time of the news report, the accident was still being investigated, but police believe that rainy weather may have been a factor.
Because head-on collisions involve two vehicles that are moving forward from opposite directions when they collide, the impact of the crash is magnified both by the size of each vehicle as well as the speed at which each is traveling. When the vehicles hit, not only do the occupants inside them have a greater risk of injury or death, but after the initial collision, each vehicle can go on to roll over or run off the roadway, subjecting those occupants to further trauma. Occupants who are not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash face certain ejection, while those who are also face a risk of significant injuries, including blunt chest injuries and damage to the brain or spinal cord as a result of the force of the seatbelt on their bodies and the sharp jolt of the impact.
If you have lost a loved one to a head-on collision, Georgia’s wrongful death claims process can be used to seek compensation for the expenses and impacts of your loss. To learn more about this process, contact us for a free case evaluation.