Car collides with tree

12 May 2022 Examples of accidents & crash tests

Fleeing from the police

Sequence of events:
A drunk 20-year-old without a driver’s license was driving a stolen car at night, on the run from the police, along a wet gravel connecting road while speeding. In a right-hand bend, the driver attempted to cut across the bend, and in doing so veered off the road to the right and struck a tree with the front right-hand wheel of the car. The car then collided head-on with a tree on the left-hand side of the road.
Persons involved in the accident:
A car driver, two passengers
Consequences/injuries:
The 20-year-old driver and the 16-year-old front passenger were seriously injured. A 20-year-old rear passenger sustained fatal injuries.
Cause/problem:
The car was traveling at a speed that was much too high for the condition of the road and the radius of the bend. None of the three car occupants were wearing a seat belt, the driver was drunk, and did not have a driver’s license. At the time of the accident, the police had already broken off the chase due to safety reasons.
Avoidance measures, mitigation of consequences/ strategy for road safety measures:
Wearing a seat belt would have reduced the injury severity for all three car occupants. The rear passenger would not have been flung forward, and fatal injuries would have been unlikely. It is not possible to state what specific impact alcohol consumption had on the driver without an in-depth examination. The disinhibitory effect of the alcohol could have been a contributing cause of the entire incident. Better socio-educational work is required to try and prevent young people showing off from misusing vehicles to satisfy their own ego.