Three Des Moines teens were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries after being struck by a car while standing on the sidewalk after exiting a DART bus. Law enforcement said the high school students were hit in the aftermath of a two car collision that spun out of control, leading one car to jump the curb where the students stood.
Piecing together the events leading up to the accident, it appears to be a left hand turn accident, where a southbound Audi – believed to have the right of way – was involved in an accident at an intersection where the driver of a Hyundai Sonata traveling the opposite direction was attempting a left turn. Subsequent to the accident, the driver making the turn was cited for a failure to yield on a left turn.
Drivers who make illegal left hand turns are typically found at fault as the law mandates that left turning drivers must yield to oncoming traffic, who have the right of way. The few exceptions to liability for left turn drivers in accidents sometimes involve cases where oncoming cars are traveling at too high a rate of speed or possibly failures to stop at a traffic signal.
When a driver is found at fault in a crash at an intersection, among the critical reasons are recognition errors such as inattention, distracted driving, and inadequate surveillance. Interior non-driving activities such as talking to passengers in the car or on a cell phone contribute to roughly 20 percent of all crashes. In other cases, decision errors are the culprit where drivers are behaving aggressively or driving too fast. Not surprisingly, fatigued drivers are twice as likely to make performance errors as are impaired drivers to an even greater degree.
According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, over 60 percent of crashes that take place in intersections involve a left hand turn and over 20 percent of drivers involved in an accidents at an intersections leave the roadway putting pedestrians at risk. It underscores just how important it is to put the focus on driving when behind the wheel.
Since 1977 Stoltze & Stoltze PLC has represented pedestrian accident injury claims for their clients. Our Des Moines based firm’s personal injury experience will get you the compensation you need to recover from your injuries. When you are injured in a pedestrian accident in Iowa, contact the Des Moines personal injury attorneys of Stoltz & Stoltze PLC for a free consultation today.
