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Texas car accidents marked by horrific streak of fatalities

| Nov 11, 2017 | Car Accidents |

When a death occurs in a Texas vehicular accident, it may be contributing to a remarkable and unwanted streak that haunts the historical annals of the state. The state has gone for 6,210 consecutive days in which there has been a fatal car crash, a streak that authorities are urging Texans to work on snapping. The last day that Texas car accidents did not result in at least one fatality was on Nov. 7, 2000.

The streak is so horrendous that the Texas Department of Transportation has created a social media campaign to end it, including promoting a new hash tag calling for an end to the streak. Since Nov. 7, 2000, the authorities report that 59,388 people have died on Texas roadways. To bring the statistics even more into focus, it is reported that in 2015, for example, 391,000 persons were injured in vehicular crashes in addition to the 3,477 who were killed.

The principal causes of Texas vehicular accidents are distracted driving, falling asleep, impairment and speeding. The added factor of texting and driving did not, of course, exist until the advent of digital devices. Most of the accidents do therefore involve driver fault. Whenever injury or death occurs on the roads due to someone’s negligence, there is likely a right of the injured victims, and of the estates of deceased victims, to collect damages from the driver(s) at fault. That is little comfort in many cases, but it is the law’s imperfect way of providing some solace to those whose lives have been grievously disrupted and changed.

Car accidents in Texas are running a vicious streak that the state would like to stop. It will take a concerted effort on each driver’s part to try and drive safely, to stop texting or using digital devices while driving and to get on the road only when sober and awake. The current effort to snap the streak will eventually succeed. The suffering of many seriously injured victims, and of the families of the tens of thousands of deceased victims, however, will be permanently etched in their respective memories.

Source: star-telegram.com, “Texas extends streak of fatal car crashes to 6,210“, Gordon Dickson, Nov. 8, 2017

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