Police Investigation Into Crash Rules Out Mechanical Failure Says New Hampshire Injury Lawyer
Jul 23, 2011
Keene, NH (Law Firm Newswire) July 22, 2011 – One man is dead after an up close and personal head-on collision with a toll plaza. His rate of speed prior to the crash was more than 100 miles per hour.
“The strangest things happen at times when dealing with car crashes, and this particular case is no exception,” said Charlie Donahue, a New Hampshire personal injury lawyer located in Keene. Donahue handles injury cases in New Hampshire and across the United States. “This reported case seems to indicate that the man behind the wheel of this vehicle was traveling at well over 100 mph in the EZ-Pass lane when it slammed into a toll plaza.”
The debris was ultimately scattered a good distance at the scene and the man was pronounced dead by responding emergency crews. It appeared he may be a foreign college student from a local university, in the U.S. on a student visa to study. Eyewitnesses to the crash reported that the young man was racing the car at a frantic speed, and were they were not overly surprised when he apparently lost control of it.
The vehicle, which did not belong to the dead man, but was borrowed from another college student, was a complete write off; totally destroyed. Thankfully, there was no attendant in the toll booth at the time of the crash. Local state police will be launching an investigation to see if there was some kind of mechanical failure that could have caused the crash.
“Other things that might have caused this horrendous accident are the man was driving under the influence, was texting while driving, reaching for something on the floor and his foot slipped and hit the gas pedal or possibly fell asleep at the wheel,” Donahue said. “There are no answers until the investigation is completed and an autopsy performed to determine if there were drugs or alcohol on board. This is important to the family of the dead man, because if the cause of this fatal wreck was a mechanical failure, this goes to negligence; the negligence of the car maker. There may also be a case to be made for strict liability or product liability for making an unreasonably dangerous product.”
Wrongful death cases come in many forms. The largest part of determining how to proceed is figuring out who was negligent, and how. From there, a case is built to recover compensation from the courts for the loss of the victim.
“Compensation in wrongful death cases is not what most people think it is. It is not about the loss of the deceased per se, it is about being able to move forward with their lives, and needing compensation to do so. They have suffered the death of someone they cared about, and they should not have to suffer a financial blow as well,” Donahue said.
“Will the family of the deceased be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit? Depending on the results of the police investigation, they may be able to do that. If it turns out the man was drinking and driving, or doing something else that caused him to lose control and crash, that would be another story, largely because there is typically an element of choice involved in drinking and driving,” Donahue said.
To learn more about New Hampshire personal injury attorney, Charlie Donahue, visit http://www.donahuelawfirm.com.
Donahue Law Firm
143 West St.
Keene, NH 03431
Call: (603) 357-2363
Toll Free: (800) 498-4554
