In an unusual multi-vehicle crash, 54 kids were involved in a crash earlier this month in Amite County, Mississippi. Police officials say the wreck happened around 3:30 p.m. after school had let out for the day.
A packed school bus was heading down Mississippi 24 near Plymouth Church Road when it came to a stop to yield to oncoming traffic. A 2008 Dodge pickup truck was heading east along the highway when another Dodge truck tried to cross the highway, failing to yield. The eastbound Dodge then collided into the other truck, pushing both vehicles into the left side of the stopped school bus.
Police say that the drivers of all three vehicles and the 54 children were taken to a local hospital for treatment. The children thankfully escaped largely unharmed, while the driver of one of the Dodge trucks needed to be taken to the hospital by ambulance for his injuries.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, accidents caused by one driver’s failure to yield are quite common. Of these failure to yield accidents, stop signs are often where the collisions take place, with DOT figures calculating that accidents are 2.6 times more likely to happen at stop signs than at traffic signals. Another instance where failure to yield accidents are especially likely to occur is when one driver must make a left hand turn.
So what is a failure to yield accident? A failure to yield accidents refers to those that occur when one driver fails to yield (or give) the road to an oncoming vehicle. This other vehicle is said to have the “right of way” which means the driver has the legal right to be on that stretch of road at that time and other drivers must wait for the driver to pass by before continuing on.
Failure to yield accidents are frequently deadly and represent a leading cause of death for Mississippi drivers. This is because they often involve one fast-moving vehicle colliding with another, much slower moving vehicle, exerting tremendous force on the occupants of both cars. Statistics indicate that every year there are between 800 to 1,000 fatal multi-vehicle failure to yield crashes across the country.
If you have been injured in a Mississippi car, motorcycle or tractor-trailer accident and think you may have a personal injury claim, please contact the Mississippi personal injury attorneys at Kilpatrick & Philley at 601-707-4669.
Source: “School bus accident involves 54 kids, 2 trucks,” published at ClarionLedger.com.
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