California Injury Blog
An investigation is ongoing into a four car collision that took the lives of Grisna Meas 17, and Rick Vetter, 52, of Long Beach, who were apparently killed on impact after Deneshio Lankford’s Honda swerved sideways into oncoming traffic, where it was struck by a SUV – splitting the car in two.
Lankford, 20, also of Long Beach was apparently speeding on PCH when he lost control and crossed into oncoming traffic, according to Seal Beach police Sgt. Ron Lavelle. When Lankford hit Vetter’s BMW, it burst into flames, killing Vetter, as well as Lankford’s passenger, Grisna Meas, 17. Lankford got off with only a broken leg and a broken arm.
According to Dateline, after combing through over 100,000 accident reports, on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in 2005 there were 4 fatalities – 3 of those were speed related, and PCH itself was designated as a dangerous highway.
According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis out of the 4329 fatalities in all of California in 2005, approximately 25 percent of those were speed-related.
More than 1,000 mothers, fathers, and children, are killed every month in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Speeding is a factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes. In 2005, more than 13,000 people died in speed-related crashes, NHTSA estimates that the economic cost to society of speed-related crashes is more than $40 billion each year.
When driving at high speeds, a passenger vehicle is subjected to forces so severe that the vehicle structure cannot withstand the force of the crash. Further, the structure cannot maintain survival space in the occupant compartment. Additionally, as crash speeds get very high, restraint systems such as airbags and safety belts cannot keep the forces on occupants below severe injury levels.
Speed influences the risk of crashes and crash injuries in three basic ways:
1.) It increases the distance a vehicle travels from the time a driver detects an emergency to the time the driver reacts.
2.) It increases the distance needed to stop a vehicle once an emergency is perceived.
3.) It increases the crash energy by the square of the speeds. When impact speed increases from 40 to 60 mph (a 50 percent increase), the energy that needs to be managed increases by 125 percent.
SPEED KILLS-SLOW DOWN & ARRIVE ALIVE!
If you have been injured in an automobile or pedestrian accident, please call Bisnar Chase Personal Injury Attorneys at 1-800-259-6373, for your free consultation.