Prince William County Head-On Collision Attorney

Any injury involving your head, neck, skull, or brain could be a life-changing injury. Because head-on collisions usually cause a stronger impact than a rear-end collision or side swip, they can be more dangerous than other types of accidents.

With this said, it is important to contact a car accident lawyer in Prince William County if you have been in a head-on collision so that they can fight for the compensation you deserve, and help ease the frustrations that come after a car accident so you can focus on recovery.

Types of Head-On Collisions

A head-on collision happens when the front of two cars traveling from opposite directions, or while turning in an intersection, strike each other head-on. These collisions usually occur on a two-lane road, or a road with a yellow line down the middle, where one car crosses over the yellow line and strikes the other vehicle. They can happen around curves where visibility is low and people take those curves at a higher rate of speed and lose some aspect or form of control of their vehicle, and ultimately drift over the middle line into the lane of oncoming traffic.

Other instances of these collisions include if someone drives to the top of the hill where they cannot see what is on the other side of the hill, or in rainy, snowy, or icy weather where someone loses control of their vehicle some way or another.

Head-on collisions in Prince William County are particularly dangerous because if the impact is great enough when the front of one car strikes the front of another car, the airbags of both vehicles will deploy and people have the potential to hit their head against their steering wheel, windshield, or the driver-side window.

Assigning Fault 

It is typically clear when a car has come to rest whether it is in one lane or the other. For example, if someone is traveling north and someone is traveling south, and the car traveling south ends up in the northbound lane, then it is apparent that the southbound car crossed over into the northbound lane. In this situation, the southbound car is at fault because the northbound car is where it is supposed to be.

Another example is if one car is making a left turn and another is making a right turn at an intersection, and they hit each other in the middle, then it is a little more murky because you cannot tell who got to the intersection first or how the accident happened. Instead, you need to rely on the testimony of both drivers to figure out how the accident happened, and to figure out who is the at-fault driver. If the drivers dispute it, though, then it might be difficult to prove who is at fault because both people could say that the other person crossed over the middle, in traffic, and was not where he or she was supposed to be. In those kinds of cases, it becomes a question of credibility.

Factors That Impact Liability

If both parties are saying that the other person was the reason for the head-on collision, then independent photographic evidence, witness photographic evidence, or witness statement or testimony would be very helpful in deciding who in fact was at fault. The credibility and character of the witnesses and drivers would also be investigated to determine whether or not they were believable.

Physical evidence could include where the car came to rest, skid marks, the appropriate speed, the approximate speed of each of the vehicles involved. It would be assumed that the person who was driving faster might not have had as much control of their car, and thus crossed over into the lane that they were not supposed to be in.