Articles Posted in Car Accidents

It’s kind of amusing to watch an old science fiction movie on Netflix and see the future is being portrayed in a year that has already passed or is only a few years away. For example, the date Marty McFly arrives in the future in Back to the Future is actually October 21, 2015. So it is safe to assume there will not be any flying cars traveling through Boston later this year. It is also safe to assume there won’t be flying cars for many years to come, if ever.

However, self-driving cars are something car companies and technology firms like Google are actually working on, and some have predicted most people will own a self-driving car by 2030. According to a recent news article from the Wall Street Journal, when self-driving cars become a reality, it could reduce car accidents by as much as 90 percent. This could also mean a savings of up to $190 billion in healthcare costs and property damage and a save thousands from car-accident fatalities each year. The article was based upon a study by a major consulting firm that predicts mass adoption of self-driving cars in around 15 years from now.

Firms leading the move to fully or semi-autonomous cars included Daimler, Google, and the ride-sharing company, Uber. While a fully autonomous car is still years away, current automobiles are more commonly featuring lane guidance, blind spot detection, and backup cameras that are said to be the backbone of this new technology.
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According to a recent news report from Boston.com, a 56-year-old woman was driving her car in Somerville when she suffered what has been characterized as a medical incident. At this point, police allege she lost control of her vehicle and crashed into a Honda Civic. The Honda Civil burst into flames after being hit by the woman’s car.

eThe 26-year-old driver of the Civic was treated by first responders and then transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, a level-one trauma center in Boston. A 16-year-old boy who was walking in the area of this chain reaction car crash was hit by one of the cars involved and suffered serious injuries. He was also treated at the scene and transported to Massachusetts General Hospital. While police listed his condition as critical, they believe he will survive the accident.

The driver of the Civic, a 26-year-old from Medford, was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital with serious injuries. The teen was walking in the area of the crash when he was struck by a car, according to police. He and the Somerville woman were also transported to MGH with serious injuries. Police said the teen’s injuries, while serious, are not believed to be life-threatening.
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While it should surprise nobody that this particularly brutal winter we have experienced in Boston contributed to numerous car accidents involving personal injury, the recent rise in temperature is now contributing to what the Boston Globe is calling a series of “freak accidents.”

Warmer weather of the past week has caused large amounts of snow and ice to partially melt and slide off Boston rooftops. This ice often falls off a roof in large heavy sheets covered with heavier damp wet snow. When these sheets of snow and ice land on a car, it can result in a significant amount of property damage and personal injury, if a car was occupied at the time.

The Cambridge Police Department is very concerned about this unexpected danger and has warned residents and motorists to take extreme caution, as the snow and ice can be deadly. The department has also set up roadblocks to close sections of streets throughout the greater Boston area where falling snow and ice has been particularly prevalent. In once incident, a large icicle broke off a roof and went through the windshield of a moving vehicle. Fortunately for the driver of this car, he was not injured by the potentially deadly incident.
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According to a recent article from the Milford Patch, a Sharron, Massachusetts woman was allegedly responsible for two-car accidents while under the influence of keyboard cleaner and marijuana.

Police first responded to a report of an erratic driver made by an off-duty officer. The off-duty officer said he saw defendant crossing the double yellow lines on Route 16. Around this same time, another caller told police someone hit her car as she was exiting a local supermarket.

A short time after this accident, defendant was allegedly involved in a second accident in close proximity to the first. Police arrived at the scene of the second accident. Defendant reportedly admitted to police she was huffing keyboard cleaner (normally compressed air with a propellant gas) and had smoked marijuana. Police found a can of keyboard cleaner and a marijuana pipe in her car at the time of her arrest.
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In what authorities are describing as miraculous, an 18-month-old child has survived being trapped upside down in a car seat after the car her mother was driving plunged into an icy river. According to a recent news article from CNN, first responders arrived at the scene of a Utah car crash they believe happened 13 hours before they got there.

According to witnesses, a man was going fishing in that particular area of the river when he waded out and saw an upside down car in the water. He said the car was not visible from the roadway. He immediately called 911. When police and firefighters arrived, they rushed into the water and got to work. One police officer says he doesn’t even remember any details about the rescue other than running to the car.

Due to the extreme low temperature of the river, seven first responders were rushed to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia. When they pulled the car onto its side, they immediately noticed the driver, a 25-year-old-woman, was deceased. What happened next was what made this story so astonishing. Rescue workers noticed a baby still strapped into her car seat. She had been hanging upside down from that seat as the car sat partially submerged in icy water for 14 straight hours.
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Motor vehicle accidents involving tractor-trailers often result in serious injury or death.

A single trailer can be up to 52 feet in length, and the tractor-trailer combination can weigh around 80,000 pounds when carrying a full standard load. With special permits and tandem trailers, these rigs can weigh even more. That much weight can turn into a tremendous amount of energy in a motor vehicle accident.

According to a recent article from CBS Boston, a crash on the Massachusetts Turnpike near Warren left one person dead and another seriously injured. Authorities say this crash occurred just before 9 a.m. A Honda Element is said to have crossed over the median into the westbound side of the highway and slammed into a tractor-trailer.

The Honda’s driver, a 22-year-old woman from Taunton, Massachusetts, was ejected from her car during the collision. She was pronounced dead at the scene. First responders had to cut the driver out of the tractor-trailer so she could be transported by Medevac helicopter to a Level One trauma center in Worcester. This accident remains under investigation, and authorities do not yet know the reason victim’s Honda crossed into the westbound travel lanes of Mass Pike. There was a concrete median separating the eastbound lanes from the westbound lanes on this section of highway, but there does not appear to have been a guard rail or raised concrete barrier dividing one side of highway from the other.

The truck driver is a 52-year-old woman from New England.
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According to a recent news article from The Daily News, an off-duty New York Police Department (NYDP) detective was killed in a serious motor vehicle accident. Authorities say victim was driving his personal vehicle on his way to work when a driver traveling in the wrong direction slammed into him.

Victim’s surviving spouse said her husband wasn’t even supposed to be on the road until hours later in the day. Shortly after this fatal car accident, victim’s wife was stuck in traffic. She did not know the reason for the traffic was her husband’s accident. The couple had been together for almost 30 years.

Victim had gone to work unusually early that day and left around 4 a.m., before his wife had a chance to see him. The 46-year-old victim had been on the job for 17 years and worked for Internal Affairs. He was in the narcotics division of the unit, and his job was to set up undercover drug buy-busts with corrupt police officers.
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According to a recent news story from Fox, a driver allegedly caused a car accident and then fled the scene. When police arrived on the scene, they found a 51-year-old New England woman with serious injuries.

First responders rushed her to a local hospital, where doctors soon pronounced her dead from injuries sustained in the fatal hit-and-run car accident. Police are reporting the alleged at-fault driver was driving a 1997 Ford F-150 pickup truck bearing a temporary registration plate in the back window. Authorities believe he fled the scene on foot wearing a backwards baseball cap but had no other descriptive information about driver.

What makes matters worse is authorities have reports of this same pickup truck being in an earlier hit-and-run accident, which occurred in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant in the same town.
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According to a recent report from ABC News, Kim Kardashian, along with sisters Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, and North West (Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s 1-year-old daughter) were involved in a car accident.

Authorities say Khloe Kardashian was driving a GMC Yukon, when it slid of the road and crashed into a ditch. Kim Kardashian, her sister, and daughter were all passengers in the vehicle. Initially, a highway patrol spokesperson would not name occupants and only reported celebrities were involved in a car accident.

This single vehicle accident occurred early Sunday morning near Bozeman, Montana. Police are not reporting any injuries, and it is believed the vehicle was able to be driven away from the scene of the accident after being pulled back on the road by an emergency service vehicle.
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