Head-On Car And Semi-Truck Accident Closes US 301 in Tampa
Posted By
on Sep 7, 2011 2:08pm PDT
Tampa Bay Online reported on a
car accident that closed a 10-mile stretch of road early Monday morning. US 301 was closed in Tampa, Florida between McIntosh and Chancey roads from approximately 5:30 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon while authorities investigated and cleaned up the scene of the crash
At 5:20 Monday morning, a car was in a semi-truck accident, killing both the car's driver and passenger. The truck driver sustained minor injuries as well. Diesel fuel from the truck spilled out onto the road, forcing the road closure. The car was traveling north in the southbound lane, causing a
head-on collision.
There are approximately 500,000 18-wheeler accidents each year and approximately 5,000 of these result in fatalities. This accident, not only is car versus truck, it was a
head-on crash. Head-on collisions account for only 2% of all accidents, but 10% of all fatalities.
The large number of fatalities in head-on car accidents can be attributed to basic
physics. Due to the force (the mass of the car multiplied by the speed of the car) and inertia (the resistance of an object to changes in its motion), a vehicle traveling at 50 miles per hour hitting another vehicle traveling at 50 miles per hour is essentially hitting an immovable object. The energy that was being expended to propel the car forward cannot be destroyed, it must go somewhere. Since the car can no longer move forward, the energy instead rips through the passengers, causing serious injuries or death.
As a Florida truck accident lawyer, I have handled my fair share of these types of cases.