A July 5 accident took the life of a woman and injured two other people, according to authorities. The incident reportedly took place near an apartment complex at the intersection of William Blount Drive and Dotson Memorial Road in Maryville just before 10 a.m.

According to the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, a 48-year-old woman collided head-on with a pickup truck driven by a 66-year-old man. Purportedly, it was necessary for emergency crews to extricate both drivers from their vehicles in order to transport them to a hospital. The 48-year-old woman suffered critical injuries and was airlifted to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where she later died. The 66-year-old man was transported to the same hospital via ambulance. Moreover, emergency personnel transported another man injured in the wreck to the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The extent of his injuries was not clear immediately following the incident. Nor was it immediately clear what vehicle he was occupying at the time of the crash.

This case illustrates the catastrophic damage that head-on collisions often wreak upon the people involved in them. The injuries suffered are often traumatic if not fatal. As a result of these injuries, accident victims and their families are often left to cope with not just physical pain and emotional turmoil but also financial stress. However, they may seek recourse in civil court if the collision was caused by another party’s actionable behavior, such as speeding, distracted driving or drunk driving.

If, hypothetically, investigators were to discover substantial evidence from a head-on collision indicating that the car accident was caused by distracted driving, then the people who suffered damages as a result of the crash may hold the at-fault driver accountable via civil action. For example, the injured accident victims may retain a personal injury attorney and file suit against the distracted driver, and certain family members of the deceased accident victims may file a wrongful death claim against the distracted driver.

Source: WVLT, “Maryville woman in critical condition after head-on crash in Blount County“, July 05, 2014