A single vehicle car accident outside of Kansas City proved to be fatal after the driver was ejected from his car. He was not wearing his seatbelt.
Car Accident Kills One
The incident happened early on Monday, November 14, 2016. 55-year-old Randy Hodges was driving his 2016 Ford Fusion car southbound on Interstate 49 through Cass County, just south of Kansas City and100 miles south of St. Joseph, Missouri.
Just after midnight, Hodges lost control of his car, going off the right side of the road, hitting a mile marker sign, and careening into an embankment. The car then went airborne, hit a bridge pillar, and caught fire. Hodges, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the car when it hit the bridge pillar.
When they responded to the crash, police pronounced the Kansas City native dead at the scene.
Seat Belts Save Lives
For people under the age of 54, car accidents are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in the year 2014 alone, a total of 21,022 people died in a car accident while in a vehicle. That same year, more than 2.3 million drivers and passengers in cars were treated in emergency rooms after a car accident.
Faced with these significant dangers of driving, numerous safety precautions have been taken to make drivers and their passengers are safer while they’re in their cars. Airbags, roll cages, and anti-lock brakes are just a few. Seat belts, however, are likely the most effective way to minimize your injuries in a serious car accident.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2014, 87% of people who drove on the roads of the U.S. used seatbelts. However, that same year, 49% of those who were killed in car accidents were not using them. These figures just hint at how important seatbelts are in a car accident. The NHTSA estimates that the lives of 13,000 people were saved in 2014 by using seatbelts or child restraints. For the sake of comparison, the NHTSA estimates that only 2,396 lives were saved by frontal airbags.
St. Joseph Car Accident Attorneys
Even though seatbelts can minimize the injuries that you suffer in a car accident, that does not mean they eliminate them, altogether. In fact, even though so many people use seatbelts, car accidents in 2013 caused more than $45 billion in lifetime medical expenses and work loss costs.
This is why it’s so important to hire a personal injury attorney if you’ve been involved in a car accident. The medical bills that you can face can be overwhelming if you are not compensated by the people ultimately responsible for the accident.
The attorneys at the St. Joseph based Smith Law Office have focused their practice on representing people who’ve been hurt in car accidents in the St. Joseph area. If you’ve been the victim of a car accident, the attorneys at the Smith Law Office can fight for your interests both in and out of court.
Contact their law office online or at (816) 875-9373.