Crash takes life of Cave Junction woman.

Date: 06/23/2012
Time: Around 6:30 P.M.
Location: Cave Junction, Oregon
Vehicle(s) Involved: Ford Bronco, Dodge Charger

By MyBasin

"CAVE JUNCTION, Ore. — A 42-year-old Cave Junction woman was killed in a crash Saturday afternoon near her hometown and the Oregon State Police need your help potentially with the investigation.
OSP is seeking unidentified witnesses to the crash that happened around 6:30 p.m. What authorities know is a Ford SUV drifted over the centerline, prompting a California woman in another vehicle to swerve which helped avoid a head-on collision, but both cars hit each other in the passenger side. The Ford SUV rolled several times, injuring Michele R. Hebdon who later died at Rogue Valley Medical Center. The SUV’s driver was Ralph E. McCornack, who was released after treatment. It is unknown if either McCornack or Hebdon were wearing seatbelts. Both people in the California car were okay."

Source 1

SE Portland woman killed in wrong way collision on I-84.

Date: 07/06/2012
Time: Around 11:55 P.M.
Location: Near Corbett, Oregon
Vehicle(s) Involved: Kia Rio, Nissan Frontier

By KATU.com Staff and Associated Press  

"NEAR CORBETT, Ore. - The Oregon State Police is investigating a fatal crash on Interstate 84 east of Corbett that involved a motorist driving the wrong way.

According to Lt. Gregg Hastings, a 2007 Kia Rio was traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes late Friday when it collided head on with a pickup driven by 53-year-old James Schneider of White Salmon, Wash.
The 36-year-old woman driving the Kia died at the scene. She was later identified as (censored) from Southeast Portland. She was wearing safety restraints and the car's airbags deployed, the Oregon State Police reported.
Schneider was taken to a Portland hospital with serious injuries.
Hastings said at least one driver complained about a wrong-way vehicle just before crash."

Source

Source 2 

Man fleeing police dies in Hampden crash.

Date: 08/22/2011
Time: Around 3:30 P.M.
Location: Hampden, Maine
Vehicle(s) Involved: Jeep Grand Cherokee

By Dawn Gagnon, BDN Staff

"HAMPDEN, Maine — A driver fleeing police died after crashing into a tree on Route 1A on Monday afternoon, according to a public safety official.
The man, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at 4:25 p.m. at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, according to Joe Rogers, Hampden Public Safety director.
Rogers said the green Jeep the man was driving was registered to a Belfast resident. Hampden police still were attempting to notify family members Monday evening.
The Jeep, which had been traveling erratically on Interstate 95 and Interstate 395, reportedly reached an estimated speed of 100 mph by the time it crashed along the section of Route 1A known as Main Road North in Hampden, Rogers said.
Just before the crash, the man sideswiped a Subaru Forester driven by a Hampden woman and took out a section of fence at Riverview Cemetery, Rogers said.
Lorraine Frawley, 62, was not injured in the crash, though her SUV had extensive damage along the entire length of the driver’s side, including a ripped-off back wheel.
“I didn’t even see him coming,” said Frawley, whose driveway is directly across the road from the spot where her vehicle was hit.
Frawley said she had just waved to neighbors and was waiting for an oncoming car to get by when the Jeep came up from behind, sideswiped her Subaru, shot ahead and then crashed.
“The police said that if I had made my turn I’d be dead,” Frawley said. Though she was calm and steady while waiting for her Subaru to be removed from the roadway, she said that she was shaken after the accident.
Frawley, who was wearing a seat belt when the crash happened, credited her vehicle’s side air bags for preventing her from being injured. She said she didn’t want to buy that particular vehicle at the time but now she is glad that she did.
The series of events that led to the deadly crash began shortly before 3:30 p.m., when the Bangor Police Department received information from Maine State Police that a vehicle traveling south from the Old Town area on Interstate 95 was operating erratically.
A vehicle matching the description given by state police was spotted on I-395 in Bangor shortly afterward by Bangor police Officer George Spencer, Bangor Deputy Police Chief Peter Arno said in a news release issued early Monday evening.
The vehicle took an exit onto Perry Road, where Spencer tried to pull it over, Arno said.
The driver allegedly refused to stop and traveled from Perry Road onto Main Street toward Hampden at a high rate of speed, eventually crashing into a tree.
The accident remains under investigation by the Hampden Police Department. It is being reconstructed by Officer Christopher Watson of the Orono Police Department, who was being assisted Monday by Officer Jim Dearing and Officer Steve Jordan of the Bangor Police Department."

Source

Highway fatalities unexpectedly surge.

"After a decade of sharp declines, highway fatalities increased unexpectedly during the first quarter of 2012, according to preliminary government data – and a warm winter may catch at least some of the blame.

Traffic deaths surged a substantial 13.5% for the three-month period, according to a preliminary analysis by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  That’s a significant reversal of recent trends.  Last year, roadway fatalities fell 1.7%, to the lowest overall total in more than 60 years.  And, on a per-mile basis, it was an all-time record.

For the first quarter of this year, NHTSA says 7,360 people were called in traffic accidents, up from 6,720 the year before.  If that figure holds it would work out to about 1.10 deaths per 100 million miles driven compared to 0.98 deaths the year before.

Despite bad winter road conditions in many parts of the country, the first quarter generally sees a decline in traffic deaths because people drive less.  And, in general, American motorists have been curtailing driving, in recent years, to compensate for rising fuel prices.

But there was a 1.4% surge in the number of miles Americans drove during the first quarter of 2012, and that may have been encouraged by the unusually mild winter that brought spring and even summer-like temperatures to much of the country.

Noting the first quarter was “unseasonably warmer than usual in most areas of the country,” a NHTSA statement cautioned that, “Consequently, the fatality rate for the first quarter should not be used to make inferences for the fatality rate for the whole of 2012.”

Certainly, safety advocates hope that’s the case. The U.S. traffic death total has been plunging sharply for the last seven years.  As recently as 2005, there were 43,510 deaths on U.S. roads – a figure that includes pedestrian fatalities. But last year’s number came in at 32,310, the lowest figure since 1949. On a per-miles-driven rate it was the lowest number since the government began keeping records in 1921.

Travel also fell last year by 1.2%, year-over-year, to 2.963 trillion miles driven by American motorists.  That was the lowest figure since 2003. But Americans drove an extra 9.7 billion miles during the mild first quarter, a 1.4% increase over January to March 2011.

NHTSA’s disconcerting numbers may actually understate the problem. Using its own data the National Safety Council estimated first-quarter 2012 traffic deaths rose to 8,170, up from 7,270 a year earlier.

Whatever the final number, researchers will clearly be examining their data to determine the precise cause of, most likely, causes. Safety experts have been worried about increasing problems with driver distraction, something U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has described as an “epidemic,” responsible for as much as one in 11 fatalities on American roads."

Source

Driver Crashes Into Tree on Wolf Hill Road.

Date: 07/20/2012
Time: Around 12:00 P.M.
Location: Near Dix Hills, New York
Vehicle(s) Involved: Honda Civic

By Peter Walden

"A driver was injured Friday afternoon in crash on Wolf Hill Road in Melville.

The driver of a Honda Civic was traveling South on the road near Saxon Avenue when she lost control of her vehicle and slammed into a tree around noon.
The Melville Fire Department was on the scene for immediate assistance. The driver was then sent to Huntington Hospital with neck and back injuries, as well as lacerations to one leg, police said.
The driver's identity has not been released."

Source

Ocean Highway bus accident kills one, leaves another in critical condition.

Date: 07/17/2012
Time: Around 7:00 P.M.
Location: Pawleys Island, South Carolina
Vehicle(s) Involved: Dodge Ram, bus

By WMBF News Staff

"PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC (WMBF) – The Highway 17 crash between a bus and a pickup truck has claimed the life of one person Tuesday night and left another in critical condition.

Bob Beebe, spokesman for Midway Fire Rescue, says a collision between a 1997 Dodge pickup truck and a Williamsburg County Transit bus on Highway 17 and Beaumont Road occurred just before 7 p.m. Tuesday and it claimed the life of the pickup truck driver, (censored) 47, of Pawleys Island, due to head trauma and left one bus passenger in critical condition. 
Officials say the bus driver, Joshua McCrea, of Kingstree, SC was traveling south when the truck crossed Highway17 and the bus struck the truck's driver's side.
Coroner Kenny Johnson tells WMBF News an autopsy is scheduled for Smith Wednesday morning at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center.
According to Beebe, there were 19 patients total and 12 were transported to the hospital. Three patients were taken to the Grand Strand Regional Hospital, two were taken to the Waccamaw Community Hospital and seven were taken to the Georgetown Memorial Hospital.
South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the incident, and Midway Fire Rescue officials say the bus had a surveillance camera onboard.  South Carolina Highway Patrol will reportedly review the footage to see who was a fault.
First responders from Murrells Inlet, Horry County and Georgetown City and County assisted the Midway Fire Rescue in their response.
Beebe confirmed, the southbound and northbound lanes have been opened and the accident scene has been cleared.
Alfonzo Allen, a friend to Smith, says he witnessed the crash, and he believes Smith never saw the bus coming.
"[Smith] was just easing out [onto the road] to go home, and I guess he didn't see the bus," Allen said. "The bus tried to miss him, and hit him."
Allen says he can't imagine life without his friend Smith in it.
"It's hard for me right because that's my best friend, somebody I look up to," Allen said. "That's my brother, my friend.""

Source

Police Release Details on Swamp Road Crash.

Date: 09/19/2011
Time: Around 11:30 A.M.
Location: Wrightstown Township, Pennsylvania
Vehicle(s) Involved: Hyundai Elantra(x2)

By Tom Sofield

"Newtown Township police today provided additional details about a head-on collision that occurred Monday on Swamp Road in Wrightstown Township.
Police said a red Hyundai traveling westbound on Swamp Road crossed the double yellow lines and was to blame for the head-on crash, which occurred shortly before 11:30 a.m. The driver is being cited for careless driving and driving without a license, police said.
The car collided head on with another Hyundai just east of Worthington Mill Road.
Both drivers were taken by ambulance to St. Mary's Medical Center in Middletown Township. They were treated for their injuries and were out of the hospital this morning, police said.
Both cars suffered front-end damage and were towed from the scene.
Newtown police, who patrol Wrightown Township, closed Swamp Road between Worthington Mill and Twinning Bridge roads following the accident. Swamp Road was reopened in the afternoon."

Source

Second Elderly Plantation Bay Woman Dies After May 3 Wreck With a Truck on US1.

Date: 05/03/2012
Time: Around 5:00 P.M.
Location: Near Plantation Bay, Florida
Vehicle(s) Involved: Ford F-350, Toyota Avalon

By FlaglerLive

"(censored), 76, a resident of Plantation Bay, died on May 4 from injuries sustained Thursday evening in a two-vehicle wreck just outside Plantation bay, where authorities said she lived. (censored), 68, who was riding with her, died on May 9 after battling critical injuries for four days.
The two women were involved in a violent crash between their Toyota and a pick-up truck hauling scrap metal. Look and Teske were airlifted on separate helicopters to Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach. Paulo Rodrigues, the 36-year-old driver of the pick-up truck, a Palm Coast resident according to a Florida Highway Patrol reports, was in serious condition, and was transported by ground to Florida Hospital Flagler.
U.S. 1 in both directions was closed for three hours for about a mile on either side of Plantation Bay from the time of the crash, just before 5 p.m., to 8:22 p.m., by which time Roger’s Towing had cleared the scene.
The silver Toyota, according to preliminary findings by Florida Highway Patrol investigators at the scene, was stopped at the Stop sign on Plantation Bay and U.S.1. The Ford F-350 pick-up truck was traveling north on U.S. 1, in the outside lane. The Toyota attempted to pull out onto the southbound lanes of U.S. 1, crossing the northbound lanes and making a left-hand turn. The Toyota “violated the right-of-way of the F-350 Ford pick-up truck, at which point they made impact on U.S. 1.,” an FHP investigator said.
The truck’s scrap metal remained contained. But the violence of the impact embedded the truck’s front bender into the driver’s side of the Toyota, where it remained when wreckers separated the truck and the car. The car’s roof had been sheared off and its passenger side door cut and lifted to give rescuers access to the victims.  The Toyota’s steering wheel was cut off and laid by the side of the road."

Source

Collision causes Kingsway traffic tie-up.

Date: 04/11/2012
Time: Unknown
Location: Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Vehicle(s) Involved: Pontiac G6, truck

By: Sudbury Northern Life Staff

"Traffic is backed up heading into downtown Sudbury at the s-curve on The Kingsway after a collision between a box truck and a small car.

The vehicles had not yet been towed as of about 4:45 p.m. April 11.

Check back to NorthernLife.ca for more information as it becomes available."

Source