摘要: |
A 32 year old male group-home counselor died from injuries received in a two vehicle traffic crash on April 19, 1993. The victim was driving his personal car, a compact four-door sedan with four young passengers (ages 14 & 15) from the group-home residence to an in-town YMCA for an 'adventure based training' program aimed at building self-esteem and confidence among group home residents. The vehicle was travelling in front of two accompanying vehicles of group home officials during the late morning, with snow falling and slush on the road. As the vehicle entered a left hand curve, the driver apparently lost control and the vehicle began a clockwise rotation into the opposite lane of travel, sliding sideways into a pickup that had entered the curve from the opposite direction. The impact was at the left front quarter panel of the victim's vehicle and the left front bumper of the pickup, killing the driver and two back seat passengers, and injuring two other passengers who were on the right side of the victim's car. The incident occurred within visual distance of a health care center, and medical personnel were on the scene instantly. EMTs arrived within 7 minutes of the incident, and the highway patrol investigators arrived a minute later. The driver and the leftmost back seat passenger died instantly at the scene, and the back seat center passenger died within minutes of hospital arrival. Two additional passengers in the victim's vehicle were hospitalized. Employers may be able to minimize the potential for occurrence of this type of incident through the following precautions: (1) Ascertain that drivers responsible for transport of clients are aware of area-unique driving hazards. (2) Limit vehicles used in transport to company vehicles when available. |