Lane Change Accidents Are Not Always Minor
Changing lanes is a common cause of accidents for inexperienced drivers. It takes practice to get used to where your car’s blind spots are and to build the habit of looking in all your car’s mirrors before you change lanes. Speeding up before you change lanes is counterintuitive after you spent your previous driver’s ed lesson practicing turns, where you must slow down in preparation to turn, after you turn on your turn signal. When you are past the stage of your driver’s ed teacher, or whichever adult in your life is brave enough to sit in the passenger seat while you practice driving, fussing at you, it still feels awkward to change lanes in a vehicle other than your own, one that you are not used to driving. The good news is that most accidents that result when a driver makes a mistake while merging from one lane into the other do not result in serious injuries. The bad news is that catastrophic lane change accidents are possible, especially when one of the drivers is traveling at high speed. If you suffered serious injuries in a motor vehicle accident resulting from an improper lane change, contact a Columbia car accident lawyer.
Driver Dies After Sideswiping Minivan in Improper Lane Change Collision
An unsuccessful lane change ended in tragedy in Richland County earlier this month. A 2014 Jeep and a minivan, of which news sources gave no further description, were both traveling in the westbound lanes of I-20 in an unincorporated area of Richland County. The driver of the Jeep attempted to merge into the minivan’s lane, but the driver apparently misjudged the minivan’s location or speed, and the Jeep sideswiped the minivan. The vehicles were traveling fast enough that the collision caused the driver to lose control of the Jeep. This caused the Jeep to drive off the right side of the road and then overturned.
According to the WIS 10 news website, the driver of the Jeep was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Of the two occupants of the minivan, the driver was not injured, but the passenger was injured seriously enough to require ambulance transport to the hospital. The WIS 10 news website did not release the names or ages of any of the people involved in the accident. At the time of publication of the most recent news reports, the accident was still under investigation. No published reports have said which of the vehicle occupants, if any, were wearing seatbelts or whether alcohol or drugs were a factor in the accident. People injured in car accidents and the surviving family members of people killed in car accidents have the right to seek compensation from the parties responsible for the accident.
Let Us Help You Today
The personal injury lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you get justice after a collision involving an improper lane change. Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.
Source:
wistv.com/2026/01/09/two-vehicle-crash-i-20-leaves-one-dead-richland-county/
