According to local reports a woman was critically injured when she drove her SUV the wrong way down westbound I-20 into a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler before 2 a.m. Thursday August 11. The semi truck then jackknifed and struck another car. The truck driver was taken to an area hospital where he was treated and released while the driver of the third car was uninjured according to police. The wrong-way driver is in the intensive care unit at John Peter Smith Hospital. Police do believe alcohol played a role in the accident.
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If some level of intoxication was not involved I would struggle to begin to understand how these things happen. Unfortunately at my firm we see otherwise unexplained wrecks all the time. Luckily no other drivers were serioulsy hurt in this terrible wreck. Im not here to rationalize a wrong-way driver or lessen the burden she placed on every driver on I-20 but I would like to point out in matters like these there is often another party involved. The timing of this accident strikes me as a woman potentially leaving a bar or restaurant. While an independent investigation is needed aside from the truckers personal injury claim against the woman the trucker and the wrong-way driver could have a claim against an alcohol-serving establishment for over-serving. The laws are called dram shop laws and are used to add a party to accident claims like this. In no way do they release the wrong-way driver of their fault in an accident but they do enforce state-mandated alcohol policies. Again I dont bring this up to blame others in this wreck but rather to extol the scenarios that exist in an accident when alcohol is reportedly involved.
Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Michael Grossman