The California Highway Patrol closed off most of the westbound lanes of Highway 4 in eastern Contra Costa County for approximately three hours on a recent Wednesday morning. This was done after a multi-vehicle crash that occurred shortly after 8 a.m. It followed an earlier collision between a motorcycle and a car in which no one suffered personal injury. However, this caused backups on the already congested highway.
According to the CHP, a 46-year-old female driver and a male passenger noticed the congestion and she slowed down before bringing the car to a halt. An SUV driver that was following her allegedly failed to reduce speed and rear-ended the woman’s car. The impact of the collision killed her and caused critical injuries to her passenger. The SUV continued ahead and struck a pickup truck before colliding with a sedan and flipping over. This caused it to slide into two more vehicles before finally coming to rest against another car — bringing the total number of vehicles impacted to seven.
Reportedly, the driver of the SUV and one of his passengers were also critically injured, and they were taken to a hospital along with their son who was later determined to be uninjured. Two other victims suffered injuries that were treated at the accident scene. Authorities are investigating the possibility of alcohol or drugs to have been a factor but said they found no obvious evidence of this at the crash scene.
The family members of the deceased driver and her severely injured passenger will naturally experience severe trauma while also having to deal with the financial consequences of a loved one’s death. They will be entitled to seek damage recovery by filing a wrongful death lawsuit in a California civil court. Similarly, a personal injury lawsuit may be filed to seek recovery of medical expenses and other losses by the injured passenger. In similar circumstances, other families may choose to utilize the support and guidance of an experienced personal injury attorney to navigate both lawsuits in pursuit of monetary judgments to cover financial losses and emotional damages.
Source: eastbaytimes.com, “Pittsburg: Woman killed, four hospitalized in crash on Highway 4,” Rick Hurd, Oct. 4, 2017