If you get in a car wreck, maybe you will walk away with no injuries or minor ones. If so, you can count yourself lucky. Many individuals suffer serious injuries from car wrecks, some of them lifechanging.
You may notice, though, if you look at injuries and car crash stats, that some crash types typically produce more serious injuries or even fatalities. That’s not by accident. Certain crash types, such as fender benders and sideswipe collisions, usually don’t cause very bad or permanent injuries. Others, like rollovers or head-to-head collisions, often cause the worst injuries or deaths.
In this article, we’re going to talk about T-bone accidents. T-bone collisions can cause both physical injury and emotional trauma, so it’s lucky that they’re not one of the more common kinds. We’ll cover not only why these injuries often prove so dangerous for drivers and their passengers, but also how you can take steps to avoid them while you’re behind the wheel.
What Does the Term T-Bone Accident Mean?
The term T-bone accident usually refers to when a motorist makes a serious driving mistake and hits another vehicle broadside. In other words, you have one car going straight and the other coming at it from the left or right. The car that strikes the one going straight usually hits it somewhere in the middle, forming the capital letter T.
If these accidents happen, it’s usually because someone tried to run through a red light and hit another car on its way through the intersection that had the right of way. If a T-bone accident occurs, it’s almost always the driver’s fault who hit the other vehicle broadside and not the fault of the driver of the other car.
Why Do These Accidents Cause So Many Serious Injuries and Deaths?
If you think about the way these sorts of accidents transpire, you can probably guess why they cause so many serious injuries and even deaths. If you’re driving a car straight through an intersection, and suddenly another driver comes at you from your left and slams into your door, you’re taking most of that car’s full impact on your lefthand side.
That can easily kill you if the other driver has built up enough speed. You have an airbag ahead of you, but usually very little padding on either side of you.
If the other driver hits your car’s righthand side, though, that’s no better. That can kill or injure someone beside you in the passenger seat. If the other driver hits your can a little further toward the rear, that can injure or kill a passenger in your vehicle’s back seat.
What Can You Do to Avoid These Accidents?
If you want to avoid these accidents, you should make sure to never try and go through a yellow light. Someone who jumps the gun and surges forward before they have the green light might hit you and cause that capital T shape we’ve described.
You should also make sure not to run through any stop signs. That can also cause a T-bone collision if you’re distracted and didn’t notice a car heading through the intersection on either your left or righthand side.
If you avoid drinking alcohol, then that won’t impair your judgment. Many times, T-bone collisions happen after a driver consumes more than they should and then tries to drive.
You should also avoid distracted driving, as that can cause a T-bone collision as well. Maybe you happen to glance down at your smartphone or try to change the radio station to find a song you like while approaching the intersection. That can cause a T-bone collision, whether you’re the car that hits the other vehicle or the one that sustains the impact from another driver.
What Should You Do After a T-Bone Collision?
If you cause a T-bone collision, or if another car hits your vehicle and causes one, then you need to assess your situation. If you’re still in the road and in danger of another car hitting you, try to get your vehicle off to the side if you can.
Then, you can see whether the crash injured you. You can check to see whether you have any injured passengers.
After that, you can check on the other driver and their passengers. If anyone needs medical attention, you can call 911 if you have a smartphone on you. If you don’t have one, then someone else must call for help.
