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Police in Charlotte, North Carolina have charged a woman with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle after a mother and her child died in a crash on May 11. 

Charlotte police were called to the crash scene just before 8 am to the accident on Eastway Drive at North Tryon Street. The mother and her child were killed at the scene and three others were seriously hurt.

Police said the driver who has been charged was going east on Eastway Drive in the right hand lane when she sideswiped a truck. That truck then hit the mother’s car.

Our View

Sideswipe accidents happen when two cars are driving next to each other and the two vehicles make contact with each other. These accidents are common when a driver is making a lane change without first checking over their shoulder to ensure there is no car in the other lane. In other cases, the driver might carelessly drift into the other lane because they are distracted by a cell phone or something else.

Many sideswipe accidents happen when two lanes merge, such as interstate on ramps. If the driver does not make sure there is enough space to merge safely, it is likely an accident will happen.

As the above accident indicates, injuries in sideswipe collisions can be severe. One of the risk with a sideswipe crash is that the vehicle or vehicles can lose control and hit other vehicles, which is what happened in this tragic North Carolina crash with loss of life.

Our Virginia and North Carolina personal injury attorneys want to remind all drivers to be sure they are always paying attention on the road. Also, look over your shoulder before you change lanes. Just being a careful driver at all times can prevent a tragic accident.

People who are hurt in a sideswipe or other type of car accident caused by another driver usually have the option to file a personal injury lawsuit to collect compensation for their injuries. Our personal injury attorneys settled a Virginia Beach car accident case for $1 million a few years ago when a driver failed to yield right of way to our client. The severe crash led to serious lower body injuries to our client that took many months of recovery. Not paying attention behind the wheel can lead to such terrible crashes, and we urge all drivers to use caution.

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