David King, Joshua Vinson Dead, 1 Hurt in Houston, TX, Accident
-- January 21, 2017, David King and Joshua Vinson were killed, another injured, in Houston, TX, after an accident where their vehicle crashed off-road.
The Houston Police Department responded to the single-vehicle accident scene at around 11:00 p.m. They say it occurred at the intersection of Gears Road and TC Jester Boulevard.
Preliminary accident reports state that King was driving a car along Gears with Vinson and one other person as passengers. As they traveled, the vehicle somehow lost control, veering out of traffic lanes and off the roadway. The car crashed through a fence, hit a shed, and eventually collided into a tree.
Due to the severe crash, both King and Vinson suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene of the crash. The other passengers, whose identity hasn't been released, was taken to a hospital with unspecified injuries.
At this time, authorities have not said what caused the accident. Wet roads may have contributed. Investigations are ongoing.
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Commentary
I see a lot of single-vehicle accidents like this one where early reports are very vague about what exactly occurred in an accident. With any luck, the cause of the accident will be pretty straight-forward and investigators will get to the bottom of it. The problem with that is that car accidents are rarely all that straight-forward. There are often numerous factors involved in any particular accident, and an investigator who isn't prepared to consider all of these factors may find themselves missing crucial details.
When it comes to single-vehicle accidents, many people assume that the driver is automatically at fault. This actually isn't the case. It's true that common causes of these accidents are in fact driver error--speeding, texting, intoxication, etc. However, our firm has handled enough single-vehicle accidents that I know there are plenty of factors beyond a driver's control which can cause an accident. Things like tire blowouts, potholes, mechanical failures, product defects, debris in the roads, and other such factors could cause a driver to lose control of their vehicles with little to no warning.
These are factors which aren't always so obvious. Think about the issues GM had where some of their vehicles had faulty ignition switches that caused vehicles to lose power mid-drive. This was linked to the death of roughly 100 people, yet most people didn't know until just a few years ago. If that problem had never been discovered, it probably would have just looked like all those victims simply lost control of their vehicles due to their own fault.
Like I said, these factors are pretty uncommon. However, just because something is common does not mean that it's correct. When police investigators don't consider all of the possibilities, they are leaving open the chance of missing crucial information that can determine once and for all what caused an accident to occur. This is why conducting private investigations is such a necessity after a car accident.
By ensuring the an independent professional looks at an accident, one can ensure that all of the evidence surrounding a crash is examined extensively. That way, no details--regardless of how unlikely or insignificant it may seem--gets overlooked. It's important that people reserve their judgements following a single-vehicle accidents and avoid making assumptions without evidence. Only once all of the facts are clear can conclusions be drawn.
--Grossman Law Offices
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