Golden Parsons Killed, Several Injured in Waco, TX, I-35 Accident
Waco, TX -- February 16, 2017, Golden Parsons was killed, four others injured, due to an accident where four vehicles, including an 18-wheeler, crashed.
The Waco Police Department was busy on I-35 just south of Baylor University due to three different accidents, the third of which was fatal.
Traffic was slow around 3:00 p.m. in both southbound and northbound lanes of traffic. An accident occurred on each side of the highway prior to this particular crash. In northbound lanes, a white sedan, a black SUV, a white van, and an 18-wheeler somehow crashed into each other when approaching slow-moving traffic.
75-year-old Golden Parsons, a local writer, was rear-seat passenger in the white sedan. She suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene. Reports say four other people, two men and two women, were taken to hospitals for treatment. It's unclear from which vehicles they came.
Details surrounding the accident are unclear. Photos show the white sedan with significant damage to both the rear and front portions of the car. They also show the SUV turned around on the shoulder, partially on top of the concrete barrier.
Police say the accident is still being investigated. Further information has yet to be released.
Map of the Area
Commentary
A lot of people wonder how liability works when the victim of an accident is a passenger in one of the vehicles. The details surrounding this crash are still unclear, but it was confirmed that Ms. Parsons was a passenger of the white sedan. That means that unless she leaped into the front seat and grabbed the steering wheel, she isn't at fault for this accident. Regardless of who caused the accident, Ms. Parsons was the victim of someone else's actions, and that person needs to be held accountable.
Figuring out who that would be is the tricky part. Did the driver of her vehicle fail to stop in time, or was it pushed into the front car from behind? What caused the first two vehicles to crash in the first place? How was the 18-wheeler involved in this crash? Was the cause of the initial pile up responsible for Ms. Parsons' injuries or the vehicle that ran into the back of her vehicle?
The only thing that is clear is that Ms. Parsons was an innocent party in this accident, and someone's negligence led to her death. With so many vehicles involved, it will take a traffic accident professional to examine all of the factors properly and determine what the exact cause of the accident was.
--Grossman Law Offices
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