At no time of year are the roads are more dangerous than during the holiday season. Bad weather, heavier traffic, distracted drivers, and an increase in drinking and driving can make it particularly risky to get behind the wheel during the last several weeks of the year.
This was especially evident during the weekend of December 14–16, 2012. In six separate accidents spanning Friday night through Sunday afternoon, 11 people lost their lives. Four of those accidents happened during roughly an eight-hour period overnight on Friday. Rain-slick roads may have been a factor in some of the accidents.
In the first wreck, which occurred on Friday evening at about 8:45, a 46-year-old man driving a red Chevrolet Malibu at high speed near the 6000 block of East Airport Boulevard lost control of his vehicle and hit a tree in the median.
Then, shortly before 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, a 36-year-old man who was traveling in the wrong direction on Interstate 610 near the South Freeway interchange in a Cadillac Escalade sideswiped a semi and then hit a second semi head on.
About an hour and a half later, the driver of a green Mercury Mountaineer failed to stop as he was heading west in the 7100 block of Romona Boulevard and hit a gray Nissan Quest near North Houston-Rosslyn Road. The Mercury rolled over, killing the driver and two passengers; all three men reportedly were in their early 20s. A fourth occupant, also a male, and the female driver of the Nissan were taken to the hospital in stable condition.
Within about 10 minutes of that crash, yet another fatal accident occurred, this one in the 7200 block of Mullins Drive. The male driver of a silver Infiniti G35 sped through a stop sign at Jessamine Street. He then lost control of the vehicle and drove it into a ditch. The vehicle rolled, hit a telephone pole, and then crossed back over the road before hitting a tree and a fence.
The fifth accident, another rollover, occurred just before 3:00 a.m. on Sunday at 10500 Eastex Freeway, north of Parker Road. The driver of a blue Ford F-150 pickup truck swerved out of his lane as he was traveling south at high speed and hit the curb, causing the truck to roll. Three of the occupants, including the driver, died at the scene, and a fourth died later at the hospital. A fifth passenger sustained serious injuries. All of the occupants were young men thought to be in their late teens or early 20s.
The sixth incident occurred on Sunday afternoon, around 1:00. According to police reports, there was a chain-reaction accident involving several vehicles on Interstate 45 near Main Street that began with a vehicle that had a flat tire. A Metro bus swerved to avoid crashing into the pileup and instead hit a man who had gotten out of one of the cars involved in the wreck.
The staff and Houston personal injury attorneys at the office of Steve Lee extend our condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives during this tragic weekend.
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