Teen Driver Allegedly Falls Asleep, Crashes Into Minivan

A local Indiana media outlet is reporting that an 18-year-old man avoided serious injury despite being in a car-minivan accident westbound on the Indiana Toll Road. The accident occurred on Monday afternoon near the S.R. 19 overpass in Elkhart. The driver may have fallen asleep, according to the media report and perhaps as a result, his car struck the minivan. The minivan went off  into a ditch but the minivan operator was unhurt. The car, however, flipped and burned, although the driver fortunately escaped with minor burns. The car was a total loss.

In June, we blogged about a Virginia study suggesting that sleep deprivation may be a factor the high rate of teen traffic accidents. Police are investigating this incident, and it  remains to be seen if the driver in this case dozed off.  As another common-sense principle, drivers should never get behind the wheel if they are having a hard time keep their eyes open.

Leaving aside the age of an offender, if you or a loved one have been seriously hurt in a traffic accident on Indiana roads owing to the actions of a reckless, impaired, or negligent driver, please contact the Indiana personal injury lawyers at Young and Young to obtain full information about your legal rights to recover money damages in civil court. With 55 years of experience, we stand ready and able to help you make the person who caused the harm to fully compensate you for that harm.