The failure to yield is a major cause of car accidents in Louisiana. According to the Louisiana State University Highway Safety Research Group, the failure to yield accounted for the second leading citation drivers in Louisiana were hit with last year. Drivers who failed to yield either took a chance and pulled out in front of oncoming traffic or did not see oncoming traffic. Either way accidents that involved drivers who failed to yield resulted in over 8,000 injuries and 57 deaths.
One man from Bossier City knows the pain of experiencing a car accident caused by a failure to yield. On a spring day, the 62-year-old man finished breakfast with friends and jumped on his Harley 1200 Sportster to head home. As he traveled along the Shreveport-Barksdale Highway, he approached an intersection with a green light. All of a sudden, an oncoming car in the intersection turned left in front of him and metal hit metal.
The 62-year-old, off-duty sheriff’s deputy was flung into the air by the impact and landed on the “unforgiving” pavement. The man remembers seeing his mangled leg and the “guts of it coming out.” After he was loaded into the ambulance, the 62-year-old lost consciousness because of the amount of blood he lost.
After months of trying to the save the man’s leg, doctors made the decision to amputate it six inches below the knee. Today the man is completing physical therapy and is getting adjusted to his new life. Though he may have plenty to be bitter about, the 62-year-old says it would make life more complicated. When the driver who hit him came to visit him in the hospital he told her that he would be okay.
The man does wish more drivers would pay more attention on the road. The woman who was the driver of the vehicle was cited for failure to yield.
Source: shreveportimes.com, “Driver’s split-second decision has irrevocable consequences,” Alison Bath, Sept. 4, 2011
