The head-on collision is more likely to have a poor outcome because of the speeds involved when the collision occurs. Often times the typical head-on collision will occur when one vehicle strays into the path of an oncoming vehicle. This can happen when someone swerves to avoid an object in the road, or when the driver is engaged in distracted driving behaviors such as texting while driving, or when the driver falls asleep at the wheel, or drives under the influence of alcohol or another substance which causes driver impairment. With head-on collisions, the risk of property damage and severe injuries and death are relative, the higher the speeds, the greater the risks of catastrophic injury and death.
The side-impact collision, otherwise known as a T-bone accident typically occurs at intersections (road junctions), and these are a very common type of accident. A side-impact crash or intersection collision occurs at lights, and streets with two or more stop signs. An intersection collision can occur when the at-fault driver fails to stop at a red light, or when the at-fault driver fails to stop at a stop sign and yield the right of way to oncoming traffic, or it can occur when someone turns left in front of oncoming traffic. Side-impact crashes have a higher incidence in urban areas because there is a higher density of junctions in the city.
Unfortunately, side-impact crashes can be especially dangerous and sometimes fatal because the passengers are seated so close to the door, which offers practically zero protection as compared to when another vehicle strikes the rear of the vehicle as in a rear-end collision. At least with rear-end collisions, passengers in the rear of the vehicle are separated by the vehicle’s trunk.
The rear-end collision is a traffic accident where the front of a vehicle collides with the rear of the vehicle in the front. Rear-end collisions typically occur because the driver in the rear vehicle wasn’t maintaining a safe following distance, because they were tailgating, or because of panic stops, or because of driver inattention or distraction. In the vast majority of rear-end collisions, the driver in the rear vehicle is considered to be at fault in the crash, but not 100% of the time. An exception to the rule is where the driver in the front vehicle goes into reverse gear and plows the rear of their vehicle into the front-end of the vehicle in the rear, but this is a rare occurrence.
A typical medical consequence of a rear-end collision is whiplash injuries, in more severe cases herniation may even occur. Perhaps the most dangerous type of rear-end collisions involve minivans, which benefit little from the short rear crumple zone. This is frightening because those sitting in the rear of the minivan are the most likely to be seriously injured or killed in a rear-end collision and these passengers are frequently child passengers.
