Massive Storms and Tornadoes Cause North Carolina Auto Accidents…and Worse
On Saturday, April 16th, 25 tornadoes touched down in NC, causing North Carolina auto accidents and lots of other mayhem.
The death toll for the storms has been climbing. On April 20th, Fox News reported that the toll had climbed up to 24, after a women died from tornado-related injuries. President Barack Obama declared 18 counties in the state “major disaster areas” on Tuesday, and officials estimate that at least 800 homes got destroyed or severely damaged by the weather. Volunteers in Raleigh and elsewhere have been pouring money, time, and other services into the rehabilitation effort.
And while some tragic, potentially weather related North Carolina car accidents have been reported, it’s likely that most of the crashes and other mayhem have gone under the radar simply because there is so much damage to report about.
Can we learn any general lessons to prevent future damage and/or to speed up the rehabilitation process for those who got hurt or who suffered property damage in this storm?
It’s hard to extrapolate. And that’s perhaps a lesson in and of itself.
When we read about stories, such as tragic auto accidents, plane crashes, product defects, et cetera – it’s natural tendency to want to “prevent something like this from ever happening again.” And, yes, that’s a good sentiment. But it’s easy to “over extrapolate” and put in place measures that can actually have detrimental long-term effects.
For instance, to use an absurd example, we all know speeding contributes to North Carolina auto accidents. So why not lower speed limits to, like, 30 miles per hour everywhere? This would slow all cars, trucks, and other traffic down to a crawl. But it would save many lives — and isn’t that what’s most important? What’s the rush?
Actually, it’s not so simple! If you eliminated speeding, you would precipitate indirect impacts on the state’s economy. For instance, businesses would suffer, meaning that people would earn less money and therefore would not be able to afford high quality healthcare. Thus, there could be an indirect impact on the quality of healthcare… and you would see increased rates of disease. Also, people legitimately in a rush – for instance, a pregnant woman who needs to get to the hospital, or something – might not be able to make to their destinations in time, etc.
The general point here is that mourning tragedies is a humane and compassionate thing to do. But when you make the leap from “mourning” to “prescribing policy” you have to be very, very, very careful to avoid accidentally doing more harm than good.
A North Carolina auto accident law firm can help you unravel your rights as a car accident victim and develop the best strategy to get compensated.
More Web Resources:
Big NC Storm Update
25 Tornadoes
