Impatient Driver Trys to Pass Motor Home, Sends 4 People to Hospital

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We have all been stuck behind a slow moving vehicle on an open road and made the decision to pass when it became safe to do so. Passing is completely legal in Washington State, there is a minimum speed and you can go over the speed limit to safely pass a slow moving vehicle in designated areas. As a Seattle auto accident lawyer working at an Issaquah personal injury law firm I know that passing a slow moving vehicle is something that we all learn about in our driver’s education class. Although we all learn how to safely pass a vehicle, not everyone chooses to follow the rules and that is how auto accidents happen.

Saturday evening a driver in Forks decided that he didn’t want to wait for his turn to pass a motor home and tried to pass at the same time as the driver in front of him. The first driver, a 33-year-old man from Forks had been stuck behind the motor home when he made the decision to safely pass the large vehicle and he pulled out into the other lane to begin passing the motor home. After he started passing the 18-year-old driver that had been behind him decided to try and pass both vehicles. Unable to successfully pass either vehicle the young driver crashed into the back of the first truck, spun around and slammed into the motor home.

One bad decision left four people in the hospital; the young driver, his passenger and the driver of the motor home were all taken to Forks Hospital with minor personal injuries, but the passenger from the motor home had to be airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with serious ankle injuries. Had the young driver just been patient and waited a few minutes he most likely would have been able to safely pass the motor home; instead he decided to try and pass two vehicles at the same time causing a serious auto accident that totaled his vehicle and the motor home. Remember: patience is a virtue.