Head-on collision

In the early days of railroading in the United States, such collisions were quite common and gave to the rise of the term "Cornfield Meet".

The origins of the term are not well known, but it is attributed to crashes happening in rural America where farming and cornfields were common.

A common misconception is that this over-representation is because the relative velocity of vehicles travelling in opposite directions is high.

The driver of a vehicle fails to stay centered in their lane, and either leaves the roadway, or crosses the centerline, possibly resulting in a head-on or sideswipe collision, or, if the vehicle avoids oncoming traffic, a run-off-road crash on the far side of the road.

Preventive measures include traffic signs and road surface markings to help guide drivers through curves, as well as separating opposing lanes of traffic with wide central reservation (or median) and median barriers to prevent crossover incidents.

But results from Star Rating research in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden have shown that there is a pressing need to find better median (central reservation), run-off and junction protection at reasonable cost on single carriageway roads.

Section 2B.41 of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices describes how such signs should be placed on American highways.

Neither vehicle in a head-on collision need be a "car"; the Puisseguin road crash was between a truck and a coach.

Head-on collision with two cars involved
Standard wrong-way sign package used on all freeway off-ramps in the state of California to prevent head-on collisions [ 1 ]
A Ford Escort automobile that has been involved in a head-on collision with a sport utility vehicle
A Honda Civic that has been involved in a head-on collision with a Fiat Panda
2+1 road with cable barrier , on the European route E20 near Skara, Sweden. The first median barrier on a 2+1 road installed in 1998 helped to avoid many head-on collisions [ 13 ]