Tractor-Trailer Accident

Published on: February 3, 2013

Five are injured by tractor trailor

by Stephen Bilkis

A personal injury suit was commenced against a tractor-trailer and the employer of the driver after four adults and one infant, while passengers in an automobile, sustained injuries as a result of a truck accident. The Staten Island driver of the automobile in which they were passengers died as a result of his injuries. A collision occurred between the passenger car and a tractor trailer. The tractor trailer was under lease. This case was tried by the court without a jury and the question of contributory negligence is resolved in favor of the plaintiffs. The defendants appealed.

According to records in court, the trailer truck was without load and deadheaded westward bound from Clinton, New Jersey, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It had been raining for some time prior to and at the time of the accident. The road surface was wet and visibility was fair. The accident occurred in the early morning about one o’clock. The sources said there was failure in the tractor trailer’s engines and the passenger automobile struck the tractor which rested in its pathway.

Under the Pennsylvania law, the presence of a vehicle on the wrong side of a highway is prima facie evidence of the driver’s negligence and the skidding or sliding of a vehicle of itself does not constitute negligence of the driver. It is thus incumbent upon the plaintiffs to prove that the skidding or sliding of the vehicle was due to the negligence of the driver. The operator of a motor vehicle is bound at all times to exercise reasonable care in its operation. As sliding or skidding of itself does not constitute negligence, something additional must be shown to justify a finding of negligence.

Published on: January 24, 2013

The complaint is premised on the electric company’s liability

by Stephen Bilkis

The records of the case relate that a Nassau landscape gardener who owned a tractor trailer ring was electrocuted when loading boom on the tractor trailer, which he was driving, stuck high tension wires owned by an electric company and located on the property of a certain resident. The administrator of the estate of the landscape gardener sued the electric company and the landowner for personal injuries and wrongful death.

The complaint is premised on the Suffolk electric company’s liability upon faulty maintenance and safety control of the high tension wires. The parties have stipulated that the wires were maintained by the electric company and that the conduct of the tractor trailer truck was not for the electric company’s use or benefit. The electric company was not a lessee or borrower of the tractor trailer. Significantly, it was agreed that the power for the tractor trailer came from that unit itself, and it was not connected to the electric company’s equipment for any power source.

Both contenders rely on the policy language, which provides that the insured includes the named insured, any partner or executive officer of the named insured, any other person while using an Owned automobile or a Hired automobile with the permission of the Named insured, and any other person or organization but only with respect to his or its liability because of acts or omissions of an insured.

Published on: December 22, 2012

The complainant is pleading the Court to release an Order

by Stephen Bilkis

The Bronx complainant is pleading the Court to release an Order which grants summary judgment on his favor pertaining on the subject of liability. The defendant, however, is in contradiction with his particular appeal.

This specific action is based on the 18-wheeler crash in Long Island Expressway that happened last April 10, 2008. The said Complainant’s vehicle was described as a flat-bed truck, while the offender’s vehicle is said to be that of a tractor-trailer type. It is a good thing that the Complainant’s driver was not hurt in the said accident; however, the defendant who was then driving the tractor-trailer passed out in the event of the said commercial truck ACCIDENT. He was immediately brought to the hospital for medical assistance by the ambulance that arrived just in time.

The complaint was asking for $19,200 total of claims for the alleged rental fees incurred when he opted to rent a truck for a determined period of time while the truck which was damaged due to the accident was still being repaired. No Personal Injury claims were made by both parties as a result of the truck accident.

Published on: November 27, 2012

The wrongful death action was filed arising from a car accident

by Stephen Bilkis

A wrongful death action was filed arising from a car accident which occurred in New York during a early morning in March. Involved in the truck accident was a tractor-trailer driver in the employ of a trucking company. According to sources, due to an electrical problem, the tractor-trailer stalled in traffic in the center lane of the Expressway. The driver got out of the tractor-trailer, walked to the front of the vehicle, and got down on the ground under the truck. While the driver was under the truck, a truck owned by a truck rental company pushed the tractor-trailer forward and onto the tractor-trailer driver’s chest, thereby causing his death.

As a result of the truck accident, the truck rental company filed a property damage claim with its insurance carrier. The insurance company paid the claim and instituted arbitration proceedings against the insurance company for the tractor-trailer trucking company seeking reimbursement for the property damage claim. The tractor-trailer driver’s widow instuted a civil action for wrongful death against driver of the truck and the truck’s owner. The Bronx driver and the Brooklyn truck owner, in turn, filed a third-party action against the owner of the tractor-trailer seeking contribution and indemnification.

The truck company who owns the tractor-trailer sought to dismiss the complaint based on the doctrine of collateral estoppel. The truck company said the doctrine bars the truck driver and the truck owner from seeking indemnification and contribution because its responsibility for the accident was previously litigated in the property damage arbitration proceeding instituted by the rental truck company’s insurance carrier. The tractor-trailer truck company said the truck driver and the truck owner are bound by the finding of the arbitrator that the tractor-trailer was not negligent, and, therefore, not liable for the accident.

Published on: October 25, 2012

Fire Trucks Damaged by Tractor Trailer Returning This Summer

by Stephen Bilkis

One of the two fire engines severely damaged in a truck accidentthis past January is set to return to duty by late June. The trucks were damaged when a tractor trailer crashed into them on an icy interstate. The fire rescue vehicles were parked on the highway in a staggered position to protect rescue workers responding to a car crash.

The incident occurred during a snowstorm at about 8:30 p.m. Six firefighters were injured. They were brought to Bridgeport Hospital where they were treated and released.

Engine 1 and Engine 5 were damaged so severely, that the common thread of thought in the days right after the crash was that they’d have to be scrapped. They had been hit simultaneously by two tractor trailers while parked on the interstate in a standard protection formation.

Published on: October 18, 2012

Ozark police chief injured in accident

by Stephen Bilkis

A crash involving a tractor trailer injured the police chief of Ozark, Arkansas. The new chief had been in pursuit of a Franklin County escapee.

A bystander who was eating with his family across the street from the truck accident says he could tell the vehicles involved in the wreck could not see each other. “I looked up across the street and I seen the police car…. and I seen that truck, and that truck – he just didn’t see it,” he said.

The chief’s police car ran under the tractor trailer as he was in pursuit of an escapee.

Published on: October 6, 2012

Pedestrian Killed in Semi Accident

by Stephen Bilkis

A 53-year-old male was killed in a truck accidentthat occurred just after midnight last Thursday, Texas highway officials report.

Responding to the emergency call placed by the rig driver, the police department and a trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety arrived on the scene and found EMS medics attempting to resuscitate an unresponsive male at the side of the road.

The 55-year-old tractor trailer driver was seemed heavily disturbed as he spoke to police. He received no physical injuries. He told police that he was driving southbound in the outside lane going approximately 50 mph when he noticed someone “come out of nowhere and crouch in the road.” Attempting to miss the person, he immediately swerved into the inside lane, but the pedestrian stood up and was struck by the truck.

Published on: October 4, 2012

Tractor Trailer Accident Closes Highway Right Before a Major Rock Slide

by Stephen Bilkis

A 24-mile section of Interstate 70 closed last November due to a rock slide that left boulders imbedded 6 feet deep into the roadway.

The detour prescribed by officials tending to the road closure was a 220-mile route through the western mountains.

The expected road closure is to last at least a day, as Department of Transportation workers clear the debris from the estimated 100 foot by 10 foot rock slide. Some of the boulders cleared were as large as a van.

Published on: September 30, 2012

Road Closure and Near Fire when Semi Crashes

by Stephen Bilkis

A tractor trailer driver is in jail on drunk driving charges after his truck overturned and caught fire just of a highway in Miller County, Georgia.

According to reports, both the driver and the Long Island passenger safely exited the vehicle.

First responders to the Saturday evening crash were police and firefighters. They stayed on the scene until Sunday afternoon when they could finally remove the wreckage.

Published on: September 19, 2012

25-year-old Floridian Died When His Car Drifted into Semi

by Stephen Bilkis

A young man died Monday morning in Plant City, Florida, when his 2004 Honda Civic drifted in front of tractor trailer.

The 25-year-old lost control of his vehicle on Paul Buckman Highway (State Route 39) in the early morning hours. Just two hours after midnight, the Florida Highway Patrol was called to the scene.

The car’s driver was going north on the state road. Near the intersection with Varn Road, the car drifted into the southbound lane. State troopers said the small Civic hit the tractor trailer’s cab and trailer before being rebounded back across the northbound lanes. The car came to rest on the outside shoulder of the north lanes.