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Published on: December 17, 2011

Semi Trailer Rolls Over and Closes Highway

by Stephen Bilkis

This case is an example of what “could” have happened if there had been any other vehicles around the semi that rolled on its side. That kind of a visual will bring a shock of fear to most people. Who wants to be involved in a truck accidentwith a semi?

In this semi wreck, the big rig was heading north when it started to fishtail on slippery roads. As a result of the rear end doing its thing, the truck then rolled over on its side, blocking six lanes of traffic. Can you just imagine what would have happened if all six lanes had traffic in them when the truck went down, asked the press?

The driver walked from this crash without injuries and considered himself to be pretty lucky at that. But for the fact that there was no one else around at the time of the morning when the accident happened, both he and other drivers may have suffered severe injuries, observed the police. As it was, it took emergency response crews at least six hours to repair a damaged guardrail before four lanes were reopened for use.

Published on: December 14, 2011

Red Light Runner Slams into Truck

by Stephen Bilkis

Some days, it doesn’t pay to get out of bed. This particular day was not a good one for this woman and her two children. The woman, who was driving a PT Cruiser was headed east on a street when she careened into a commercial truck that was heading south.

While the details are not crystal clear in this case, what is known is that the woman blew a red light just prior to the accident. She was taken to the hospital. Thankfully, the two children were not hurt and the trucker was in good shape as well, said the source.

Chances are that the police with cite the woman for running the red light and will also want to take some time to find out what she was doing just before going through it. They will want to find her cell phone and determine whether or not she was using it at the time of the truck accident, as in texting or having a conversation while driving.

Published on: December 11, 2011

Woman on Motorized Wheelchair Killed by Truck

by Stephen Bilkis

Sometimes, bad things happen to good people and there seems to be no explanation for it. But then again, if you take a close look at some truck accident cases, there may be something else there just under the surface, waiting to be discovered.

This case was particularly heartbreaking, as it involved a 71-year old woman in a motorized wheelchair crossing at a marked intersection. She was struck and killed by a garbage truck driver who was initially charged with negligent homicide, a misdemeanor carrying up to two years prison time if convicted. When the case got to trial, the judge ruled that he should not stand trial for this charge, explained the observer. There is an appeal under consideration.

There are many things that could have happened in this case, not the least of which is that the woman in the wheelchair, despite seeing the truck, may have proceeded to cross anyway. Stranger things have happened and if she thought the truck had a lot of time to stop, she may have decided she had time to cross and he may not have had time to stop that large truck.

Published on: December 7, 2011

Truck Wreck Nets Family $3.5 million Award

by Stephen Bilkis

In this case, a truck accident victim and his wife were awarded a total of $3.5 million for their future pain and suffering. It was one of the largest awards handed out in recent history in Michigan.

The man and his wife were heading west on a road in 2008 and were waiting to turn left onto another road, when a tractor-trailer pushed them into oncoming traffic, where they were hit by an oncoming semi. The first big rig in this horrific chain of negligence wasn’t paying attention to the van in front of him and when he noticed it was stopped, tried to hit the shoulder to avoid an accident.

Instead, what happened is that the rig that swerved, caused the attached trailer to spin into the van, whipping it out into oncoming traffic where the van was hit by another tractor trailer. The victims injuries were catastrophic, with the man suffered two fractured vertebrae, depression and traumatic brain injury.

Published on: December 4, 2011

Three Big Rigs Involved in Chain Wreck

by Stephen Bilkis

This particular truck accident was spectacular in that it involved three 18-wheelers in a chain pile-up on a highway. Traffic was backed up for miles, as the police tried to sort out what happened. It wasn’t clear at the time just what had caused three tractor trailers to end up in a complete pile-up, with one of the drivers needing to be extracted with the Jaws of Life.

It appears the road conditions at the time of the accident were clear and that traffic was moving normally. There is some speculation that one or more of the drivers may have been distracted, as all three trucks were traveling fairly close together when the crash happened.

On the surface, it appears that the lead truck may have swerved to avoid something and the second truck, not expecting the sudden lane change, ended up rear-ending the first rig. The third rig likely had no place to go when the other two were blocking 5 lanes of traffic and couldn’t stop in time. That’s the thing with large trucks like this; they don’t stop on a dime as their weight and momentum carry them forward until they can get the brakes to kick in.

Published on: December 2, 2011

Flying Truck Tires Injures Couple on Highway

by Stephen Bilkis

In a case of having horse shoes in your pocket, two people, a husband and wife, were suddenly involved in one of the weirdest truck accidents anyone had ever seen and survived with non life-threatening injuries.

As the couple was traveling northbound on the highway, two tires came whipping through the air and hit their car. The tires had come off a southbound semi. In the ensuing wreck, the EMTs had to use the Jaws of Life to get the husband out of the car. Both victims were taken to the hospital and later released, sore and bruised, but alive and lucky not to have any life threatening injuries.

This type of truck accident does not happen often, but when it does, the consequences can be quite devastating. There have actually been cases in which people were killed when struck by a flying tire. The main question in this case, is why the tires came off and the police fully intend to track the truck down and find out what happened, explained the Accident Lawyer. Their main reason for doing that is to determine if there was any negligence on the part of the trucker or the trucking company that owns the truck.

Published on: November 27, 2011

Five Die as Truck Overturns in Chin State

by Stephen Bilkis

Five people are dead and 35 others are seriously injured as a truck overturned in Chin State, a man reported. The truck accident occurred on Friday at about 10:00a.m. local time, as the truck’s brakes apparently failed as it descended a steep hill that is near Lamzan Village and about five miles south of the closest town of Tedim. Chin State is located in the northwestern part of Myanmar.

The commercial truck was carrying a full load of cargo and about 50 passengers that had been picked up in Tedim earlier that morning. Approximately 45 minutes into the journey from Tedim to the Indian border is when the truck’s brakes failed, which resulted in the loss of life, including the truck’s owner and driver, according to a Lawyer. Four of those who died, were dead at the scene, while another died because of their injuries enroute to the local hospital. Miraculously, the eight children who were aboard the truck when it rolled over survived with no injuries.

This is not the first such truck accident in this area. This is the second accident in the area this week. There was another fatal accident nearby in November 2010, which claimed 17 lives. Including both of these accidents, it is concluded that up to about 24 people have died on this road in the past four months.

Published on: November 24, 2011

Road Conditions Led to Truck Versus SUV Accident, Said New York Trucking Accident Lawyer

by Stephen Bilkis

In winter, you can virtually count on the fact that the roads are going to be less than safe. Driving at highway speeds is usually not a good idea.

In this truck accident involving an SUV and a semi, five were injured, including three children. All the victims were taken to the nearest hospital for treatment, while the police remained at the scene trying to determine what happened. All five occupants of the SUV were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash.

It appears as if the SUV was heading south and the trucker was heading north. The SUV driver lost control of his vehicle as the result of an icy, snow covered highway. The SUV veered into the north lane. The trucker, seeing them coming, swerved into the south lane to try and avoid or minimize the accident. Unfortunately, he was not able to mitigate the wreck, indicated the investigator.

Published on: November 21, 2011

Trucking Company Safety Records Show Multiple Infractions

by Stephen Bilkis

Just recently we all got a lesson in how quickly a trucking companies safety records can be accessed in the event of a wreck. This particular truck accident was billed as being not only horrific, but it took the lives of two. It was mere minutes after the collision that a team of reporters started to check out the safety record of the owner of one of the rigs in the carnage.

Turns out that investigative team located not just one or two violations for the trucking company, but, several pages of them. In fact, the company in question had acquired at least 28 unsafe driving violations that ran the gamut from speeding to following to close and from improper lane changes to fatigued drivers. This company had so many violations, that the USDOT put out an alert on the company, recounted the spokesman. Not exactly a good thing for business, but more to the point is what was the company thinking?

These violations were evidently the tip of the iceberg and further digging by safety inspectors in Long Island and Westchester uncovered at least 46 maintenance violations. In other words, the trucks owned by this particular company were truck accidents looking for a place to happen and sure enough, happen they did.

Published on: November 17, 2011

This fatality that took place in 2007 has recently been dealt with in court

by Stephen Bilkis

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and in this instance, this appears to be the case. No one is quite sure what happened to prompt this completely bizarre truck accident, but an investigation will try to piece together the evidence later.

What is known for now is the following; that a 71-year-old man died in a semi-truck fire and his body was found when the firefighters dispatched to handle the call found him. It isn’t clear how he got to be there and the fire department can only speak to the fact that they found a burning tractor-trailer outside a trucking company when they arrived on the scene.

The fire department was called out in response to what sounded like two explosions at about 2 a.m. The rig was fully engulfed when they got there and it took some time to knock the flames down. It was then that they found the body. From the initial investigations, completed at the scene when the body was first discovered, it looks as though a truck hit a parked semi, caused the tires to spin and ignited a conflagration. It also appeared that the flames then spread to the cab.