When a tractor-trailer collides with a car, truck or other smaller vehicle, serious injuries can result. Tractor trailers are not only much bigger than most vehicles on the road, but they are also usually loaded down with freight, which makes them heavy and dangerous when an accident occurs. A tractor-trailer accident can cause serious injuries and complications that can last a lifetime.
Our Lehigh Valley readers may be startled to learn about the devastating injuries of a man who was driving a pickup that was struck by a tractor-trailer on state Route 309, south of Easton, Pennsylvania. The accident resulted in a 69-year-old man being flown to an area hospital, where he remains hospitalized. Doctors say the man has a severe brain injury.
Police say that the accident occurred when a tractor trailer, driven by a 39-year-old man, collided with the pickup truck at the intersection of Route 309 and West Pumping Station Road. The impact sent the pickup flying over an embankment into a basin. The driver of the tractor-trailer was unharmed but was taken to an area hospital for blood tests.
Although the outcome of this case remains to be seen, driver negligence and inattentiveness is sometimes the cause of life-changing truck accidents involving tractor-trailers. Those involved have the right to pursue damages and compensation for their injuries. It would be worthwhile to check the tractor-trailer driver’s logs to see if he had worked the proper amount of hours and was not operating with a sense of fatigue.
Source: Phillyburbs.com, “Crash victim has serious brain injury,” Matt Coughlin, Feb. 18, 2013