U.S. Capital

Sharp Turns On Highways May Increase Trucking Accidents Indicates Austin Injury Lawyer

Apr 23, 2014

Austin, TX (Law Firm Newswire) April 23, 2014 – Truckers are not always at fault in an accident. Road designs may contribute to collisions.

“A recent accident at the Interstate 45 interchange with Loop 610 South was the scene of a fiery explosion that killed a trucker. Police could not determine if the cause was another driver, the trucker speeding or some other factor,” indicates Bobby Lee, an Austin trucking attorney with Lee, Gober & Reyna. “The only thing left when the flames were finally damped out was the skeleton of the truck containing the driver’s remains.”

The main reason why police found it difficult to determine the cause of the wreck was due to the fact that it took place at one of many ramps that are sharply angled, a problem for many 18-wheelers to negotiate without being exceedingly cautious. According to police reports, it could not be accurately determined if the accident happened inside the curve of the ramp, which it appeared to be on first inspection, or outside of it which may be expected in a crash of this nature.

“It’s no secret that there are a number of potentially dangerous locations that bottleneck traffic on our highways,” says Lee. “Add in poorly designed ramps, lots of vehicular traffic, serious lineups, traffic congestion and active trucking companies with numerous tractor trailers on the road and you have a recipe for disaster.”

Despite the number of strikes against a driver due to external driving conditions, such as a poorly designed road or ramp access, it remains the responsibility of the trucker to adapt to existing road conditions. Sharp curves are clearly posted with warnings that are intended to alert a driver to slow down and take care. Did the driver in this crash not pay attention to the warnings? Make the curve going too fast? An accident reconstruction team will eventually untangle the site and make sense of it.

“Also up for consideration in cases such as this one is whether or not the tractor trailer was defective in some way. Bad brakes? Poorly lashed down load that shifted suddenly? Cracked or blown tires? It’s hard to tell, which is why, if the trucker’s family wanted to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit, the attorney would need to thoroughly inspect the scene of the wreck and immediately preserve the evidence,” adds Lee.

Other factors in trucking accidents include jurisdictional issues that may involve various states, locations, law firms and insurance companies. For anyone that has been involved in a crash with a semi, make sure to connect with an experienced injury lawyer for assistance in filing a personal injury claim.

To learn more, visit http://www.lgrlawfirm.com

Lee, Gober & Reyna
11940 Jollyville Road #220-S
Austin, Texas 78759
Phone: 512.478.8080

  • Ethan Couch Case Sparks Sentencing Controversy in Texas
    In 2004, Roy Adams, Jr. struck and killed a police officer who had another driver stopped by the side of the road in North Texas. When the case reached court, he was given a 12.5 year prison sentence for DUI and intoxicated manslaughter. In a similar, well-publicized case, 16-year-old Ethan Couch was given a 10 year probation sentence. Adams’ mother believes that Couch’s family had both the influence and affluence to skew the justice system for their child, and she plans to picket the local courthouse until her own son is out of prison. The Tarrant County District Attorney claims […]
  • Motorcycle Accident Maims Police Office and Daughter
    In Los Angeles, an off-duty police officer was involved in a crash with another vehicle while riding his motorcycle with his 11-year-old daughter as a passenger. Thanks to a nurse’s quick thinking, the detective made it to the hospital alive and will recover to see his daughter grow up. The officer lost a portion of one leg and foot in the crash, and his daughter sustained a compound fracture of her left leg. Both were admitted to the hospital in critical condition, and both received emergency surgery. Neighbors who heard the crash told police that the area where the accident […]
  • Florida Considers Jail Sentences for Those Who Flee Accident Scenes
    Florida’s proposed new law was created in response to the hit-and-run death of a cyclist in February 2012. In that accident, an allegedly drunk driver hit a cyclist and then fled the scene. No one will ever know if the driver was drunk; he turned himself in after 24 hours and was sober at that time. As such, the driver received a 21-month jail sentence for leaving the scene (as opposed to a minimum sentence of four years for DUI manslaughter), his provable offense. The existence of a lesser sentence for leaving the scene of an accident incentivizes those like […]
  • Austin’s Drunk Driving Crashes at an All-Time High
    Central Texas is earning a dubious reputation for the highest number of drunken driving collisions in the state, if not in the nation. Austin police revealed that in 2012, 33 people died as a result of crashes involving impaired drivers. In 2013, 33 died in the first three months of the year alone. The final 2013 year-end death toll is to be released this month, and based on the increases already seen in 2013, the death toll in 2014 is expected to run even higher. Austin and the state of Texas both offer a wide variety of programs and initiatives […]
  • Leave the Phone on the Dash
    No message is important enough to merit texting while driving. Ask the financial advisor who survived a wreck when a texting driver collided with him at 55 mph. The teen was telling his father that he was on the way home from church. The man’s family and passengers were able to walk away from the wreck, but he was not so lucky. He sustained two broken hips, a broken nose, a collapsed lung, a dislocated femur, a fractured hip and a broken collarbone. After five years of recovery, the man resumed his career and added a second, more personal mission. […]