Louisiana Injury Lawyers Blog
Truck crashes are almost always serious, and are very often catastrophic. They are emotionally grueling, but they are also, in many instances, legally complex. Be sure you have the services of an experienced Louisiana injury attorney to help you get the beneficial results you deserve.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 2017 was a very deadly year for truck crashes that inflicted fatal injuries. (The institute has not released the numbers for 2018.) 4,102 people died in wrecks involving large trucks, making it the first time in a decade that the total number of deaths exceeded 4,100. Some fatal truck accidents are unavoidable, but too many occur as a result of someone failing to do his/her job as well as he/she should. Whether it was a driver driving unsafely, a maintenance worker failing to complete truck repairs properly, or a trucking company putting unsafe trucks and/or drivers on the road when it reasonably should have known better, many people die every year in this country due to negligence in relation to semi trucks. If you have been hurt, or have lost a loved one, due to a trucking accident reach out to a Louisiana personal injury attorney.
Horrifically, a recent commercial truck accident claimed five lives from a single Louisiana community. A group from a Marksville Pentecostal church was headed to the happiest place on earth, Walt Disney World in Florida. Unfortunately, the group never made it there. As reported by The Advocate, the group was headed southbound on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Florida when a northbound semi truck crashed into a passenger vehicle. The collision caused both vehicles to slam into, and through, the metal guardrail. The northbound semi truck slammed into the church group’s southbound van, causing it to flip several times. The truck then crashed into a southbound semi truck.
The accident killed both semi truck drivers, in addition to five children from the Marksville church group. Part of what led to the severity of the accident was that diesel fuel leaked from one or both of the semi trucks, and that leaked fuel eventually exploded in a fireball that could be seen for miles. A fifth vehicle struck some of the church group members who had been thrown from the van and lay on the road, according to the report.
Several details were still unknown pending an investigation, but one thing is for certain, which is that commercial truck accidents, especially those happening on interstate highways, can have catastrophic consequences. That’s why it is absolutely imperative that everyone involved with commercial trucking conduct themselves with the utmost regard for safety.
When proper safety procedures aren’t followed, and accidents that cause injuries or death ensue, there are legal consequences of that, as there should be. No monetary award can fill the void of a child lost to injury. However, the loss does inflict certain quantifiable harm on those who are left behind, and they are entitled to justice for the negligence of those who failed to observe the proper standard of care.
Multi-vehicle truck accidents can trigger liability by many people and entities
In a case like the one involving the Marksville church group, there could potentially be several people or entities that might be liable. For example, The Advocate reported that the driver of the northbound truck had amassed numerous violations over the previous several years, which might raise the possibility that his employer was negligent in hiring him. (An employer can potentially be vicariously liable for the negligence of its employee driver, but it can also be directly liable if it was deemed to be negligent simply by hiring and/or retaining the individual as one of its drivers).
Additionally, if the evidence showed that the southbound semi truck driver could have, and should have, done more to avoid the crash, that could make that driver and that trucking company potentially liable. If the proof indicated that the guardrail should have held but failed to do so, that could possibly create a case against those connected to the guardrail. If it was eventually discovered that the driver of the fifth vehicle was speeding, that might raise the possibility that he/she was not operating in a sufficiently safe manner, and was possibly liable. If the diesel fuel leaked from its tank because that truck was not kept up and maintained in a sufficiently safe condition, then that could be a basis for legal action and liability, too.
What those previous two paragraphs are meant to convey is that there are a lot of variables. In other words, there are many “moving parts” to a case like this, with many different facts to amass and many possible people or entities who may owe damages. That’s why you need a skilled injury attorney on your side. Your knowledgeable attorney can help you collect the necessary information, organize it, assess the facts to which the proof points, and then decide what is the best path forward through the legal system. To get the just outcome you need for you and your family, contact the Cardone Law Firm to find out more about how our skilled Louisiana truck injury lawyers can help you.
For your confidential consultation contact us online or phone Cardone at 504-522-3333.
More Blog Posts:
Hit-and-Run Driver Arrested for Fiery January Crash, Louisiana Injury Lawyers Blog, Feb. 4, 2019
Multi-Vehicle Crash Results in 2 Fatalities in Lafayette, Louisiana Injury Lawyers Blog, Jan. 25, 2019