Tire Blowout Precipitates Crash Between Box Truck and Tractor-Trailer
A tractor-trailer suffered a tire blowout while making its way to its destination. The driver, sensing the tire had blown, attempted to pull the tractor-trailer over on the side of the road. Before that could happen, however, his vehicle was struck by a box truck that had failed to stop quickly enough after the tractor-trailer suffered the blowout. The driver of the box truck died as a result of the crash.
Elements of Negligence: The Tractor-Trailer Driver
Let’s start with the tractor-trailer driver. The tractor-trailer driver is responsible for ensuring that his tires are roadworthy prior to going on delivery. If the tractor-trailer driver failed to inspect the tires or missed obvious signs that the tire was about to blow, a good personal injury attorney would be able to file a legitimate wrongful death lawsuit against the tractor-trailer driver and his company even though the driver ostensibly did everything he was supposed to after the blowout. That’s because the blowout would not have occurred but for the failure to accurately inspect the tires. Of course, we don’t know if that’s what happened, it’s just speculation. In this case, the trucking company and their driver may be blameless.
Elements of Negligence: The Box Truck Driver
They say that if you rear-end another driver on the road, then the accident is automatically your fault. That isn’t necessarily true, but it is true that it’s hard to see how an accident in which one driver rear-ends another driver isn’t the fault of the driver who did the rear-ending.
In this case, the tractor-trailer driver had a legitimate reason for stopping and driving slowly. He suffered a tire blowout, and he couldn’t drive on it. The box truck comes up behind him and hits him hard enough to kill the driver. The truck driver is lucky that he wasn’t also injured in the crash. Here, the box truck driver can be said to have been following too closely, driving too fast, and not reacting to a clear and obvious danger on the road. In fact, the box truck driver appears on the surface to be the most culpable actor in this scenario.
Elements of Negligence: Other Actors
Any lawsuit emerging from this incident would come down to who’s side of the story you think is most likely: The box truck driver or the tractor-trailer driver. If the box truck driver says the tractor-trailer driver should have inspected the tire prior to delivery and their failure to do so caused the blowout which resulted in the accident, then the tractor-trailer driver would be to blame.
On the other hand, if the tractor-trailer driver would likely argue that the box truck driver was following too closely at too great a speed which ultimately resulted in the accident. The better argument belongs to the tractor-trailer driver since following too closely was the direct cause of the accident while tire maintenance issues were only the proximate cause of the blowout.
Talk to a Florida Truck Accident Attorney Today
If you’ve been injured in an accident with a commercial truck, call the Coral Gables tire defect attorneys at Halpern, Santos & Pinkert today to schedule a free consultation and discuss your injuries in more detail.
Resource:
whdh.com/news/state-police-investigating-fatal-crash-involving-box-truck-tractor-trailer-in-marlboro/
https://www.tiredefectattorney.com/tire-blowout-accident-sends-two-to-hospital/
