Catastrophic I-55 Semi-Truck Accident Discussed By Missouri Truck Accident Lawyer
Semi-Truck Accident – Multi-Car Wreck At I-55 and McNutt in Herculaneum, Missouri
Tragically, a number of families’ lives were forever changed today. At approximately 12:30 pm, a truck driver slammed into the rear of a car stopped in traffic and practically ran it over and continued on into other cars. Pictures of the scene show how devastating the destruction was.
The crash left some cars unrecognizable
Initial reports are that the truck driver was coming up behind stopped cars and never hit its breaks. The truck driver has not yet been charged in the case, but the police have said the investigation is ongoing. As an experienced Missouri Truck Accident Lawyer, I highly expect that the driver will be charged in this case. The fact that has not been charged is normal because the Highway Patrol is still conducting their accident reconstruction investigation.
Not only do I think that the driver should be charged, but I think that he and his truck company should be held liable for the havoc they have wreaked. One person was killed in the wreck and three others were seriously injured.
My firm specializes in serious personal injury cases with an emphasis on tractor-trailer wrecks. It is my firm belief that in cases of semi-truck crashes, there is no such thing as “just an accident”!
First, truck drivers have a higher responsibility to obey all rules of the road and be as safe as possible. The reason is because they driver hours on end and can be prone to “highway hypnosis”. Second, by virtue of their size, the destruction they can cause is much more substantial. If truck drivers are going to hold themselves out as “professional drivers” they must act in such regard. Initial reports have listed Angela Baiter as a witness to the accident. Another witness is listed as stating that she never heard the sounds of brakes. So did the driver ever even hit the brakes? Just damaging from the destruction – probably not.
However, this can be determined for certain if the black box data is downloaded from the truck. Like a plane, most semi-trucks have an electronic control module (ECM), or “black-box” which records all of the truck’s actions in the moments leading up to the crash (read more about this in my prior post about getting the black-box data). As a Missouri Semi-Truck Accident Lawyer, one of the first steps our firm takes in these types of cases is to get a court order to quarantine the truck and allow a specialized expert download the data from the truck’s computer. It is essential to do this as soon as possible because the ECM will constantly record over itself. For this reason, insurance companies often try to get the truck back out on the road as soon as possible so it can record over this data. Once it is gone, it is gone forever.
Beyond that, there is probably much more to this story. What most people don’t know is that the federal government has an extensive set of safety regulations that govern virtually every aspect of trucking operations. As the name implies, these regulations have one purpose – safety. However, I would be willing to be that this wreck occurred, not because it was a simple accident, but because of an unsafe driver hired by an unsafe truck company, both of which had a history of violating safety regulations. It is the discovery of these violations that help bring justice and hold the company accountable, not only for what they should pay to the families involved, but also pay to the community in the form of punitive damages. Of course, the truck companies and the insurance companies behind them very aggressively fight to prevent disclosure of these documents. That is why they have to be taken to task and fought every inch along the way to hold them fully accountable.
Joshua P. Myers is a Premier Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer. He is a founding partner of his law firm and also the President of Missouri Injury Law, LLC. His firm specializes solely in severe and catastrophic injury cases with an emphasis on commercial motor vehicle collisions (Semi-Truck Wrecks) – click here for his Missouri Truck Accident Website. He is a member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum – membership is limited to only those top attorneys who have achieved multi-million dollar recoveries in a single case. Based in St. Louis, MO, his firm handles cases throughout all of Missouri and Illinois. He can be reached toll-free at 888-956-2487. It is always free to discuss a potential case and there are never any upfront fees to retain his firm. Rather, attorney’s fees will be taken as a percentage of the recovery and the firm will also front all case expenses.
Tags: black box, truck accident, wrongful death
