Missouri Truck Accident Kills Amish Buggy Rider: Graphic, Tragic Example of Why Truck Crashes Are Not a “Fair Fight”

A truck driver trying to merge from U.S. 61 to Missouri 16 rear-ended a horse-drawn buggy sending the buggy’s driver, John Yoder, flying off his vehicle. Yoder was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Quincy, Illinois, where he was pronounced dead later that evening. The horse also died in the collision. So far, troopers have not issued any citations in the fatal accident. The driver of the truck was uninjured.
Tragedy Demonstrates the ìUnfairî Nature of Missouri and Illinois Truck Accidents
One of the reasons why truck accidents in Missouri can be so deadly is that trucks are more powerful and more massive vehicles than almost all other vehicles out there. Consider the following analogy. The Amish man’s horse-drawn buggy in this case might have weighed a total of 500 pounds; whereas the utility truck that hit him might have weighed 10 tons, or 20,000 pounds.
If you take a 10 ton vehicle driving at, say, 30 miles per hour and slam it into a stationary object, like a brick wall, the amount of force required to stop that vehicle would equal 40 times the amount of force required to stop a buggy travelling at 30 miles per hour, stopping over the same amount of time. That differential is hard to comprehend — it’s mindboggling, frankly.
Imagine a 20-pound child standing on a scale – that’s roughly analogous to the amount of force generated by the buggy. Now imagine four 200 pound men standing on top of each other’s shoulders standing on that same scale – that’s roughly analogous to the force generated by the truck.
Given such an extreme force differential — at play in this accident and in others like it — it’s no surprise that car, motorcycle and buggy drivers get hurt more than truck drivers do.
What can you learn from this tragedy to help you understand your own Missouri truck accident a little better?
The team here at Carey, Danis & Lowe would be happy to provide a free and confidential evaluation of your accident case to help you. After all, there may be many ìcounter-intuitiveî aspects to your case — relevant information that you might not know to pay attention to.
The sooner you can begin a thorough investigation, the more likely you will be able to prevent the liable insurer or defendant from building a pre-emptive defense against your claims. Connect with us now to learn how to recover damages and protect your rights as a potential personal injury claimant.