Two people were killed Jan. 16 when their pickup truck overturned and was struck by a big rig truck, which also rolled over. According to the News-Leader of Springfield, the victims were on Interstate 44 east of Joplin around 4:35 a.m. when the driver lost control of the pickup, which overturned. When their truck came to rest in a driving lane, a tractor-trailer struck it from behind and also rolled over. The occupants of the pickup died; the truck’s driver was not hurt.
As a Missouri large truck accident attorney, I know it can be difficult to stop a vehicle as heavy as a tractor-trailer quickly. But in general, many drivers don’t realize that a rear-end accident with a truck is very dangerous. Many of us think of rear-end accidents as minor accidents, and that’s often true when the vehicles are traveling slowly and have about the same weight. But with high speeds and mismatched vehicles, it’s a different story. Federal accident statistics don’t specifically track rear-end accidents involving trucks, but they do say that 15% of fatal truck crashes in 2007 started when another vehicle hit the back of the truck. For passenger cars and trucks, that rate is 2% to 2.6%.
A staggering 45% of trucking accident fatalities in the same year started with an impact to the front of the truck, which includes (but isn’t limited to) accidents in which the truck rear-ended a passenger vehicle. All crashes can be dangerous if they happen at high speeds or among vehicles with substantial height and weight differences, as happened here. But rear-end accidents are particularly dangerous because the point of impact can whip victims’ heads around, leading to serious neck injuries. A 2003 study by the General Insurance Association of Japan found that 77% of injuries in rear-end accidents — the vast majority — were neck injuries.
At their most serious, neck injuries can lead to death or permanent damage to the spinal cord, which means lifelong paraplegia, quadriplegia or other forms of paralysis. This is always a tragedy, but when it’s caused by someone else’s careless driving or law-breaking, it is also a form of negligence allowing victims to sue for the costs of the injury. In a Missouri trucking accident lawsuit, victims and their families can win the money they need to pay accident-related medical and other bills; make ends meet when victims cannot work; and compensate them for a lifelong disability or the permanent loss of a loved one.
Carey, Danis & Lowe represents semi accident victims throughout Missouri and southern Illinois — and we offer free evaluations of potential clients’ cases. If you’d like to speak with us about your own case and your options, please contact us today.
