Large commercial vehicles can do a lot of damage in a traffic accident, wrecking passenger cars and other trucks, and possibly injuring or killing multiple victims. Due to the extreme weight of many semi tractor-trailers and other large commercial trucks, the occupants of relatively smaller passenger cars can be severely or fatally injured even in vehicles with advanced safety features. Riding in an airbag-equipped vehicle and wearing safety belts may not always protect passengers whose vehicle is crushed between two massive commercial trucks during a highway collision.
That said, passenger car occupants are not the only ones at risk in a serious commercial truck wreck; truck drivers themselves can often be hurt or killed as a result of a bad tractor-trailer collision, or even a crash involving a smaller commercial truck. In mid-August this past summer, a single-vehicle trucking accident in the Carriage Hill area of Prince George’s County ended with the driver dying at the scene after the dump truck he was operating left the roadway and drove into a stand of trees.
Even without heavy cargo, a large commercial vehicle like a dump truck still has a great deal of mass. Hitting a fixed object, such as an overpass abutment or large-diameter tree can cause the cab of the vehicle to be crushed by the rear-most portion of the truck during the collision. While truck cabs are designed to withstand crashes of some magnitude, if the vehicle’s speed is high enough, the structure may not be able to fully protect the occupants. Once cargo or a utility trailer has been added into the equation the forces involved in a high-speed trucking accident can easily result in a fatal outcome.
According to Maryland State Police, the truck crash that occurred in Prince George’s County took place during the Tuesday morning commute. The sole occupant of the vehicle, 37-year-old Oscar Ramos, Jr., of Mount Rainier, MD, was apparently headed northbound, transitioning from Sandy Spring Road to I-95 North when for some reason the dump truck left the road and headed into a treed area adjacent to the interstate. Based on news reports, the unloaded dump truck hit a large tree, causing the cab to be partially crushed by the impact, which apparently led to the death of the driver. At the time of the news reports, the MSP investigation was still ongoing and the cause was yet to be determined.
With few details to go by it is difficult to speculate on a cause for this trucking-related accident. Large vehicles are heavy and can travel farther than a smaller passenger car before coming to a stop. Being a single-vehicle accident, police will likely consider drugs, alcohol, or drowsy driving as all potential reasons for the driver’s apparent loss of control and sudden departure from the road. However, depending on the age of the vehicle, if a steering, braking or suspension component failed, that too could cause a large vehicle traveling at highway speeds to veer off the roadway; a blown tire may also be a potential cause of the accident, but investigators will need to determine that for certain.
Applying Products Liability Law in Cases of Commercial Vehicle Accidents
As personal injury lawyers, Lebowitz & Mzhen, LLC, has experience in handling wrongful death claims involving faulty safety equipment, failure of critical vehicle systems, defective tires or improper retreading services. Since a Maryland trucking accident can exhibit multiple overlapping causes, it takes a skilled personal injury attorney who has experience in the area of Products Liability law to assist victims and their families recover monetary damages.
In scenarios like this one, where the victim has died following a fatal Maryland trucking crash, the family may wish to pursue a wrongful death claim against the deceased’s employer, the service garage that handled maintenance for that vehicle, or sometimes the manufacturer of the truck in which the victim died. As products liability specialists, our legal team typically considers three possible avenues of recovery against the manufacturer of a commercial vehicle:
1) Plaintiffs sue the company for negligence in the manufacturing process by demonstrating how the company failed to make its product in the same manner as any other reasonably prudent manufacturer would. (The law requires companies to use reasonable measures when designing and manufacturing products before making them available to the public)
2) Basing the legal action on contract law, the plaintiff’s may assert breach of warranty by showing the court how failure of a safety feature(s), or lack thereof, violated an express or implied warranty(s) and led to the consumer’s injuries
3) Apply the theory of strict liability using a tort action to show that the vehicle and/or its critical safety system(s) was defective. Different from proving negligence in the manufacturing process, plaintiffs must instead show that the vehicle was defective when it left the control of the manufacturer or dealer; and that the defect rendered the truck unreasonably dangerous, thus causing injury (the victim’s attorney must also prove that there was no substantial change in the product’s condition prior to reaching the consumer)
These avenues of legal recourse can be applied separately or in concert. No matter how a plaintiff chooses to approach a personal injury claim, the victim’s personal injury attorney will need to present evidence of the damages suffered, such as hospital and doctor fees; cost of physical therapy; loss of income, as well as loss of future ability to earn a living; and pain and suffering the victim has experienced as a result of the injuries he or she sustained.
If you or someone you care about has been seriously hurt as a result of a commercial trucking accident and you suspect that poor maintenance and/or a defective component caused the accident, Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers are ready and willing to help. Our Maryland law firm has more then 20 years of experience representing victims injured by defective products and poorly maintained vehicle components. We are prepared to vigorously fight for your right to receive monetary compensation for damages caused by a manufacturer’s or dealer’s negligence. We provide a free, initial no-obligation consultation, so there is no risk to you. Contact Jack Lebowitz or Vadim Mzhen online, or call our office at (800) 654-1949 to better understand your legal rights.