Drinking and driving related traffic accidents may arguably be some of the most preventable types of roadway collisions. If one subscribes to the idea of personal responsibility, or certainly to the notion that motorists should never drive after drinking or taking narcotic or hallucinogenic medications, then this is an area of personal injury law that should accept few excuses for bad behavior.
As Baltimore car, truck and motorcycle injury attorneys, my firm regularly sees individuals who have been hurt in a traffic wreck usually as a result of another driver’s negligence. Being Maryland personal injury lawyers, our job is to represent individuals seeking compensation for medical care, rehabilitation, lost income, and other expenses associated with a serious collision either in urban areas, such as Gaithersburg or Washington, D.C., or on state roads and interstate roadways.
As alluded to above, among the many and varied types of car and truck accidents, there are many people who ardently believe that drunken driving is deadly activity that need not occur, at least in a society that values traffic safety and the well-being of innocent individuals.
Every day, in this state and across the country, drivers and passengers are hurt, maimed and killed in mostly preventable car and trucking-related roadway accidents. The few accidents that are without serious injury usually have some kind of associated property damage, which may not be life-threatening but is nonetheless costly to individuals, industry and local municipalities.
In the universe of roadway collisions, few present a greater threat of physical harm as those involving one or more large vehicles, such as delivery trucks, commuter buses and 18-wheel big rigs. With the majority of the public riding in smaller passenger cars, these large and massive commercial vehicles can render a sedan, minivan or sport utility vehicle a mere pile of crumpled steel given the right circumstances. For this reason alone, the state and federal governments regulate the trucking industry for improved safety of all citizens.
Combine alcohol or drug use with the operation of a semi tractor-trailer rig and one can only imagine the potential carnage that can be wrought on a public highway. Not long ago, a trucker was arrested for drunk driving after the vehicle he was operating crashed along a stretch of I-95 in the Baltimore area. Although no one was injured or killed as a result of the evening wreck, that may just have been the luck of timing considering the volume of traffic that is seen at peak traffic hours.
Based on police reports, the crash occurred just after 9pm at the Fort McHenry toll plaza when a big rig carrying a load of 13 large plastic containers filled with a water-based concrete tinting compound rolled onto its side throwing a number of the containers onto the roadway. Two of the 275-gallon containers apparently went over a wall and feel more than 20 feet onto the lanes of I-895 below the upper roadway.
According to the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, some fuel in addition to the truck’s liquid cargo and other crash debris had to be cleaned up by personnel from Maryland’s Department of Environment, as well as first responders from Baltimore City’s fire department.
The 46-year-old commercial truck driver was reportedly uninjured in the crash, however he was taken into custody by police and charged with a number of traffic violations, not the least of which was DUI. As a result of the accident, the man will likely face additional charges based on violations of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Inspection Regulations.
I-95 Reopens After Tractor Trailer Crash, Spill; WUSA9.com, February 16, 2012