Based on recent news stories the state of Maryland has been named in a $7 million wrongful death suit in regard to a fatal car-truck accident that occurred on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in August 2008. Dozens of people are killed or injured every year in tractor-trailer accidents across Maryland; some of these victims are actually semi drivers themselves who have been killed or critically injured due to another person’s negligence.
As trucking accident attorneys, the legal professionals at Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers have the knowledge and experience to represent victims and their families in cases not unlike the one reported here. This time, according to news articles, the state of Maryland has been named as one of the defendants in a lawsuit growing out of a deadly traffic accident.
According to reports, a trucker died during the accident in question, which was allegedly caused by a 19-year-old woman who fell asleep while driving across the Bay Bridge. News articles at the time said that Candy Baldwin had been to a wedding earlier and apparently fell asleep while passing across the bridge. This caused a truck driver to swerve his rig to avoid crashing into the young woman’s car.
The family of the deceased truck driver, 57-year-old John Short of Willards, MD, to crash into a concrete barrier on the bridge. However the barrier could not stop the truck from leaving the bridge’s roadway and falling into the water where Short reportedly died.
The lawsuit, which was originally filed last June naming Baldwin as the responsible party, was amended earlier in December to add the state and the Maryland Transportation Authority. The suit cites deficiencies in the maintenance and the inspection of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as significant factors in the death of Short.
According to news accounts, Baldwin was only charged with traffic violations; police determined the teen’s blood alcohol level as 0.03 percent, which is below the legal limit in Maryland, however that measurement was taken hours after the crash, according to the civil suit against the teen. The trucker’s family claims the young woman was drunk.
The suit also claims two-way traffic on the bridge at the time of the crash was inherently dangerous and had already led to numerous other fatalities. Since the accident, the state has reportedly spent $3 million inspecting and making repairs to the sidewalls of the bridge.
Md. Named In Fatal Bay Bridge Crash Suit Reporting, WJZ.com, December 12, 2009
Family Names State In Md. Bay Bridge Crash, HometownAnnapolis.com, December 12, 2009