For anyone who hasn’t noticed, traffic accidents involving commercial motor vehicles still continue to claim innocent lives and put otherwise healthy people in the hospital with serious or life-threatening injuries. These types of collisions, which by the very physical nature of large trucks and other commercial motor vehicles, tend to be biased in favor of the more massive vehicle. Putting even a good-sized sport utility vehicle up against an 18-wheeler or large box truck is a gamble that the passengers in the SUV may not win; never mind a mid-size sedan, economy car or a truck-motorcycle collision.
What this all means is that trucking-related accidents in and around urban areas, such as Rockville, Gaithersburg and The District, will likely continue to claim lives and maim individuals, causing grief to loved ones of the victims and financial distress to their families. As Maryland personal injury lawyers, our job is to help victims, their spouses and children to recover damages in cases of negligent driving and other thoughtless acts that cause harm.
It doesn’t take much effort to find examples almost every week. Take, for instance, a crash that occurred earlier this year when two people ended up getting a trip to the hospital care of a collision with a Maryland cement truck. According to police reports, a 53-year-old man was medevaced to the University of Maryland’s Shock Trauma Center following a collision between the man’s Dodge Dakota pickup truck and a cement mixer along a stretch of Md. 140 near Old Westminster Pike.
The crash, which happened on a Monday during daylight hours sent the driver of the passenger vehicle to the emergency room in critical condition. Based on news reports, the accident occurred around 2pm when the victim attempted to cross westbound Md. 140 but was hit by the cement truck. Though a preliminary investigation by Maryland State Police showed that the victim failed to yield to the commercial vehicle, a crash investigation was still ongoing at the time of the article.
According to reports, the driver of the cement truck was apparently uninjured as a result of the crash, although a passenger in that vehicle was transported to Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster, MD, with nonlife-threatening injuries.
Several days later, another wreck along a stretch of Rte. 213 also involving a large commercial vehicle resulted in the untimely death of a Maryland driver. Police reports indicate that the fatal crash happened on a Tuesday, at a little after 5pm, when a Porsche driven by an out-of-state man slammed head-on into a tractor-trailer as it was apparently attempting to pass third vehicle on Rte. 213. The 45-year-old Porsche driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police reported that the victim was heading southbound and was apparently making a legal passing maneuver in a marked passing zone. Maryland State Police said that witnesses did not indicate that the Porsche was speeding when it collided with the Freightliner big rig traveling north on Rte. 213.
As a result of the collision, debris was spread over an area about 700-feet long; the 18-wheeler’s fuel tanks were torn away from the vehicle during the crash causing dozens of gallons of diesel fuel to be spilled all over that section of the highway and into the nearby grassy area. In the aftermath of the crash, a section of the roadway had to be closed for about six hours as traffic was detoured around the crash site.
Fatal crash shut Route 213 for six hours Tuesday, StarDem.com, March 8, 2012
Man dies in head-on crash on state Route 213, StarDem.com, March 7, 2012
Collision involving cement truck sends two to hospital, CarrollCountyTimes.com, March 5, 2012