Truck Accident News

Anne Arundel Injury News: Maryland Man Dies in Fatal Commercial Truck Accident on Bay Bridge

May 26, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Traffic collisions can occur in a myriad of ways. And as varied as car, truck and motorcycle accidents are, the injuries sustained in these wrecks range from minor to severe. How people are injured, or killed, can also be affected by numerous factors, including being hit by debris thrown through the windshield, striking a hard surface within the vehicle upon impact, being tossed about (usually when a seatbelt has failed or not been used), being ejected from the vehicle during a rollover accident.

As Baltimore trucking accident attorneys and personal injury lawyers, our job is to help victims of automobile, truck and pedestrian accidents recover medical expenses, lost wages and other costs associated with a highway wreck or urban traffic collision. In some cases, when the victim has died as a result of the crash and is no longer able to speak from himself, we assist the victim’s family in recovering damages due to wrongful death.

Not long ago, an 70-year-old retired gentleman lost his life following a traffic accident along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Anne Arundel County. According to news reports, the victim was former sportswriter, Harry Blauvelt, who had worked for numerous news agencies over the years. Sadly, the history of the Bay Bridge caught up with this individual as it has with others before him.

Based on reports, Blauvelt was apparently returning home to Kent Island on Monday morning around 10:30am when his Honda experienced some kind of mechanical problem along the center span. There is no breakdown lane, which makes for an extremely dangerous situation whenever a car or truck becomes disabled on the two-lane bridge.

Just as Blauvelt was getting out of his stalled vehicle to investigate the trouble, a 2003 International commercial truck slammed into the rear of the man’s car and threw him over an adjacent barrier wall into the water 50 feet below the roadway.

Maryland Traffic Safety: Fatal Highway Accidents Caused by Ineffective Tractor-trailer Under-ride Guards

March 1, 2011 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

The next time you’re out on the road, this story might make you think twice about following an 18-wheeler. While most people may associate fatal trucking-related traffic accidents with a smaller car, minivan or SUV being struck by a much larger and heavier semi tractor-trailer rig or commercial delivery truck, hundreds of people nationwide die every year as a result of passenger cars running into the rear of semi trailers.

As Baltimore auto accident attorneys and personal injury lawyers, we understand how severe these so-called under-ride accidents can be. And without the proper under-ride protection on the rear end of a long-haul trailer, the occupants in the passenger car can easily be decapitated during the collision. Fatal traffic crashes of this sort don’t necessarily have to be high-speed incidents either.

At the very least, cuts, bruises and broken bones are possible as a result of an under-ride collision. Worse still, neck and spinal injury can occur, as can traumatic brain injury. Depending on the circumstances, some individuals who survive this type of wreck can be paralyzed and require weeks or months of physical therapy to bring them back to something approaching a normal life.

Families of victims can end up suffering financially long after their loved one has been hurt or killed. This is especially true when the victim is a primary wage earning for the family. The news today indicates that the under-ride prevention methods and structures used on many tractor-trailers may prove inadequate when they are actually needed in a crash. Poorly designed parts or incorrectly installed components could result in a much more serious outcome for a drive hitting the back of a trailer.

According to the news, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducted tests using a properly-fitted under-ride preventer on a semi trailer and found that federal standards for these rear under-ride guards should be made stricter. Based on video shown by various news outlets, it appears that the IIHS has a point.

In one of the IIHS videos, a Chevy Malibu impacts the rear of a tractor-trailer at 35mph. Even though the Malibu has a 5-star safety ranking from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the semi trailer is fitted with a conforming under-ride guard, the front seat passengers could likely have been killed as a result that crash. As the reporter states, hitting a brick wall would actually be safer.

Maryland Driver Dies in Baltimore County Traffic Accident; Delivery Truck Ran Red Light, Hit Car

December 31, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

When a commercial truck, such as a box truck, tanker or semi tractor-trailer crashes into or hits a much smaller passenger car the result can be very serious. As Maryland personal injury lawyers and trucking accident attorneys, we know how a moment of thoughtlessness or inattentiveness can lead to a lifetime of pain and suffering. In the worst cases, such a simple and seemingly minor distraction can end up causing a fatal car, truck or motorcycle accident.

These kinds of traffic collisions happen rather frequently, which doesn’t make them any less important or somber considering the potentially tragic aftermath. Young families have been known to lose one or both parents in a single heartbreaking car crash. Wives and mothers have lost husbands and children in the blink of an eye. Still other victims have seen their savings dwindle to near nothingness from the extensive medical and financial costs of a terrible motor vehicle wreck.

Trying to understand the reasons for these senseless occurrences doesn’t make them go away, but it does help a family cope. Wrongful death, however, is never easy to reconcile and many times requires the help of a knowledgeable attorney. Not long ago an elderly gentleman was tragically killed in Essex when a commercial truck ran a red light an struck his car on a Tuesday afternoon.

Sleep Deprivation Possible Cause of Fatal Semi Tractor-trailer Crash that Killed Maryland University Professor

November 15, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Recent news reports tying the dangers of sleep deprivation to traffic accidents involving heavy, over-the-road delivery trucks and tractor-trailers have been punctuated by actual stories of fatal and near fatal crashes between passenger vehicles and 18-wheelers. Not only do these relatively large motor carriers pose a threat to passenger cars, light trucks and minivans filled with families, pedestrians, bicycles and motorcycles can also find themselves in the crosshairs of a commercial truck and its potentially impaired driver.

As Maryland personal injury lawyers and trucking accident attorneys, I and my colleagues have seen the result of highway and urban collisions between smaller vehicles and these much more massive trucks. If a truck driver is not fit to drive, a potential accident can be lurking around the very next turn. Sleep deprivation, as well as other modes of driver impairment can increase the odds of a collision, which rarely comes out well for the occupants of a smaller passenger car.

In the case of a Maryland university professor killed in an out-of-state highway crash involving a semi, it would appear that police believed that the driver of the big rig may have been sleep deprived prior to the accident. If so, the unfortunate woman and her two injured children riding with her would be three more statistics added to the ever-growing list of tragic and unnecessary trucking accidents.

Trucking Injury News: Soft Drink Delivery Truck Hits Passenger Car in Baltimore County, Maryland

October 8, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Whether the cause of a collision is defective equipment, ineffective vehicle maintenance or just plain driver error or inattention, a traffic accident between a large commercial truck and a much smaller passenger vehicle can be quite serious, to say the least.

It goes without saying that drivers of small cars and motorcycles must always be on the defensive when driving near a delivery truck or semi tractor-trailer rig, but even individuals operating larger vehicles, such as SUVs, full-size vans and pickup trucks must be wary of the dangers posed by Freightliners, Macks and Peterbilts.

Because trucking accidents can be very costly, not only in terms of physical injury or death but also financially, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) require that trucking companies carry a minimum amount of insurance. By requiring that companies maintain a high level of financial responsibility, hopefully this encourages the safe operation of their vehicles on public motorways.

Maryland Trucking Accident News: Semi Tractor-Trailer Driver Involved in Annapolis, MD, Injury Accident

August 26, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Police and emergency rescue workers are called to the scene of many traffic accidents every month here in Maryland and across the country. Passenger car accidents and other light vehicle crashes are bad enough to cause serious injury and sometimes death, but wrecks involving large commercial vehicles only up the ante, and not in the favor of the occupants of these smaller cars and minivans.

Individuals and entire families can be killed or injured during a severe trucking accident on Maryland highways and the streets of cities like Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington, D.C. Each of these commercial vehicle-related traffic accidents may be just another one in a line of traffic safety statistics, but as a Maryland injury accident attorney I know that real people — mothers fathers and children — are represented in each of those grim statistics.

Recently, one more in a string of big-rig crashes has sent multiple individuals to the hospital if only for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. According to news reports, an accident in Annapolis involving the tractor portion of an 18-wheeler resulted in three wrecked cars and five persons sent to local medical facilities. Included in that total were three children .

Maryland Tractor-trailer Truck Accident Causes Spin-out Crash; Injuries to Car’s Occupants

March 23, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Two individuals were injured by a semi driver during a highway accident near Hagerstown, MD, along southbound Interstate 81. According to news reports, the passengers of a 1992 Dodge Dynasty were taken to Washington County Hospital on the afternoon of February 13 following a harrowing car-truck wreck in Washington County.

As a Baltimore trucking accident lawyer, I and my colleagues are quite familiar with the factors that lead to tractor-trailer accidents involving sedans, minivan and sport utility vehicles. These types of accidents can frequently result in severe injuries, such as head, neck and back trauma, and can occasionally be fatal. In this instance, the two-vehicle crash on the southbound lanes of I-81 sent two occupants of the smaller passenger car to a nearby hospital, according to Maryland State Police in Hagerstown.

Based on news reports, the crash occurred around 1:30pm on a Saturday afternoon. The driver and passenger in the Dodge were heading south along I-81, just north of Md. 68, when a 2009 Peterbilt tractor-trailer made an unsafe lane change, police reports show. The semi trailer hit the Dynasty’s driver’s side, which then caused the car to spin out of control, strike the median and overturn.

Maryland Trucking Accident News: Poor Weather Causes Multi-vehicle Accident on Route 113 in Worchester County, MD

March 8, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As a Baltimore trucking accident attorney and personal injury lawyer, I know the heartache associated with the physical injuries sustained during a bad traffic accident. Most of the people we represent in the course of our work are drivers and passengers of sedans, minivans and pickup trucks. When these smaller vehicles go up against a larger motor vehicle, such as a Peterbilt, Kenworth or International semi tractor-trailer rig, the passenger car and its occupants usually end up losing.

While most Maryland trucking accidents result in minor to severe injuries, occasionally occupants can suffer fatal injury as a consequence of a trucking wreck. The higher the speed, the more seriously people can be hurt. Multiple vehicle crashes involving semi trucks can raise the injury or death toll at an accident scene.

A recent news article reported a multi-vehicle collision involving a tractor-trailer on Route 113 in Worchester County and Ironshire Station Road near Berlin, MD. The incident occurred just after noon during bad weather and poor visibility, which police say were contributing factors to the afternoon crash.

Baltimore Trucking Accident News: Man Injured in Beltway Crash as Semi Hits Maryland Highway Worker’s Vehicle

February 28, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Recent snow storms and bad winter weather throughout the Maryland and D.C. area have resulted in numerous automobile accidents and trucking crashes. Poor road conditions are just one cause traffic accidents that can hurt or kill drivers and occupants of motor vehicles. Especially dangerous are wrecks involving semi trucks, or tractor-trailer rigs, and those smaller passenger cars, pickup trucks, SUVs and minivans.

Located here in Baltimore, my firm represents many victims of car and truck accidents. As trucking accident lawyers, we understand how tractor-trailer wrecks can cause great bodily harm to drivers and passengers of smaller vehicles. The more severe injuries, such as head trauma and spinal damage, can result in long hospital stays and costly recovery. Some injuries can leave individuals permanently disabled.

A recent beltway crash involving a semi tractor-trailer injured a Maryland highway worker as he assisted snow removal crews. According to new reports, the SHA worker was injured on February 11 along a stretch of the Baltimore Beltway when a semi rig hit his truck.

Maryland State Policeman Hurt in Tractor-trailer Accident; Trucker Charged with Negligent Driving following Crash

February 11, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Every year dozens of Maryland residents are hurt in traffic accidents. Many of these collisions are caused by driver error and can involve heavy trucks, such as semi tractor-trailers, delivery vehicles, commercial trucks and other large motor vehicles. Unfortunately, when a truck goes out of control on a public road, smaller passenger cars can be hit as well.

Occupants of passenger cars, sport utility vehicle (SUVs) and pickup trucks can be at a high risk of bodily injury during such wrecks. As a Baltimore auto accident lawyer, I and my colleagues have experience in helping victims of car and truck crashes as well as other personal injury accidents. When a semi truck is involved, injuries can be quite severe and fatalities are sometimes encountered.

Recently, news reports documented a tractor-trailer accident that left a state police detective badly injured following a head-on collision on Hobbs Road near Route 50. According to police, Joshua Burton Webb Jr. of Whaleyville was driving his Perdue tractor-trailer north on Hobbs Road around 8am when his vehicle crossed the double yellow line and crashed head-on into an oncoming state police Ford Crown Victoria.