Maryland Trucking Accident Lawyer Blog
Single-truck accidents are not uncommon, however the causes can be very similar to multi-vehicle trucking accidents involving passenger cars and semi tractor-trailers. The force of such truck crashes can easily result in death of the passenger vehicle’s occupants, not to mention the truck driver himself. Whichever is the case, defective truck equipment should always be considered.
A sad fact of highway tractor-trailer and commercial truck wrecks is that lack of safety inspections can sometimes be to blame for a crash. These massive motor vehicles have a large number of moving parts and inter-related components that all need to work properly in order to keep the vehicle operating safely. Passenger car, SUV and minivan drivers, as well as motorcycle riders have died as a result of poorly maintained semi tractor-trailers.
As Maryland trucking accident attorneys, our staff has handled numerous personal injury cases in which one or more critical components have failed on an over-the-road truck, resulting in a serious injury or fatal traffic crash. State law requires truck drivers to individually inspect their vehicle assure that all major components, including safety equipment, are functioning correctly. But while the law requires this, many drivers will perform only perfunctory inspections, noting only nominal inspection times in their vehicle logs.
A recent out-of-state single-truck accident may or may not have been caused by defective or improperly maintained equipment. According to a recent news article, a Maryland truck driver died in an early-morning traffic accident when his tractor-trailer rig crashed at the bottom of an inclined roadway in Pennsylvania.
According to local officials, 40-year-old Steven Washington Robinson of Baltimore County, MD, was declared dead at the scene around 4am after apparently succumbing to severe head injuries following the crash. Robinson was reportedly an eight-year employee of CMD Logistics.
Reports indicate that Robinson was traveling eastbound on Route 422 when his big rig ran off the road and traveled down a steep embankment, striking a tree at the bottom of the hill. Fire department personnel, as well as a local hazmat team, responded to the accident. State police investigators said that Robinson was unrestrained in the cab of the rig and reported died from blunt force trauma to the head, according to a local corner’s report.
While the trucker’s death had been ruled accidental by police, toxicology tests were pending at the time of the reports. Defective equipment likely would not be ruled out until a full investigation had been carried out. That investigation was being undertaken by the police and no results were available at the time of the news report.
Trucker killed in Cherryhill Township crash, IndianaGazette.com, May 5, 2010