Maryland Trucking Accident Lawyer Blog

Maryland Man Killed by Semi Tractor-Trailer in Fatal Dundalk, MD, Pedestrian-Truck Accident

September 19, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

As a Baltimore injury lawyer and trucking accident attorney, I’ve observed many times the various types of severe injuries that pedestrians receive when hit by a large motor vehicle. There is no comparison between the relatively fragile and delicate features of the human body and that of a passenger car, not to mention a commercial truck such as an 18-wheeler, or big rig.

It’s a fact that trucking accidents can cause horrendous injury to the occupants of an otherwise enclosed and protective steel-bodies passenger vehicle. But when a Freightliner or Peterbilt truck hits or clips a person on foot, there is no comparison. While drivers of smaller vehicles, such as compact cars and motorcycles, can be serious hurt when struck by a massive semi, commercial box truck or tanker vehicle, pedestrians have virtually no protection from the impact.

Fatal and life-altering injuries are typically the result of a direct impact with an unprotected human body. It is because of this that over-the-road heavy haulers must be piloted by professional and well-trained drivers at the very least. Outside of driver error or negligence, poorly maintained roadways or defective vehicle equipment may also be causes of these kinds of commercial truck accidents. Whatever the cause, however, the costs are always high for the victims due to extensive and costly medical care, lost wages and unmet financial obligations following a serious injury.

Maryland Traffic Accident News: Charges Pending for Truck Driver Who Failed to Yield, Killed Bicyclist

September 10, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Late last month a Carroll County bicycle rider died when he was hit by a tractor-trailer that police said did not yield to the cyclist. As a Baltimore trucking accident attorney and personal injury lawyer serving Maryland and the Washington, D.C. area, I can attest to the fact that heavy commercial trucks and bicycles are a bad mix when it comes to traffic collisions.

The result of a bicycle-motor vehicle accident can vary widely, but it is not uncommon for a rider to fall and suffer broken bones and possible severe head injury. Even under the best of circumstances a cyclist may suffer cuts and bruises as well as road rash and other minor, yet painful bodily injuries.

A recent news story shows how dangerous and deadly a collision between a bike and a large commercial truck can be. According to reports, 51-year-old Arthur Martin Jr. of New Windsor, MD, was biking along Shepherds Mill Road on a Tuesday afternoon when a semi trailer made a right turn onto Route 75 directly in front of the cyclist.

Baltimore Truck Accident Update: Multi-Vehicle Tractor-Trailer Crashes with Fatailites Often Happen in Maryland

August 31, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Drivers of smaller passenger vehicles, including pickup trucks and SUVs, are all threatened constantly by the presence of large commercial trucks which share the public roadways. The weight of these much more massive semi tractor-trailers, box trucks and other delivery vehicles can eclipse the average family car. For example, a fully loaded 18-wheeler can weigh upward of 80,000 pounds.

As Maryland trucking accident lawyers, I and my colleagues know that any traffic accident involving a semi can be a life-threatening event. Annually, hundreds of heavy vehicles, including Kenworth, Peterbilt and Freightliner big rigs, are involved in accidents across the country. A trucking accident, especially at highway speeds, can easily result in serious injury to the occupants of the smaller cars caught up in that particular collision; many of these wrecks can be fatal to the drivers and passengers in smaller cars, trucks and motorcycles.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that big rigs are more likely to be involved in serious multiple-vehicle collisions than SUVs, minivans or other passenger vehicles. Statistics bear this out that time after time injuries from trucking accidents are much more serious and very often fatal. Typical injuries to passenger car occupants can include spinal cord damage, traumatic brain damage, broken bones and other serious and possibly permanent bodily injuries.

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 Trucking Accident News: Drowsy Driving Suspected in Commercial Box Truck Crash Along I-695

August 19, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Police believe a truck crash on Maryland’s Interstate I-695 in late July was the result of a truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel. According to news reports, the accident was so severe that Maryland State Police had to shut down the entire inner loop during the morning commute. As a Baltimore trucking accident attorney and personal injury lawyer, I know that drowsy driving is one of the major causes of commercial truck crashes.

A semi tractor-trailer rig is a formidable piece of machinery when compared to even the largest sport utility vehicle or light truck. Passenger cars have little chance of escaping serious damage when hit by an 18-wheeler that is out of control. Even a fully loaded box truck can cause serious property damage and bodily injury if it hits another, smaller vehicle.

According to news accounts, 23-year-old Michael Angel Ocasio was driving a white 2006 GMC box truck along the beltway, a short distance south of the Baltimore National Pike. Authorities said the driver apparently fell asleep and ran into the back of a flat bed trailer around 6am in the morning.

Maryland Trucking Accident News: Big Rig Passenger Injured by Another 18-Wheeler’s Lost Load on I-70

August 10, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

When it comes to traffic accidents, a passenger car and its occupants are no match for a semi tractor-trailer that crashes into it. But even the driver or passenger of an 18-wheeler may be at risk on the highway when another commercial truck, such as a Kenworth, Peterbilt or Freightliner, gets into trouble on the road.

As a Maryland trucking accident attorney and personal injury lawyer, I know from professional experience the types of property damage and bodily injuries that can result from big rigs crashes. And the danger is posed not only by the truck itself but the trailer and its typically heavy load. When a semi trailer losses its load on the highway, a serious accident can be just split seconds away.

An example of what can happen when a commercial over-the-road hauler dumps its load onto the roadway occurred not long ago along a stretch of Interstate 70 near Maryland’s Rte 66. According to news accounts, the wife of an out-of-state truck driver riding in her husband’s rig was seriously hurt when steel beams from another truck smashed into the couple’s tractor-trailer on a Wednesday morning. It’s amazing that someone wasn’t killed as a result of the aaccident.

The woman, 45-year-old Evonne J. Whalen, was reportedly riding in the passenger seat of her husband’s Freightliner when a couple structural beams fell into the eastbound lanes of the interstate. Those two huge pieces of steel weighing thousands of pounds apparently crashed into the passenger side of Whalen’s Freightliner, seriously injuring the woman’s legs and effectively pinning her inside the cab.

Emergency responders arriving on the scene required almost 45 minutes to extricate the woman from the damaged vehicle. According to Maryland State Police, the operator of the boom truck was attempting to lift the support beams from the trailer bed when he somehow lost control of the load causing the large pieces of steel to spin into the travel lanes of the interstate. There was no mention of where the boom mechanism or some other equipment was defective or failed to operate correctly.

Maryland Auto Injury News: Washington, D.C., Metrobus Accidents Result in Numerous Injured Riders

July 31, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Anyone who rides on public transportation probably feels that there is a certain sense of safety when traveling in that manner. Whether it is a commuter train, a taxi cab or city bus, many people expect that by paying a fare they should be delivered to their destination in one piece and without serious injury to their person.

As a Maryland trucking accident lawyer, I know that reality can be very out of step with a person’s perceptions and expectations. The truth of the matter is that accidents can and do happen no matter what conveyance we choose to get us to our final destination. The Washington, D.C., Metro Red Line accident a year ago last June is one example of how dozens of people traveling with the expectation of safety can end up being seriously hurt through no fault of their own.

Some recent bus accidents in and around the District are an example of how factors can combine to cause injury, but thankfully in these instances, no deaths. According to D.C. police, the passengers on a Metrobus as well as occupants in another smaller vehicle were caught up in a serious accident early on a Monday morning in mid-June.

Baltimore Trucking Accident News: 18-Wheeled Trash Hauler Overturns on Maryland’s I-95 near Columbia, MD

July 23, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Highway traffic accidents involving semi-tractor trailers and other large commercial trucks happen hundreds of times a year. Some of those crashes result in injuries to one or more people. Still others can cause death or permanent injury to occupants in smaller, less massive motor vehicles such as minivan, sedans, economy cars and motorcycles.

Statistics also indicate that larger vehicles, such as tractor-trailer rigs, are more likely to be involved in serious multiple-vehicle collisions than passenger cars. This data also tells us that injuries resulting from truck accidents can be much more serious and many times fatal. Common injuries include spinal cord damage, severe brain trauma, broken bones and other serious and permanent bodily harm.

As Maryland trucking accident attorneys, I and my staff know that any multi-vehicle accident can be fatal, with some causing mostly minor, yet significant injuries. Although people can physically recover from such minor wrecks, even those associated medical costs can become a burden to a family already strapped for cash.

Maryland to Pay Portion of $2 Million Jury Award in Highway Traffic Death Suit

July 16, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A Maryland jury recently found the state of Maryland and a commercial truck driver liable for more than $2 million in damages following the 2007 death of a prison inmate who was killed along a highway exit ramp while removing trash and garbage from I-495. The jury award of $2,025,000 will go to the estate and family of Rodney Jennings, who died after being run over by a dump truck driven by Wayne Goss — Goss is the owner of W.H. Goss Trucking, LLC.

According to reports, Jennings — who was 28 years old at the time of his death — was serving time for a drug-related crime at the Herman L. Toulson Boot Camp in Jessup, MD. Although Goss was not working for Maryland at the time of the traffic accident, the Jennings’ family’s attorney argued that the state was also responsible for the man’s death because it did not sufficiently ensure Jennings’ safety.

Based on court records, the plaintiff’s lawyer claimed that employees in Maryland’s Department of Corrections — as well as the State Highway Administration — did not correctly evaluate the traffic conditions near the exit ramp where the accident occurred. They should have, said the attorney, required that inmates traverse that particular portion of the highway by van, instead of on foot as Jennings was doing when he was struck. The family’s attorney also threw fault on the apparently poor training received by the state workers who were assigned to monitor the inmates work.

Maryland Trucking Accident News: Moving Van Causes Several Traffic Accidents

July 7, 2010 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Large motor vehicles such as semi tractor-trailers, dump trucks and tankers can inflict serious personal injury and property damage when operated irresponsibly. As a Maryland trucking accident attorney, I understand the shear power of these vehicles and the potential for injury or death during a traffic accident.

While most drivers of commercial vehicles use caution when operating these large and massive machines, any mistake can be an opportunity for disaster. Smaller vehicles, such as passenger cars, minivans and motorcycles are at greatest risk when a big rig 18-wheeler goes out of control on a highway or city street. The results of a collision with a heavy truck can range from broken bones and lacerations to full-on paralysis and even death.

Not long ago a man who was driving a moving van was taken into custody by Prince George’s County police following a chase that resulted in a number of traffic accidents along the way. The majority of the incident took place along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway on a Monday afternoon.