Personal Injury Law

Semi Truck Breaks Through Guard Cables Near Columbia, Sending Two to Hospital

By Jeffrey Lowe

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I was disappointed to see that a trucker and another driver were both hospitalized in serious condition after a bad truck accident near Columbia, Missouri. The Columbia Missourian, the newspaper attached to the Missouri School of Journalism, reported March 9 that both were upgraded to fair that day, after the March 7 accident. According to the report, truck driver Abdi Farah, 52, of Columbus, Ohio crashed through guard cables on Interstate 70 Monday night, hitting a minivan head-on. That minivan was driven by Vander Coltrane, 61, of Columbia. Charges are pending the results of an investigation.

The Missouri Highway Patrol says Farah lost control of his big rig in the eastbound lanes of I-70, overcorrecting for reasons it couldn?t immediately say. The truck crashed through the guard cables in the middle of the highway and ended up in the westbound lanes, where it hit Coltrane?s minivan before overturning. The Boone County Fire Protection District had to work to extract both victims from their vehicles. A spokesperson for the Missouri Highway Patrol said it also had to untangle the tractor-trailer, which had been entangled in the cables, before it could get the truck off the road. The Highway Patrol said it was clear that Farah failed to stay in his lane, but no charges would be filed until it finished its investigation.

Those results will be interesting to me as a St. Louis semi truck accident lawyer. Departing from your lane in traffic almost always puts you at fault for any accident that results. That is not to say that being legally at fault is the same as committing a crime. For example, if Farah had a heart attack, he may not have been capable of controlling his 18-wheeler. Thus, he might not be considered responsible for reckless driving or other crimes. However, that doesn?t mean he would escape liability in a Missouri trucking accident lawsuit. Even if his behavior wasn?t criminal, it may still have been unreasonably careless for him to go out on the road, or his trucking company to let him, if he knew he had a heart problem that could cause this kind of crash.

Full post as published by Trucking Accident Attorney Blog on March 10, 2011 (boomark / email).