Personal Injury Law

Lexington Tractor Trailer Accident Claims the Lives of a South Carolina Couple

By Michael Jeffcoat, Esq.

One moment, Perry Miller and Patricia Miller were enjoying their drive, and the next, their Honda Accord was thrown off Interstate 20 south of Lexington, South Carolina in what is now being described as a "freak" tractor trailer accident.

Investigators are still trying to piece together what exactly happened in the October 28 crash. According to initial reports, the 2002 Freightliner tractor trailer was traveling on Interstate 20 in the westbound lane, when for some reason, its rear tires got detached, and flew right off across the median, and into the Miller's car. The tires landed on top of the Accord, leaving the couple inside with severe head injuries. The Honda was thrown off the road, and pushed down an embankment. According to reports, the couple died instantly.

The two were wearing seatbelts at the time of the truck accident, although it's doubtful how much of a safety impact these could have had, considering the massive physical force that must have been exerted by the heavy trailer tires landing on their car.

Freakish as this truck accident sounds, it's not all that rare. Investigations have yet to determine the cause of the tires becoming loose the way they did. One possibility is that there were maintenance or manufacturing defects that were at play here. According to tractor trailer mechanical experts, there could be several reasons why trailer tires could get detached. It is possible that the maintenance of the trailer could have been shoddy, as often happens when trucking companies attempt to cut overheads, and focus on profits. Over tightening or under tightening of the bolts could have caused the tires to become loose. There could also have been inferior quality or wrong parts used in the vehicle, which is again a result of poor fleet maintenance. The cause of this particular tragedy has yet to be determined.

Malfunctioning of parts leading to accidents is common when large commercial trucks are not maintained properly. When the vehicle is a large tractor trailer weighing tens of thousands of pounds, it's obvious that any truck accidents that result will only leave devastating consequences.

This is exactly why hiring an experienced truck accident attorney in the aftermath of a trailer accident is so important. Remember, no matter how much a truck accident seems like a freak accident, it rarely is. There is a sordid tale of negligence and just plain callousness that lies behind the massive destruction caused by most trucking accidents like this one. Experienced counsel in these kinds of cases can launch investigations into fleet maintenance records, to establish the presence of shoddy maintenance practices at the trucking company.

Full post as published by Truck Accident Lawyer Blog on November 18, 2008 (boomark / email).