Personal Injury Law

?Fireball? Tractor-Trailer Crash Claims Two Lives in Southern Illinois

By Jeffrey Lowe

Two men died in a fiery tractor-trailer crash on Interstate 70 near Highland, Ill., on August 9. As a southern Illinois tractor-trailer crash attorney, I am always distressed to hear about preventable accidents like this one. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the wreckage from the crash was so great that the highway's westbound lanes were closed for more than nine hours. The crash killed truck driver Jerald D. Jaynes, 52, of Seymour, Ind., and his passenger William T. Burleson of Greensburg, Ind. Two other motorists, the drivers of a semi and a pickup truck, were taken to the hospital with injuries. In all, the crash involved three tractor-trailers and the pickup.

Jaynes was driving a tractor-trailer that slammed into a line of traffic stopped for an earlier accident. The crash caused a fire that trapped Jaynes and Burleson inside the rig, killing them at the scene. That crash started a chain-reaction crash involving two other tractor-trailers and a pickup truck. One of the semi truck drivers and the pickup driver were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Highland for treatment of minor injuries. Jason Scott, the driver of the other big rig, was unhurt. He said that he saw the other trucks explode in a fireball and become engulfed in flames. In addition, he said, their tires were exploding, so he was unable to get out and help the other drivers as he had wanted to. Police said that they still weren't sure why Jaynes wasn't able to stop before hitting the traffic in front of him. An investigation is ongoing.

As a St. Louis semi truck wreck lawyer, I have worked on many cases involving semi truck crashes, and they frequently can be attributed to one of a few common causes. In fact, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Large Truck Crash Causation Study looked at the causes of large truck crashes and determined which causes are the most common. Drivers making poor judgments, like driving aggressively or too fast, following too closely, or making illegal maneuvers, accounted for a whopping 38% of large truck crashes. Another 29% of crashes were caused by drivers who were distracted or daydreaming. The many state and federal regulations of truck drivers and trucking companies are meant to minimize these issues by requiring drivers to get enough rest, get training, follow the rules of the road and take care of their vehicles. Failure to do any of these things not only violates regulations, it constitutes negligence, or carelessness that could hurt someone. Unfortunately, 23% of the crashes that the Large Truck Crash Causation Study considered were fatal, and another 29% involved incapacitating injuries.

Full post as published by Trucking Accident Attorney Blog on August 13, 2010 (boomark / email).