In The News
Amtrak-Truck Crash Kills Six and Injures Many More
A tractor trailer slammed into an Amtrak passenger train as it was crossing Highway 95 in rural Nevada on Friday, killing at least six people and injuring countless others. The collision caused a fire that ignited three of the train's passenger cars. The conductor of the Amtrak train and the truck driver were among those killed in the fatal crash. One person out of over 200 people on the train's manifest is still unaccounted for. Some of those with non life-threatening injuries were taken by bus to hospitals in the area. Others with serious injuries had to be airlifted to hospitals in Reno and Fallon.
The fatal crash occurred some 70 miles away from Reno, Nevada, in a remote part of the state. Authorities believe speed may have been a factor in the accident, as skid marks from the semi truck measured over 300 feet long. An autopsy report to determine if the big rig driver was under the influence of drugs is still pending. The company that the driver worked for, John Davis Trucking Company, has been cited 16 times for safety violations in the last two years.
Amtrak has filed a law suit against John Davis Trucking Company, alleging that the trucking company is responsible for the driver's negligent actions.
Authorities from the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of this fatal crash. A full report could take up to a year to produce.
Truck Crash Tests Show Stronger Underride Guards Needed on Large Trucks
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 423 people die each year when their passenger vehicles collide with the backs of large tractor trailers. NHTSA also estimates that truck crashes of this kind injure 5,000 people each year. As a countermeasure for reducing these injuries and deaths, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is petitioning the United States Government to mandate strong underride guards for large tractor trailers.
The front-end of cars are designed to withstand high amounts of crash energy. But in accidents where a passenger vehicle crashes into the back end of a tractor trailer, the vehicle’s passenger compartment is usually crushed and the body of the trailer intrudes into the vehicle’s safety cage. The chances of walking away from an underride accident are slim.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently conducted a series of crash tests on trailers and underride guards to test their effectiveness in crashes involving passenger vehicles. They discovered that even some of the underride guards that comply with U.S. rules failed at relatively slow speeds. In three of the crash tests conducted, the heads of crash dummies in the car made contact with either the intruding trailer or a piece of the car’s hood after it tore free.
Currently, in order to meet certification standards in the U.S., the trailer, underride guard, bolts, and welding don’t have to be evaluated as a whole. The crash tests conducted by the IIHS seem to confirm that standards and practices in underride safety still have a long way to go, and without regulation and oversight people will continue to be hurt or killed in underride accidents.
Oregon Family Sues California-based Food Express, Inc. for Fatal Oregon Truck Crash
Near Government Camp, Oregon
Robin Rae Udey was killed when Ronald Jory, operating a Kenworth tractor hauling two tanker trailers for Food Express, Inc., lost control of his vehicle while eastbound on a snow and slush covered Oregon highway in January. The tractor double trailer rig then crossed the center line into oncoming traffic, killing Mrs. Udey. This needless calamity has devastated the Udey family and has forever deprived Raymond Udey, Robin’s husband, and their adult children, Ginny Wood and James Udey, of their loving and dedicated wife and mother. Read More >>
Ohio Residents File Personal Injury Lawsuit Against Wisconsin Truck Company and Driver Responsible for 2008 Pennsylvania Truck Crash
Buffalo Twp, near Claysville, Pennsylvania
Ohio residents, Thomas and Martha Grossenbacher, filed a lawsuit against Marten Transport, Ltd. and its truck driver, for a 2008 tractor trailer crash, which left Mr. Grossenbacher severely injured. The lawsuit - Case No. 2:10-cv-01074-ARH - was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh on August 16, 2010, seeking unspecified damages. The lawsuit alleges that the crash was a result of the negligence and carelessness of the defendants and that Leopold was reckless and unlawful in operating the truck at an unsafe speed. Read More >>
$7 Million Jury Verdict Against
Tyson Foods in Ohio Truck Crash
Cleveland, Ohio
A jury has found Tyson Foods, Inc., liable for the death of Daniel Brumfield, 22, who was killed when a Tyson Foods truck driver hit Mr. Brumfield's pickup truck head-on, on a two-lane road near Crestline, Ohio. The truck pushed the pickup backwards nearly the length of two football fields before it came to rest. Read More >>
2009 Largest Settlements: Semi Collision Kills Two, Injuries One
Wisconsin Law Journal
Baum Hedlund attorney Robert Foss was listed on Wisconsin Law Journal’s Largest Settlements for 2009. The truck accident case involved a semi-tractor-trailer that rear-ended the plaintiffs’ car while it was stopped in traffic, killing two occupants and seriously injuring a third. Plaintiffs were a couple in their fifties and their four-year-old granddaughter. The grandfather, who survived, suffered a fractured left tibia and fibula repaired with intramedullary nailing and post-traumatic stress disorder. His wife died instantly. Their granddaughter died from traumatic asphyxiation as the car was crushed. Read More >>
Children File Wrongful Death
Lawsuit in Wrong-way Truck Crash:
Driver Recently Charged with Murder
Kansas City, Kansas
The four surviving adult children of Corinne Bartels, 64, filed a lawsuit today in Kansas U.S. District Court against three trucking firms and the truck driver responsible for the fatal crash in Sumner County, Kansas, which killed their mother and critically injured her passenger.
Steven Helinsky was just recently charged with second degree murder, with an alternate charge of involuntary manslaughter, as well as two counts of aggravated battery for the injuries to the passengers in each truck (his own passenger was also injured). Read More >>
Brumfield Verdict Upheld
Cleveland, Ohio
A federal court judge in Ohio has delivered a strong rebuke to Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, denying their requests for a new trial or reduction of the verdict in a horrific truck crash caused by one of its drivers near Crestline, Ohio. Since the accident, the plaintiffs have tried, in good faith, to settle the case with Tyson Foods. But after years of Tyson's low-ball settlement offers and failed settlement negotiations, Tyson lost at trial where the jury awarded over $7M for the death and pre-impact distress of a 22-year-old marine, survived by two parents and a brother. Read More >>
Mother files claim over childrens' death
on I-80 in Grand Island, Nebraska
The mother of a brother and sister killed in an accident on Interstate 80 a year ago has filed a claim against Hall County.
[Our client] alleges in the claim that a cause of the fatal accident was poor construction signage and warnings at the scene, [according to] her attorney, J. Clark Aristei of Los Angeles.
. . .The siblings were in a 1998 Honda Civic. . .which struck a stopped vehicle on the interstate before being run over from behind by a fully loaded milk tanker truck.
. . .The truck's driver. . .was charged in the deaths and faced. . .trial.
Plaintiffs file at least three lawsuits
in Kern County so far: State,
J&R Farms among targets
. . .On March 27. . ., a big-rig on Highway 99 slammed into a prison van used by an inmate road cleanup crew, killing [our client's brother] and injuring a guard and nine other inmates.
Now, one year later, the court system has only begun to deal with how to assign blame for the crash.
A jury convicted the big-rig driver. . .
. . .The suit filed by relatives of [the victim] discusses the substance abuse issue but does not allege [the big-rig driver] was under the influence during the crash. But the issue could be relevant to possible negligence by J&R Farms, which is also named in the suit, said. . .family attorney Robert Foss. He said companies generally are held responsible for their workers' negligence, adding attorneys will further investigate company actions."
Tracy truck crash spurs
wrongful death lawsuit
A Salida woman whose husband died in a Tracy traffic collision filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against a Wisconsin trucking company.
[The victim's wife] is represented by Baum Hedlund, a national commercial transportation accident law firm.
[The victim] was driving a pickup on Mountain House Parkway . . . when he crashed into a tractor-trailer making a U-turn in front of him . . .
"He did something that's clearly against the rules of the road, something that is so obviously dangerous to people on a highway," [a Baum Hedlund attorney] said Tuesday."
Couple hurt on turnpike sues
Ohio trucking firm
A Maryland couple filed suit Thursday in Westmoreland County Court against an Ohio trucking firm and one of its drivers in connection with a three-vehicle accident in 2002 on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near the Donegal interchange.
. . .the Washington, D.C. law firm of Baum Hedlund, which is representing the [victims]. . .contends [in their] suit that [the truck driver] was driving carelessly, recklessly, and at an excessive speed when the accident occurred.
"The force of the truck. . .pushed the [victims'] vehicle forward into the vehicle immediately in front of it. . . the complaint said.
Family Sues Caltrans for Freeway Death
. . .A 15-foot-high fiberglass tank, weighing several tons, rolled off a tractor-trailer onto the freeway after it clipped a 14-foot, 9-inch overpass, then crashed into [our clients' son's] sports car.
. . .According to the complaint, the state agency, which is responsible for issuing permits for oversized loads, "negligently measured the height of the overpass, negligently inspected the overpass, negligently approved a 15-foot load to pass under the marked 14-foot, 9-inch La Palma overpass. . .
. . ."Caltrans is an agency that operates by tombstone," said [a] partner of Los Angeles' Baum, Hedlund. . . who is handling the case. "Nothing happens there until someone gets killed, even though it had ample warning of the problem."
Ohio Residents File Personal Injury Lawsuit Against Wisconsin Truck Company and Driver Responsible for 2008 Pennsylvania Truck Crash
salient-news.com
. . .The United States Senate and the Truck Safety Coalition are working to improve trucking safety throughout the country. At this time many road deaths and injuries are caused by truck related crashes. At an April 28, 2010 hearing the Senate Surface Transportation Subcommittee began work on pending trucking legislation. This is part of an ongoing effort to reduce the deaths and injuries caused by large trucks. “The main cause of trucking accidents is driver fatigue,” according to Robert Foss, a trucking attorney from Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, “Driver fatigue is a major safety issue in this country and any legislation to improve truck safety gets a ‘yay’ by me. We also know that the larger the truck the more it affects driver stress and fatigue, affecting lane keeping and the overall physiological state of the driver as their workload is greater.”. Read More >>
Family Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Multiple Vehicle Pile-up on I-40 near Barstow, California
Ludlow, California
. . .The surviving Ramirez brothers filed a lawsuit today against the four trucking companies and the truck drivers involved in the Nov. 9, 2008 fatal multi-vehicle collision on I-40 near Ludlow, California which resulted in the tragic death of their father, Jose Ramirez, 66 and their younger brother, Robert Ramirez, 15. Jose Ramirez’s wife (their stepmother) and Robert’s mother, Wendy, was also killed in the crash. The brothers are also suing the State of California, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Read More >>
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