Man Killed After Two Separate Semi Accidents
Accidents with two different large commercial trucks took the life of a Merritt Island man in early November. According to a story in the Daytona Beach News-Journal, the man had a non-fatal accident with a tractor-trailer truck on Interstate 95 around 5:20 a.m. He stopped his truck in the highway's inside lane and got out, but was then hit by a second semi. The first truck left the scene; the Florida Highway Patrol is looking for its driver.
I am sorry to say that this sort of accident happens more often than you might think. If you're in a minor accident, your first instinct might well be to pull over onto the shoulder of the road, or the emergency lane or breakdown lane in the center, if it's closer. That's certainly safer than staying in the middle of traffic, but far too many drivers don't look for pedestrians or stopped cars in those lanes. In fact, some illegally use the shoulder to pass stopped traffic, not realizing that the reason for the stopped traffic might be an accident moving to the shoulder. The result is that some accident victims quickly become victims a second time. And if they're on foot, as this man was, death is a serious possibility.
Statistics on accidents just in emergency lanes are hard to find, but the Florida Highway Patrol has reported that 1,793 state emergency vehicles were hit by other vehicles over a five-year period, causing five deaths. That number was part of the Move Over Florida campaign, which tried to raise awareness of the importance of following the Florida Move Over Act. That law requires motorists to either change lanes or slow down when approaching stopped emergency vehicles, law enforcement or construction workers. It's more than six years old now, but Floridians still don't follow it as well as we should, for either public servants or our neighbors.
Truck accidents are so frequently terrible and traumatic because trucks are so much larger than other vehicles. Pitted against the weight and force of an 18-wheeler, a passenger car or pickup truck will almost always be crushed; someone on foot doesn't stand a chance. And because trucking companies expect to be involved in accidents, they move very quickly after a crash to limit their legal responsibilities to victims. In that situation, hiring an attorney simply evens the playing field. If you or someone you love was killed or seriously hurt in a Florida trucking accident, and you’d like to learn more about your legal rights, please contact me at Cohn, Smith & Cohn for a free consultation.
