Trucking Accident Lawyer Blog

Trucking accidents can result in injury to the occupants of passenger cars, as well as pedestrians and bystanders. In addition to drivers of smaller vehicles being hurt in a semi-truck or commercial vehicle accident, fatalities are not uncommon on highways, city streets and rural roads throughout Maryland. As Baltimore tractor-trailer accident lawyers, my staff has helped dozens of people who have become victims of another person’s negligence.

Occasionally, the victim of a trucking crash can be the driver of the over-the-road hauler itself. Fatal and non-life-threatening injury accidents can be the cause of driver error, as well as poorly maintained roadways, or even defective vehicle equipment. Whatever the cause, the costs are high for the victims due to the sometimes extensive medical care, lost wages or unmet financial obligations due to injury.

Not long ago, a Maryland trucker died in a horrendous semi crash and ensuing fire on the New Jersey Turnpike. The victim, 25-year-old Jovon Holmes, tragically burned to death after his truck hit a pickup, then struck a bridge abutment and burst into flames. According to news reports, witnesses at the scene said the fire was so bad that emergency personnel had a very difficult time locating and the identifying the man.

The accident occurred just after 11pm, according to police reports, near Exit 6 of the turnpike. Possibly due to a slick combination of snow and ice, a northbound Chevy Avalanche pickup truck spun out of control and impacted the Jersey barrier. The vehicle came to rest in the northbound lanes, according to police.

The deceased man, who was driving his truck toward the initial accident, reportedly could not stop in time and as a result ran into the disabled Chevy. The larger tanker truck crashed into the Avalanche and pushed it for a short distance; the truck driver then veered off and hit one of the concrete pillars supporting the overpass. As a result, the truck caught fire with the driver trapped inside.

Witnesses reported seeing a massive amount of flames, which engulfed the entire vehicle from front to back. Police indicated that the hapless trucker had no chance to escape the blaze. It was unknown at the time of the report if the truck was hauling gasoline or another flammable load.

The occupants of the Avalanche, a 17-year-old female driver and 16 year-old male passenger, were both transported to the hospital where they were treated for minor injuries and subsequently released, according to police.

Trucker burned to death on TPK, Trentonian.com, February 1, 2010

Seatbelts (or safety belts) do serve a valuable function and those who choose not to avail themselves of their protection run the risk of serious injury or even death in the event of a traffic accident. It’s not surprising that the larger the vehicle the more protected an occupant feels, however even commercial truck drivers place their lives in the hands of fate when they do not wear a seatbelt.

As a Maryland trucking accident lawyer and personal injury attorney, I understand the dangers awaiting motorists around every turn on our interstates, highways and urban streets. Whether you drive a tractor-trailer rig, panel truck, tanker or delivery vehicle, safety should be your primary concern. Trucking-related accidents can be deadly, not just for the drivers and occupants of relatively small passenger vehicles, but also to truck drivers themselves.

Not long ago, a Maryland tow truck driver lost his life in King George County when his wrecker apparently collided head-on with a pickup truck on Route 206 not far from Indiantown Road, also known as Route 610.

The crash occurred around 1:30pm on December 28 when a 1995 International-brand tow truck driven by 34-year-old Ryan O. Robinson crossed the centerline and hit an oncoming Ford F-250 traveling eastbound. Robinson, a resident of Montgomery Village, Maryland, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police reported that he had not been wearing his seatbelt.

According to police, the driver of the Ford pickup, 37-year-old David L. Warring of Fredericksburg, VA, was injured during the collision. Warring was treated at the scene by emergency workers and transported by ambulance to Mary Washington Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He was subsequently released from the hospital.

Based on the ongoing police investigation, Warring was reportedly wearing his seatbelt. The cause of the crash was still under investigation at the time of the news report, therefore it is unknown if defective equipment was to blame or if it was solely driver error.

Maryland tow truck driver killed in auto accident, Fredericksburg.com, December 29, 2009

Trucking accidents, due to their scale, can result in tragic and many time fatal outcomes. Such was the case in an October United Parcel Service truck crash that killed the driver of a second vehicle and injured a young passenger. As a personal injury lawyer practicing in the Baltimore area, I have helped numerous victims of trucking-related wrecks recover damages caused by another driver’s negligence.

In this case, the operator of the delivery truck has only recently been charged with several traffic offenses. Based on news reports, Baltimore County police charged 28-year-old Kevin Callahan of Owings Mills with negligent driving, failure to stop at a red signal and failure to obey a traffic device.

On October 5, 2009, Callahan was driving north on York Road when his truck broadsided a vehicle at the intersection of York and Corbett roads in Monkton, MD. The collision killed the driver, 48-year-old Tim Wheatley, and injured Wheatley’s 9-year-old daughter who was getting a ride to Sparks Elementary School. The girl was critically injured in the accident and has since been released from the hospital, according to news reports.

Although the accident resulted in a death, law enforcement authorities investigated the accident and determined that there was no intent to harm anyone on Callahan’s part. The UPS driver now has the choice to accept the charges and pay the penalties including points on his license, or he can go to court and fight the citations. There was no mention of whether the deceased man’s family would pursue a wrongful death civil suit against the delivery driver or his employer, UPS.

UPS driver charged in fatal crash in Monkton, ExploreBaltimoreCounty.com, December 21, 2009

Based on recent news stories the state of Maryland has been named in a $7 million wrongful death suit in regard to a fatal car-truck accident that occurred on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in August 2008. Dozens of people are killed or injured every year in tractor-trailer accidents across Maryland; some of these victims are actually semi drivers themselves who have been killed or critically injured due to another person's negligence.

As trucking accident attorneys, the legal professionals at Lebowitz & Mzhen, LLC have the knowledge and experience to represent victims and their families in cases not unlike the one reported here. This time, according to news articles, the state of Maryland has been named as one of the defendants in a lawsuit growing out of a deadly traffic accident.

According to reports, a trucker died during the accident in question, which was allegedly caused by a 19-year-old woman who fell asleep while driving across the Bay Bridge. News articles at the time said that Candy Baldwin had been to a wedding earlier and apparently fell asleep while passing across the bridge. This caused a truck driver to swerve his rig to avoid crashing into the young woman’s car.

The family of the deceased truck driver, 57-year-old John Short of Willards, MD, to crash into a concrete barrier on the bridge. However the barrier could not stop the truck from leaving the bridge’s roadway and falling into the water where Short reportedly died.

The lawsuit, which was originally filed last June naming Baldwin as the responsible party, was amended earlier in December to add the state and the Maryland Transportation Authority. The suit cites deficiencies in the maintenance and the inspection of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as significant factors in the death of Short.

According to news accounts, Baldwin was only charged with traffic violations; police determined the teen's blood alcohol level as 0.03 percent, which is below the legal limit in Maryland, however that measurement was taken hours after the crash, according to the civil suit against the teen. The trucker's family claims the young woman was drunk.

The suit also claims two-way traffic on the bridge at the time of the crash was inherently dangerous and had already led to numerous other fatalities. Since the accident, the state has reportedly spent $3 million inspecting and making repairs to the sidewalls of the bridge.

Md. Named In Fatal Bay Bridge Crash Suit Reporting, WJZ.com, December 12, 2009

Family Names State In Md. Bay Bridge Crash, HometownAnnapolis.com, December 12, 2009

Police recently reported a tragic pedestrian death along I-695 recently when a Parkville, MD, man was attempting to cross the busy interstate on foot. The incident occurred on December 5, when an Exxon tanker truck driving along the Beltway’s Inner Loop near Harford Road came up on a man attempting to cross the roadway just before 11am on that Saturday morning. According to Maryland State Police the pedestrian apparently died at the scene after being struck by the oil company’s big rig.

As Maryland trucking accident and personal injury lawyers, we have the ability to represent the families of victims killed as a result of another person’s negligence. In this case, police who were investigating the accident said that the tractor-trailer rig was hauling an empty tanker trailer at the time.

According to early reports, state troopers could not immediately give a reason as to why the deceased pedestrian was on the Beltway to start with, nor if weather conditions may have been a factor in the fatal accident. Initially the man’s identity was not provided, but following notification of his next of kin he was identified as 57-year-old Joseph Mark Scannell.

The Maryland State Police Crash Team and Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division were charged with investigating the accident. They determined that the truck driver, Jerry Lyn Brooks, 46, of Ellicott City, was not injured in the incident.

The Inner Loop was shut down briefly around the accident scene with a number of lanes being closed for several hours while the investigation took place. Police also said that alcohol was not a factor in the accident.

Pedestrian killed on I-695, ExploreBaltimoreCounty.com, December 7, 2009

As Maryland truck accident attorneys, over the years my colleagues and I have represented numerous trucking crash victims and their families. Trucking collisions don’t only injure pedestrians and drivers of other cars and SUVs, these kinds of tractor-trailer and delivery truck accidents also cause injury to the truck drivers operating them. A recent article illustrates this one type of truck crash that resulted in the untimely death of a teenage driver and the severe injury of the other passenger of that vehicle.

While the preliminary police report issued at the time of the news article indicated that the single-vehicle accident was a result of driver error combined with less than optimal road conditions, there could also be a chance of defective equipment, such as worn tires or other mechanical failure.

According to news reports, a 19-year-old driver died several days following a single-truck crash on Route 100 in Anne Arundel County. Police reports showed that Dakota Kelly Alder of Pasadena, MD, died from injuries sustained during a crash four days earlier near the Route 100 and Interstate 97 interchange.

The accident report stated that the driver lost control of the vehicle around 2:30 in the afternoon p.m. and lost control of the truck. The initial police investigation stated that the truck was likely traveling at a higher rate of speed than the wet road conditions would have allowed. The young driver apparently lost control of the vehicle which then struck the guard rail and flipped over.

Rescue crews arriving on the scene administered first aid to both the driver and passenger then transported them to local hospitals. According to police, Alder was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center where he was treated but died several days later. The only passenger, 19-year-old Jordan Joshua Swick, also of Pasadena, was taken in critical condition to the Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

19-year-old driver dies days after Arundel crash, BaltimoreSun.com, November 16, 2009