Our client was driving with the right of way when an 18-wheeler made a left turn directly into his path.
Due to the severity of the collision, his vehicle caught fire. First responders worked for 49 minutes to extract him from the wreckage and ultimately save his life. He went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance and had to be resuscitated.
Our client survived with a severe open left femur fracture, additional fractures to his leg, and lung injuries requiring emergency surgery and intensive care.
An open femur fracture means the thighbone broke with enough force that the bone breached the skin. It is one of the most serious orthopedic injuries a person can sustain, carrying significant risk of infection, blood loss, and long-term functional impairment. Combined with lung trauma and resuscitation, this is a catastrophic injury in every sense.
Why Left-Turn Truck Collisions Are So Devastating
A left turn requires the turning driver to yield to oncoming traffic. That obligation does not soften because the vehicle is large or because the turn is difficult to complete. An operator of a large vehicle should take the necessary precautions to safely complete a difficult turn, especially when there is oncoming traffic.
An 18-wheeler can weigh up to 80,000 pounds fully loaded, roughly twenty times the weight of a typical passenger car. It accelerates slowly, takes far longer to clear an intersection, and cannot be stopped or redirected once a turn is underway. A truck driver who misjudges the gap in oncoming traffic commits his vehicle to a maneuver he cannot abort, placing tens of thousands of pounds directly across the path of oncoming drivers who have no time and nowhere to go.
Passenger vehicles are not built to absorb that kind of impact.
The Evidence That Exists Only in Trucking Cases
An 18-wheeler crash is investigated very differently from a car accident, because commercial trucking generates records that ordinary drivers never produce. Much of it is time sensitive.
Electronic control module data. Most tractors carry an ECM, often called the black box, which can capture speed, braking, throttle position, and other operating data from around the time of a crash. This data can be overwritten or lost if the vehicle is repaired or returned to service.
Hours of service and electronic logging records. Federal regulations limit how long a commercial driver may operate without rest, and electronic logging devices record that time. These records speak to fatigue, which affects judgment and reaction time in exactly the way a misjudged left turn suggests.
Driver qualification file. Motor carriers are required to maintain files documenting a driver’s licensing, training, medical certification, and driving history. What the company knew about this driver before putting him on the road can matter enormously.
Maintenance and inspection records. These establish whether the vehicle was properly maintained and whether known problems went unaddressed.
Dispatch, routing, and communications records. These can reveal schedule pressure, the demands placed on the driver, and what he was doing in the moments before the crash.
Because much of this material sits in the carrier’s possession and is subject to retention periods, sending preservation notices early is one of the most important steps in a trucking case. Evidence that disappears cannot be recovered later.
More Than One Party May Be Responsible
Trucking cases often involve a chain of entities rather than a single defendant. Depending on the facts, responsibility may extend to the driver, the motor carrier that employed him, the owner of the tractor or trailer if different from the carrier, a company responsible for maintenance, and in some circumstances, parties involved in loading or arranging the shipment.
Federal trucking regulations also establish standards for driver qualification, training, hours of service, and vehicle maintenance. When a carrier fails to meet those standards and a crash follows, that failure becomes part of the case against the company itself, separate from responsibility for the driver’s conduct behind the wheel.
Identifying every responsible party matters, both for establishing the full picture of what went wrong and for reaching the insurance coverage available to compensate a catastrophically injured person.
