Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

A tractor-trailer truck overturned on the Poplar Street bridge in St. Louis March 4, the same day another truck driver was acquitted in an unrelated fatal truck accident on the same bridge. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the tractor-trailer crashed into a ramp on the bridge and overturned before 9 a.m., getting stuck between two parts of the bridge. Emergency workers had to close the bridge for most of the day to free the truck, reopening it by 4:30 p.m. The truck driver was not hurt.

Elsewhere in St. Louis, the newspaper said, the driver of another tractor-trailer was acquitted of criminally negligent involuntary manslaughter for the death of his passenger in a 2006 St. Louis truck accident. The truck driven by Paramjit Singh Grewai in that accident skidded off the ramp and fell 60 feet, killing the passenger, Harbinder Singh, and seriously injuring Grewai. Law enforcement argued that he was driving erratically -- he had been on the road for 16 hours straight -- when he approached the bridge. Grewai himself testified that his brakes malfunctioned. The judge in the case didn’t believe him, but said his actions didn’t amount to criminal negligence.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I can’t help but notice that these accidents took place in the same stretch of road. In fact, the last paragraph of the article on Grewai notes that MoDOT, in response to concerns about trucks speeding on the ramp, installed a retaining wall, flashing lights and signs setting a speed limit of 20 mph. The article on the more recent accident said police believed the truck driver had been driving too fast before the crash. Since both of these accidents took place after the new safety measures, it seems clear that speed is still a problem on the Poplar Street bridge.

I am not a traffic engineer, although of course I am interested in traffic issues because of my work as a Missouri semi truck accident attorney. However, if a truck accident is caused by roads where authorities know or should know there’s a clear hazard, victims may be able to hold those authorities liable for any accidents they fail to prevent. Accidents caused by defective roadways are relatively rare, but they do happen. When they do, it’s important to enlist help from an experienced truck accident lawyer to ensure that you don’t get lost in the maze of additional deadlines, bureaucracy and rules you must follow when suing a government agency.

The Lowe Law Firm is a St. Louis and Belleville, Ill. law firm specializing in helping victims of serious Missouri and Illinois truck crashes recover the money they need to get medical care, make ends meet and compensate for a disability or a death in the family. If you are in this situation, we can help. To set up a free, confidential consultation, please call toll-free at 1-877-678-3400 or contact us through our Web site.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is pressing ahead with its plan to build truck-only lanes on part of Interstate 70, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Examiner of Independence, Mo. reported. After a yearlong study of the effects and cost of the project, the department is proceeding with public discussions of the plan, such as the one held March 5 in Blue Springs. The project currently has no funding, but the department is still planning in the hope that it can be ready -- even “shovel-ready” -- when it can secure the money.

The plan applies to nearly 200 miles of I-70, one of the busiest corridors for trucks in the country. MoDOT’s plan calls for widening and rebuilding the highway between Lake Saint Louis and Independence, setting aside two lanes exclusively for trucks and two for passenger cars, pickups and SUVs. It would also add interchanges used exclusively by trucks, some used exclusively by cars and some new bridges. The goal is to separate truck traffic from everyday car traffic, to improve the safety of both sets of traveler. According to the department, trucks are involved in 28% of all accidents and 40% of fatal accidents on I-70 through Missouri.

Both truck drivers and car commuters like the idea, according to the articles. As a Missouri trucking accident attorney, I don’t find that at all surprising. Drivers of smaller vehicles get nervous around trucks because trucks’ bigger size and weight poses a real danger in an accident. And truckers, who must control those large vehicles, can’t always stop their trucks in time when car drivers cut them off or cross the center divide. The result is generally death for the people in the smaller car or very serious injuries, including brain damage and paralysis.

This is a tragedy no matter what the circumstances, and I hope that MoDOT’s plan is able to save lives and prevent catastrophic disabilities. But when a Missouri large truck accident is caused by a trucker’s or trucking company’s carelessness, victims have the right to sue those at-fault parties to get compensation for their injuries. The Lowe Law Firm represents clients in southern Illinois, St. Louis and throughout the state who have been severely injured or lost a loved one in a serious accident with a commercial truck. If this has happened to you or someone you love and you’d like to learn more, please contact us online or call 1-877-678-3400 for a free, confidential consultation.

U.S. Route 65 was closed for about three hours between Ozark and Springfield due to a Missouri trucking accident, the Springfield News-Leader reported March 5. The highway was closed after a tanker truck carrying a load of ammonium nitrate had a one-vehicle rollover accident, later determined to have been caused by a blown tire. The truck’s driver sustained serious injuries and was taken to the hospital. The truck itself wound up in the highway’s median, but authorities closed the entire road in both directions because of concerns about hazardous material spills. Fortunately, the only leak they found was antifreeze.

Ammonium nitrate is most commonly used as a fertilizer. But it was a serious concern for the Springfield accident responders, because it can be highly volatile when mixed with fuel or fire. In fact, the article said, the truck was carrying 500 gallons of diesel fuel along with its 24,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate. Together, these are the two main ingredients in “fertilizer bombs,” improvised explosives such as that used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Ammonium nitrate can also explode when it’s set on fire in a confined space, a distinct possibility in a serious Missouri trucking accident.

Accidents with large trucks carrying hazardous materials can pose a serious threat to the people around, even when the accident doesn’t involve any other vehicles. Hazmat trucks don’t crash any more often than other trucks, but when they do crash, they carry a greater risk of injuring bystanders and the community at large. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the government agency that licenses and regulates truckers, hazmat trucks spilled their cargo 50% more than other trucks between 1991 and 2000. Tankers like this one were by far the most likely to spill of any body type. During that time, contact with the hazmat -- not the truck itself -- killed an average of 12 people a year.

Judging by the article, this Missouri truck accident may have been caused solely by a tire that was poorly maintained or defective to begin with. If that’s the case, the trucking company for maintaining safe equipment could have been held responsible for any deaths and injuries that resulted. Trucking companies, and independent truckers, are legally liable for injuries in any truck accident caused by their own carelessness, including carelessness with equipment as well as poor driving decisions. Victims who were seriously hurt or lost a loved one as a result have the right to sue them for compensation for their financial, physical and emotional losses.

If you or someone you love has been hurt in a trucking accident in Missouri, the Lowe Law Firm would like to help. Based in St. Louis and Belleville, Ill., the firm represents clients in Missouri and southern Illinois who have been seriously hurt by a trucking company’s or truck driver’s negligence. To set up a free consultation about your case, please contact us today.