Springfield, MO — A man from Joplin was killed and several were injured after a deadly chain-reaction accident along I-44 that involved two semi-trucks and four passenger cars. Matthew Cozad, 44, was killed on Friday (December 13) after his car was rear-ended by a semi-truck and forced into another car. His passenger, 11-year old Collin Cozad, was injured as well.
The accident happened just before 5:00 p.m. that afternoon on westbound I-44. A semi-truck driven by Julian Ragellie, 44, lost control for unknown reasons and slammed into the back of one car, then crashed into the back of Cozad’s car.
Cozad’s vehicle was then pushed into third passenger car, which killed Matthew Cozad at the scene and injured Collin, his passenger. Ragellie’s semi-truck crashed into another 18-wheeler rig on the interstate before coming to a stop, leaving him critically injured.
A total of four passenger cars were involved in smaller collisions as a result of Ragellie’s wreck, leaving several people with minor injuries. The Joplin Globe reported that an investigation is still ongoing, though there’s been no mention of charges yet.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
There are clearly a lot of details here that the news reports didn’t cover, and the Joplin Globe didn’t say how the accident began. Was the trucker speeding when he rear-ended the first car? Was traffic stopped or slowing down? Did the driver fall asleep at the wheel or become distracted? Ultimately, the fault in this accident is going to be distributed amongst the drivers involved, which doesn’t sound quite fair at first glance. Why should anyone else bear liability when the entire accident was allegedly caused when an 18-wheeler ran into the back of a car? To answer that question, we’d need a lot more details about the accidents, which I simply don’t have. I can say this, however. Any trucker who rear-ends another car is automatically in the wrong, under normal circumstances. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the trucking company claim that the other drivers were following too closely. In my opinion, that’s usually a weak argument; but until there are more details about how the wreck actually happened, I can’t say definitively. A common defense tactic for trucking companies is to parse out some of the liability to other drivers, which ultimately saves them money.
— Grossman Law Offices
