Denmark, New York — Earlier this week, there was an accident between a motorcycle and a dump truck that injured a man from Castorland. Police said that 24-year old James Young was taken to a hospital with injuries to his torso after he had been hurt in a collision with a dump truck along East Road.
The accident happened at about 2:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon, June 16, 2014. Young was riding his motorcycle along East Road that day when a dump truck driven by Mark Walseman pulled onto East Road from a driveway. Young’s sport motorcycle crashed into the dump truck, which injured his upper body.
He was taken to a hospital and it’s not clear what condition he was in. The truck driver, Walseman, was driving for MJS Rubbish at the time.
Site of the Crash
Commentary:
This truck driver shouldn’t have pulled out in front of this motorcyclist, but there’s one detail that the news reports didn’t include: the motorcyclist’s speed. Why is that relevant? Well, if he was driving, say, 120 mph, then it’s not reasonable to expect the dump truck driver to know that. To some extent, you can visually gauge another vehicle’s speed, but it’s incredibly difficult to do so accurately.
The reason I bring that up is because commercial trucking companies like the one that owns this dump truck always try to defend their drivers – even if the accident was their fault. At first glance, the dump truck driver appears to be at fault here, but I can almost guarantee that if that’s the case, the trucking company will counter-argue that the motorcyclist was speeding and was therefore at least partially to blame for the accident. I know it doesn’t sound fair, but that’s the way these types of accidents work. The best defense? As the saying goes, a good offense. Starting a third-party investigation is helpful in gather all the evidence and making sure that the trucking company isn’t able to build a case for their driver and avoid taking responsibility for any negligence on his behalf.
— Grossman Law Offices
