Lincoln Parish, LA — Police have identified Thorne Thornton as the man killed in a tractor-trailer accident in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, on Saturday, August 30, 2014. The accident took place on Highway 30.
Officials say that Thornton lost control of the truck and drove off the road. He hit an embankment, as well as several trees before the truck rolled over. Reports say that Thornton was not wearing a seat belt at the time, and was ejected from his vehicle. He was declared dead at the scene.
While local officials have no reason to believe that alcohol was a factor in the crash, standard toxicology tests were performed.
A cause for the accident has not been found and police are continuing to investigate.
Approximate Scene of the Accident
Commentary
The public at large tends to have a lot of misconceptions about tractor-trailers. And one of those seems to be that they’re largely indestructible. This isn’t true. Of course, if an 18-wheeler gets into an accident with a Ford Focus, the Focus is going to be smashed to pieces. If the truck crashes into anything much more substantial, say a bridge support or another commercial vehicle, there’s an excellent possibility that the cab is going to be destroyed. There have been well-documented problems with the inclusion of airbags and other safety features, the placement of the fuel tanks, and the vehicles’ overall stability. If the cargo a truck is hauling is improperly loaded and shifts while the truck is out on the road, there’s a very real possibility that it can cause the truck to tip over.
What exactly was the cause of this accident? We don’t know. If the accident was caused because of some problem with the way the truck’s haul was loaded, or something to do with the vehicle’s maintenance, then this is probably going to be a workers’ comp case. That is to say, the employer will have an insurance policy that will cover it. It’s found that the driver could have survived the crash if not for some structural deficiency in the truck, or if perhaps his cargo were loaded by an employee of another company, then it’s possible that a third party could be brought into things. We’ll have to wait until the police conclude their investigation to know for sure.
— Grossman Law Offices
