Update [October 1, 2014]: Authorities identified 52-year old Michael Budzinski as the man on the motorcycle who was killed in this accident. As of Wednesday, it’s still not clear if the truck driver is facing any charges.
SAN ANTONIO, TX — A motorcyclist was killed in an accident with a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas on Monday, September 29th, 2014. The news from My San Antonio says the accident happened around 11:30 Monday morning.
An unidentified man in his 40s was killed when his motorcycle and a tractor-trailer collided at the intersection of Loop 1604 and Northwest Military Highway. Investigators say they believe the accident happened when the tractor-trailer turned into the path of the motorcyclist. The news says the truck had a green light, but not a protected green arrow.
The motorcyclist was pronounced dead on the scene.
San Antonio Police are still investigating the accident.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
Just from what I see in the news, the tractor-trailer driver may have failed to yield if both the truck and the victim did in fact have green lights. Now, is there ever a good reason or excuse to ignore the right-of-way, or to make a turn before ensuring the path was clear? Should this kind of behavior ever go unpunished? If the trucker didn’t have a green arrow as the news suggests, it may seem like there is an open and shut case, right? Wrong. I’d be willing to bet that the trucking company is going to fight, and fight hard.
How could they possibly defend their actions like this? Well, by exploiting the public’s bias against motorcyclists, all they need to do is say that the motorcyclist was speeding when the accident happened, and the truck driver thought he had enough time to turn. Texas uses a system of modified comparative fault, where evidence is presented to a judge or jury, and they do their best to mete out fault in a sliding percentage-point scale. This means the ‘speeding motorcycle’ argument could seriously sway fault away from the trucking company.
A third-party, independent investigation can look at plenty of little details police may overlook and torpedo this argument before it even becomes an issue. Causing an accident may be bad, but pinning that accident on a victim to save a few bucks is far, far worse.
