COLUMBIA, MO — James Warriner was hurt in a multi-vehicle tractor-trailer accident that happened in Columbia, Missouri on Thursday, October 2nd, 2014. The news from the Columbia Tribune said the accident happened around 4:15 Thursday morning.
63-year-old James Warriner was hurt when the tractor-trailer he was driving became involved in a serious chain reaction accident that happened while driving on Interstate 70. Accident investigators said the accident happened when a tractor-trailer hauling tandem trailers made contact with another semi-truck heading the same direction. When the double trailer truck swerved to avoid additional collisions, the rear trailer separated. The trailer tumbled and rolled in the lanes of traffic when another 18-wheeler collided with the dislodged trailer. Warriner was driving a fourth commercial truck, and drove into a ditch after swerving to avoid the other trucks.
Paramedics took Warriner to a nearby hospital where he was being treated for unspecified injuries.
The Indiana State Police is still investigating.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
Chain reaction accidents are frequently messy, confusing affairs with multiple -often competing- theories of fault and he-said-she-said scenarios. This is why clearing up the the details with your own, private investigation can do wonders. We actually handled a multi-vehicle accident that happened in Midland, Texas where three vehicles were involved, one of which went into oncoming traffic and another fled the scene. It was a big mess, and police did a shoddy initial investigation, and when the families got us involved, we conducted our own investigation. We found witnesses, flew out to meet with them, and piece by piece put the puzzle together. I’m not saying police always do a bad job, but investigations this deep require resources the police simply cannot devote. Maybe in this case the fact pattern is very obvious and the police will get it right, but a third party investigation is going to tell us a lot more, and I have a feeling that not all the negligence happened on this stretch of road.
The fact that the trucks had light contact and stayed on the road in motion, yet the trailer dislodged tells me the trailer was not properly affixed. If the trailer was not properly attached, does that mean that the trucks colliding was the cause of the other person’s injuries, or was the trailer detaching the cause? Well, the law is well equipped to handle these kind of complex situations, and a jury would determine that it is not one or the other, but could be both.
— Grossman Law Offices
