Elmwood Park, NJ — A man was badly injured this past Tuesday (December 23, 2014) after his SUV was in a wreck with a UPS truck in Elmwood Park. Paul Massey, 45, of Saddle Brook was critically injured and hospitalized after his silver SUV crashed into the trailer of a UPS truck that was turning in front of him.
This accident happened at about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, at the intersection of Molnar Drive and East 54th Street. Apparently, Massey was driving his SUV along Molnar while the UPS truck was driving south on 54th Street.
As the UPS truck reached Molnar Drive, it made a left turn without yielding to Massey’s oncoming SUV. As the USP tried to turn onto the one-lane road, Massey’s SUV crashed into the trailer of the truck, shearing off the top of his vehicle.
Mr. Massey was critically injured by the accident and was immediately rushed to a local hospital. As of Wednesday of last week, he was still in critical condition.
The truck driver, 33-year old Nilsen Valdez, was not harmed by this accident and it’s not clear if any charges are going to be filed. However, it should be noted that the UPS truck had a stop sign while Massey did not.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
UPS is a HUGE company, with over 100,000 trucks and nearly 91,000 truck drivers to boot. Now, with a company that size, you’d think that safety would be a pretty big issue, but this isn’t the first time I’ve heard about a UPS truck doing something dangerous that caused a major accident. Just a couple of months ago, a motorcyclist was killed in Effingham, IL after a UPS made a turn in front of him.
Now, just in the past two years, UPS has reported 39 fatal accidents and 583 injury accidents — that’s a lot of accidents, and I’m not even mentioning the ones that simply required a towaway where nobody was hurt. With any other company, that kind of track record would bankrupt them, but not UPS. They have a lot of resources at their disposal and they know how to make sure that their bases are covered, so to speak, when it comes to denying liability. Of course, with so much insurance and resources at their disposal, companies like UPS can afford to fight back (legally speaking) when someone tries to blame them for an accident.
The reason I’m mentioning all this should be obvious: this accident looks like it’s the UPS driver’s fault. But I wouldn’t get too comfortable with the idea that all you’ll have to do is submit a claim and they’ll make it all better. No, big transport companies like UPS don’t shy away from legal disputes, and unless you can prove in court that they should compensate you for your injuries, they’re always going to put up a fight.
The best remedy I’ve found begins with a solid, in-depth investigation. I can’t say this enough, folks, you must have a good investigation done as soon as possible. Otherwise, you can bet that UPS will have their own investigation and come up with their own theories about how the accident wasn’t really their driver’s fault.
Perhaps it was just the holiday rush that caused this accident and this driver is normally very, very careful. But, I suspect that’s not the case. When accidents like this happen, they’re usually indicative of bigger things below the surface.
— Grossman Law Offices
