Austin, TX — A 15-year old girl was killed in a tractor-trailer accident in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, March 12, 2015. The accident happened on the Highway 130 service road, near the intersection with Parmer Lane, around 8:30 at night.
Local reports say that a truck driver was distracted by his GPS and failed to stop at a blinking red light at the intersection, instead driving through and crashing into a vehicle carrying three individuals.
Delia Ramirez was taken to University Medical Center Brackenridge and died just after midnight. A 37-year old woman in the vehicle was taken to a local hospital with what officials said were life-threatening injuries. There was a 22-month old child in the vehicle as well, and they were taken to Dell Children’s Medical Center with serious injuries.
The crash caused the semi-truck to catch fire. The driver’s name wasn’t released. Police are continuing to investigate.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary
Something that many people don’t know is that, when someone is responsible for an accident out on the road, there’s no law that say they have to do anything to make things right with the people they’ve hurt. They’re not legally obligated to cover damage to someone’s car, or to cover any medical bills. Even if the police ticket them for the accident, legally speaking, there’s not very much they have to do. And if a semi-truck is involved, the chances are very good that the trucking company is going to do everything they can to point the finger at the other guy, and try and push as much liability as they can off of themselves and onto the others involved in the accident. I’ve seen it happen time and time again. Unfortunately, many trucking companies are only convinced to take care of these matters as quickly as they can once they see how much more it’s going to cost them when the entire accident is dragged out in front of a jury. It’s unfortunate that the impact on a company’s bottom line dictates so much of what they do, but that’s the world in which we live.
— Grossman Law Offices
