Pekin, IL — There was an accident reported last Saturday (May 9, 2015) in Pekin that left a man with critical injuries and a construction truck driver facing potential charges. Police said that Brian Kreiter was badly hurt after his pickup truck was hit by Rodney King’s construction truck after King failed to yield to him.
This was around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, May 9, at the intersection of Towerline Road & VFW Road.
Kreiter had been driving south along Towerline that morning when he came to the intersection with VFW Road, where Rodney King was waiting to turn left (north) in his construction truck.
Rather than yield to Kreiter’s oncoming pickup truck, however, King pulled out into the intersection and caused a major collision between the two trucks. King’s construction truck overturned and Kreiter’s pickup sustained serious damage.
Brian Kreiter was critically injured and required a helicopter to take him to a hospital in Peoria while King was not harmed at all. Police said, however, that King will be ticketed for failure to yield.
More investigation may be required.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
What most people don’t realize here is that this truck driver isn’t really the one who’s going to be held responsible for this accident, it’s the company that employs him since this presumably happened while he was “on the clock.” Much like child who casts the blame elsewhere when confronted by their parents for disobedience, company never wants to take responsibility for their drivers either — it can be very costly and bad for business.
While I don’t have time to go into all the details of how to build a solid case against a construction company like this one (assuming the details here are correct and their driver was at fault), let me just highlight something that might be helpful.
Having a police report on file that says the “at-fault” driver was ticketed is always going to help your case…but don’t rely on that to be your only evidence. If this were a case before a jury and you tried to bring up the police report to prove the trucker was guilty, the judge probably wouldn’t even allow it in the courtroom. Why? Because there are special procedures for “proving up” and admitting documents as evidence, and police reports can be contested by the other side and even disproven.
Having a second investigation done is the best way to gather more evidence in your favor, so don’t make the mistake of thinking the police report will win your case because I’ve seen many good defense teams disprove a police report and leave the plaintiff with nothing.
— Grossman Law Offices
