Sidney, OH — Police have identified Bruce Whaley as the man who was hospitalized following a box truck crash in Sidney, Ohio, on Thursday, June 11, 2015. The accident happened at the intersection of Highway 47 and Wones Road.
Police say that an SUV headed west on 47 was slowing down to make a right-hand turn onto Wones. A dump truck being driven by 51-year-old Douglas Winger realized that he wasn’t going to be able to stop in time to avoid a collision with it and drove into the oncoming lane of traffic.
Also in the oncoming lane was a box truck being driven by Whaley. Both vehicles collided. The force of the collision sent both trucks into a field, where they came to a stop.
Emergency workers coming on to the scene needed about an hour to extricate Whaley from his vehicle before being taken a local hospital.
Winger suffered head injuries in the crash and was taken to Wilson Memorial Hospital Sidney.
The accident is still being investigated.
Scene of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary
So, let’s look at what we have here. A dump truck was forced to swerve into the oncoming lane of traffic to avoid a collision, and ended up causing a collision in the process. Keep in mind here that the only reason the dump truck had to swerve was because it was following the SUV ahead of it too closely. Accidents are always going to happen, but two ways to prevent a lot of them would be to drive at safe speeds and at a safe distance from the vehicle ahead of you. When you fail to do things like that, you get accidents like this.
Now, it seems possible that the victim of this accident was on the job when it happened. In an accident like this, the injured employee is likely going to be eligible for workers’ comp benefits. As many know, workers’ comp will help injured workers pay for things like medical bills and lost wages. While workers’ comp typically doesn’t allow an employee to file a claim against their employer, it does allow them to file a claim against a third party, should one be responsible for the accident. In this case, yes, it seems that a third party is responsible for the accident. That means the victim would be perfectly within their rights filing a claim against them. Aside from that, I’d say the driver responsible for the crash has some tough questions to answer about his driving habits.
— Grossman Law Offices
