Montrose, IL — The local police are investigating a serious accident that happened on Tuesday afternoon of this week, June 23, when a driver crashed into a tow truck worker and injured him. This was on U.S. 40 at about 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.
The police are saying that a 35-year old Beecher City man was working on towing a disabled semi-truck that was on the side of U.S. 40, about 1 mile east of Montrose. As the tow truck driver was working on the semi, a passing Chevy van swerved off the road and onto the shoulder, crashing into the tow truck and Beecher City man.
The Beecher City man was badly injured and had to be taken to a hospital while the van’s driver was hurt as well. He was described only as a 22-year old man from Altamont.
Right now, the police think that the van driver accidentally fell asleep when all this happened.
Map of Montrose
Commentary:
Just because this tow truck driver was “on the job” doesn’t mean that this is necessarily going to be a work-related accidents, at least in some sense. When workers are injured during the course and scope of their duties, then their employer is generally responsible for giving them workers’ comp benefits. Unfortunately, that’s the end of things, legally speaking, since most states don’t allow any type of claims to be filed against employers, not matter how negligent they were in causing an accident.
However, that’s not the case when a third party (that is, someone unrelated to the job) causes an accident that leads to an injured worker. In those instances, the injured worker would still have a claim against the negligent party plus there may still be workers’ comp benefits to collect. I obviously don’t know much about what happened here, but it’s been my experience that most employees aren’t aware of their legal rights when accidents happen, so post helpful information here.
— Grossman Law Offices
