Update [July 6, 2015]: The police recently confirmed that Mrs. Rivera died from her injuries in this accident.
Middletown, CT — On Monday morning of this week, a woman by the name of Evelyn Rivera (54 years old) was critically injured and rushed to Hartford Hospital after getting into a wreck with a large delivery truck. The accident happened at about 10:00 a.m. on Monday morning, June 29, 2015.
What actually took place is a little unclear, but if the news reports are correct, then it appears that the accident happened when the delivery truck was driving in reverse on Main Street.
Evelyn Rivera was driving her car north along Main Street and was near the Pizza Palace at Highland Avenue while 44-year old Matthew Barschow was driving his white delivery truck ahead of Rivera, also headed north.
As Barschow drove along, he stopped and then suddenly started to back up. Later, police said that he may have missed his delivery turn and was reversing to avoid turning around somewhere else.
As Barschow’s delivery truck was backing up, it was struck by Evelyn Rivera’s car. She was badly injured by the impact and rushed to a hospital, where she was treated. As of 5:30 on Monday (yesterday), she was still in critical condition.
Truck driver Matthew Barschow wasn’t harmed by the accident and it’s still being determined whether he’ll face charges.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
As someone who spends a lot of time looking at and investigating trucking accidents, I’ve seen more than my fair share of serious accidents. However, this is completely ridiculous, if I can be a little candid. Did this driver really think it was okay to reverse his big box truck just because he missed his turn? This is supposed to be professional truck driver, someone who’s literally paid to be safe on the road.
What in the world happened here? A lot of people tend to flood the internet with comments after seeing a big truck cause a major accident, claiming that truck drivers are all crazy and that we should ban them from the roads, moving to a train-system only. Meanwhile, truckers claim that they aren’t cut enough slack when it comes to driving with all the other maniacs on the road.
I’ve got a different theory: trucking companies with negligence and a disregard for safety ingrained in their practices hire and produce truck drivers that cause accidents like this one. In simpler terms, bad company = bad driver. Now, I don’t know anything about this truck driver or the company he was delivering for, but I do think it would be wise to include them both in an in-depth investigation. At the end of the day, the employer is always responsible for their employees and if they’re a company that doesn’t have any regard for safety and FMCSA-compliance, then guess what? Their drivers probably won’t give a rip about safety either.
Again, I’m not saying that we should jump to conclusions, but now that we have a “big picture” idea of what might’ve happened, it’s best to be as diligent as possible when investigating the accident — which means not leaving it solely in the police’s hands.
— Grossman Law Offices
