Pickup Truck Hit by FedEx Driver on Highway 605 in Gulfport

Gulfport, MS — There was a serious accident reported on Highway 605/Jordon Road in Gulfport this past Tuesday evening. Police said that at about 5:30 p.m. yesterday (July 21, 2015), the driver of a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck was injured after a FedEx truck crashed into him on Highway 605. Allegedly, the FedEx truck was trying to turn in front of the Toyota truck when this happened. The Toyota’s driver told police that he was headed north on Highway 605 that evening when he crossed through the intersection with John Ross Road, where a FedEx truck was trying to turn east.

The Toyota truck was then hit by the trailer of the FedEx truck, which swerved into a Mercedes that was waiting at a red light nearby.

While the Mercedes’ driver wasn’t injured, both the FedEx truck driver and the Toyota’s driver were rushed to a hospital nearby. Right now, it doesn’t seem as if their injuries were life-threatening.

The cause of this accident is still being investigated.

However, another news report said that the northbound Toyota hit the passenger side of the FedEx trailer as it was turning east in front of it. It’s possible that that means the FedEx had been driving south on Highway 605 and made a left-hand turn in front of the pickup without yielding. That’s just one theory, of course, the police have yet to release anything official.

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Map of the Accident

View from the Road

Commentary:

Unless I’m missing something here, it sure sounds like this FedEx truck driver (or perhaps the other driver) failed to yield. Does anyone have more information about what happened here? Did anyone witness the crash?

If the FedEx driver is at fault for the accident, I can tell you right now that the road to recovery will be anything but short. FedEx is one of the bigger commercial trucking companies out there and they don’t like to accept liability for an accident if there’s even a remote chance they can fight it.

In some ways, you can chalk that up to “just business,” since they’re only trying to do what’s best for the company. In many ways, though, what’s “best” for the company is often what’s worse for the victim. I’m talking about big trucking companies arguing and bullying their way into not paying for the damage their drivers have caused. There are a myriad of arguments and excuses they give, and I’ve heard nearly all of them.

The bottom line is that if the trucker here is at fault, then he needs to be held liable, as well as FedEx. Knowing something and proving something to a jury, though, are two separate things and the latter isn’t easy unless you have a solid investigation done early on to set your case on steady feet.

Now, don’t take this to mean that I think someone should file suit here. Heck, I’m not even sure what happened in the first place. But I do want to point out some potential issues to my readers and law students, who may find themselves in a similar situation one day.

 
— Grossman Law Offices