Danville, VA — A truck driver identified as John Stocker of Rocky Mount was taken to a hospital on Wednesday of this week (July 22, 2015) after his semi-truck overturned in an accident on the Danville Expressway. Police said that Stocker was driving his truck in Danville that afternoon when he tried to take the exit for the Franklin Turnpike and his load shifted, causing his truck to go off the side of the road and crash.
He was pinned inside the truck and some Good Samaritans stopped to help him until paramedics were able to arrive. Stocker ended up having to be cut out of his truck and then rushed to a hospital, where he was in stable condition.
The Virginia State Police later comment on the accident, saying:
[He took the] exit at a slow rate of speed. The accident — reported shortly after 3 p.m. — is still under investigation, but it appeared the truck’s load shifted and caused the truck to overturn, meaning the driver was not at fault.
Right now, it’s not clear what Stocker was hauling.
Map of the Area
Commentary:
I thought it was interesting that the Virginia State Police expressly said that they don’t think the trucker was at fault here, rather, it was his shifting load. If that’s actually true, the whoever loaded the truck would be liable for what happened in the accident. Stacking cargo in a safe way sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many rollovers happen due to trucks with shifting loads that throw off their center of gravity.
On a side note, it looks like this truck (or the trailer, at least) is owned by NEMF, a mid-sized company located out of New Jersey. After I looked into their records with the DOT, I found that not only do they have a slew of violations and infractions, they are over the FMCSA-allowed threshold for vehicle maintenance violations. They have nearly 600 violations on their record, which puts them in the bottom 22% of comparably sized trucking companies. Would you use a company with such a low rating? I wouldn’t.
Further, that implies that this company (which has fewer than 1,400 trucks) isn’t all that concerned with maintaining their machines. They’ve even been cited a few times for failing to secure their loads. I don’t know what happened when this truck was loaded up, but you can see why I’m starting to get a little suspicious.
The way I see it, there are a few potential negligent parties here: the trucking company that owns the trailer, the owner of the cargo, or the company that loaded the trailer. Sometimes, those are the same company, but it’s hard to tell with such little information in the news.
— Grossman Law Offices
