Paducah, KY — There was a serious accident along Benton Road this past Tuesday night (August 11, 2015) that resulted in the injuries of three people: Joshua Mosely, 21, Leaffa Thomson, 25, and James Keiler, 59. All three were from Paducah, where the accident happened.
According to the news reports, Mosely and Thompson were in a pickup truck that collided with Keiler’s larger Ford F-350 truck, which was also hauling a large trailer & tractor.
This was at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.
21-year old Andrew Turner was driving east along Benton Road that night with both Mosely and Thompson in his Mazda pickup truck as passengers. Apparently, as they came upon Meacham Road, they encountered Keiler’s pickup truck & trailer, which was trying to back into a driveway.
Keiler’s truck was blocking traffic and Turner wasn’t able to brake in time before hitting it. The accident left Keiler, Mosely, and Thompson with injuries and all were taken to nearby hospitals. However, it’s not clear how bad they were hurt.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but the police aren’t sure whether Keiler will face charges for his truck blocking traffic like that.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
Looking at the news reports here, I have to wonder if this was just a regular driver who decided to transport a tractor to his farm, or was he a commercial driver? It appears as if this truck and the trailer it was hauling would qualify for being a commercial motor vehicle according to the FMCSA’s standards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that this driver was working for a company at the time, he may have just been using the truck for personal reasons.
But enough of that speculation, the reason I brought that up is because if this driver was working for a company when he caused this accident, then they may bear some liability here in addition to their driver. Though each state is a little different, it’s generally assumed that if a worker is doing something “on the clock” or is using a company vehicle and causes an accident, then the employer is responsible for the outcome. Since he was under their supervision, they are held accountable.
It’s great that this driver had his flashers and hazard lights on that night, otherwise this might have been even worse, but that doesn’t exactly make up for the fact that he was blocking oncoming traffic and probably should have had a spotter to keep watch for him.
— Grossman Law Offices
