Dover, DE — There was a wreck along Route 1 in the Dover area near the Air Force Base early Thursday morning, resulting in a Rising Sun, Maryland man being taken to the hospital. The news said that William Underwood, 42 years old, was hurt after his dump truck crashed into the back of a parked 18-wheeler on Route 1 around 5:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, August 13.
Underwood was driving his dump truck south along the highway that morning, the police reported, when he may have been slightly distracted.
His truck swerved onto the right shoulder of the highway and hit the back of a parked 18-wheeler truck, which caused Underwood’s truck to roll over.
His load of stone was spilled and Underwood was rushed to a nearby hospital, though his injuries were not believed to be serious. The truck driver in the 18-wheeler was actually in the sleeper cab at the time and wasn’t harmed at all.
Right now, police said that the trucker (identified as Abdulaziz Adjintettey, 33) was cited for being parked in a no-stop zone.
Map of the Accident
Commentary:
I know that the 18-wheeler here was illegally parked, and I’m wondering if that didn’t make this accident a little worse than it needed to be. In other words, had that truck not been there, would this accident have even happened? There is fault on both sides, to be sure, since the dump truck driver was also cited for inattentive driving. However, how much each driver contributed to this accident is something that’s determined by a jury.
This kind of accident has always sparked my attention because we recently settled a case out of Texas where an accident happened on a major highway and a car was sent careening off the road. Unfortunately, a trucker had decided to stop and use the bathroom, so the car hit the back of the trailer and one person was killed and several were injured. If you ask me, there ought to be more serious consequences for illegally parking 18-wheelers simply due to the amount of damage that can be incurred in an accident with one.
