Phelps County, MO — At about 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday night this week (September 9, 2015), there was an accident along I-44 that left three truckers with serious injuries and two more truck drivers with moderate injuries. Balbir Singh, 49, Rajan Singh, 21, and Miroslav Lakic, 49, were all seriously hurt after Lavic’s 18-wheeler truck started a chain-reaction accident in Phelps County.
This happened near Exit 169, in the Powellsville area.
Lavic was headed headed west along I-44 that night when, for unknown reasons, he slammed into the back of another 18-wheeler driven by 27-year old Moses Konyon, from Burlington, Texas. After that impact, Lavic’s semi-truck swerved into oncoming traffic, where it collided head-on with Rahan Singh’s semi-truck that was headed east.
A fourth 18-wheeler, driven by 35-year old Timothy Pratt, then collided with the wreckage because he was unable to avoid it. The Missouri State troopers on the scene said that it appears Lavic’s truck was the one that started the chain-reaction wreck.
Rajan Singh and his passenger, Balbir Singh, were both seriously injured and were rushed to a hospital via helicopter. Miroslav Lakic was also seriously hurt and flown to a nearby medical center as well.
The other truck drivers, Timothy Pratt and Moses Konyon, were less-seriously harmed, but were treated at hospitals nevertheless.
Right now, it’s not clear if the state troopers will file charges against Lakic for failing to control his speed that night.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
This trucker, who is apparently from Canada, has some explaining to do — and he’s lucky that this wasn’t a fatal accident. I didn’t want to post any photos of the accident on this page for sensitivity reasons, but the entire wreckage site looks like something from a movie set, the destruction caused by one driver’s mistake is unbelievable.
So what exactly happened here? Was this driver even paying attention that night? Or are there details here that we’re not seeing, things that would change our perception of what happened?
The first place I would start is the trucker’s driving history (the one that lost control), the ECM data on the truck itself, any history of accidents or issues with the trucking company, and nearby cellular towers to see if cellphone distraction was perhaps a factor here. That kind of information would paint a more full picture of what happened and, more importantly, why it happened.
The end goal in investigating these accidents is to make sure that they don’t happen again, which usually means fixing/correcting some negligent behavior. I’m guessing that this accident wasn’t just caused by an “honest mistake,” so what did cause it?
— Grossman Law Offices
