Woodland, WA — There was a wreck on I-5 near the Washington-Oregon border this past Monday morning, October 5, 2015 that left a man from Vancouver with serious injuries. From what was reported in the news, it looks like Maksim Les, a box truck driver, had to be airlifted to a hospital after his truck was rear-ended by a flatbed truck on I-5.
This happened at about 8:00 a.m., near the Lewis River.
The news reports say that Maksim Les was headed north along I-5 that morning while a driver name Lloyd Cooper was driving behind him in a flatbed truck. Cooper was apparently following too closely because he crashed into the back of Les’ box truck, causing Les to be trapped inside.
He was rushed to a hospital with a serious leg injury, but was in otherwise stable condition. Later, the news repots said that Maksim was driving halfway in the right-hand lane and halfway on the shoulder of I-5 due to engine problems.
Map of Woodland, Washington
Commentary:
From a legal standpoint, there is probably going to be some fault on both sides here. On the one hand, if a trucker is having engine problems or can’t drive the speed limit, they ought to get off the road as quickly as possible — or at least park on the shoulder and put some cones out. On the other hand, however, it sure seems like this flatbed truck was following too closely to begin with.
Normally, I’d say that a slow-moving truck on a busy highway is a HUGE safety hazard, but if this flatbed was following too closely, then the box truck driver probably didn’t have much of a chance to avoid being hit from behind. Obviously, there would need to be an investigation to really know what happened for sure, and a jury would ultimately decide who was at fault, not you or me. But from a legal standpoint, I would guess that both drivers here have at least some fault put on them, though it sounds like the flatbed truck driver ought to bear the lion’s share.
— Grossman Law Offices
