Benton, MO — The local authorities in Yazoo County have reported that two people were hospitalized early last Friday morning (October 23, 2015) after an 18-wheeler rear-ended their cars. This happened on Highway 16 in rural Benton.
According to the news reports, this happened at about 6:15 a.m., at the intersection of Vaughn Road and Highway 16, shown on the map below.
It appears that a GMC Yukon and a Cadillac were both headed east along Highway 16 that morning then the driver of the GMC slowed down to make a turn onto Vaughn Road. An 18-wheeler truck was driving behind them, also headed east.
As the Cadillac slowed down, the 18-wheeler’s driver failed to notice and didn’t brake in time, hitting the back of the Cadillac and pushing it into the GMC.
Both the GMC and the Cadillac’s drivers were taken to a local hospital, but it’s not clear how badly they were hurt. The truck driver, who hasn’t been identified, wasn’t harmed at all. There may be charges here for the truck driver, who failed to brake, but that hasn’t been confirmed by the authorities in Yazoo County.
Map of the Area
View from the Road
Commentary:
It seems like this truck driver caused the accident by either not paying attention to what traffic was doing in front of him, or by taking his eyes off the road. In either case, I think it’s fairly obvious who is at fault here, but the question in these types of accident is never whether you think the driver is at fault, but whether it can be proven.
Take a case we recently handled, for example. A trucker rear-ended a car at a red light and killed a young woman, but when the victim’s family went to the trucking company to make things right, they flat-out denied their driver was in the wrong. Instead, they claimed that the light was green and the victim’s car was disabled. Well, we did some research on the truck’s ECM (black box) data and found that not only were the trucker’s brakes never applied before the collision, he was actually going well over the speed limit — suggesting that he not only caused the accident, but was being inattentive at the same time.
I don’t really know what caused this wreck, but it sounds like there ought to be an in-depth investigation to make sure the right parties are held accountable for the injuries. It’s a good thing this wasn’t worse, because an accident like this can easily turn fatal if a big 18-wheeler truck is involved.
— Grossman Law Offices
