Rockford, IL — A man on a motorcycle was badly injured this past Tuesday morning (November 3, 2014) after an accident along Sandy Hollow Road with a Ryder semi-truck. The man wasn’t identified, but the last update said that he was taken to a hospital and was in critical condition.
The accident happened around 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, at the intersection with Sandy Hollow Road and Merchandise Drive.
Both the Ryder semi-truck and the motorcycle were headed east along Sandy Hollow Road when the Ryder truck tried to make a right-hand turn onto Merchandise Drive, failing to notice the motorcycle was next to him in the curb lane.
The motorcyclist hit the trailer of semi-truck and was wedged underneath it, critically injuring the rider. He was rushed to a hospital, but the trucker wasn’t harmed.
Right now, the news is saying that the police may file charges after their investigation is done, but nothing has been done so far.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
Let’s get a few things straight before anyone jumps to conclusions. First, a “curb” lane or a wide lane is typically shared by cars and bicyclists, not necessarily motorcyclists. So, I’m not sure that this motorcycle was following the law by driving in the curb lane, but the real question is whether the semi-truck did anything wrong by making the right turn. Did that driver have a duty to watch out for someone in the curb lane?
Well, let’s imagine this accident involved a bicycle in the curb lane, not a motorcycle. Since bicyclists are usually allowed in the curb lane, that would mean that the semi-truck probably didn’t check his mirrors before making the turn — which could be interpreted as negligent. So I’d have to say that, yes, someone could argue that this semi-truck driver should have noticed the motorcycle next to him before making the right-hand turn.
Obviously, though, this requires more information than we have at hand. The news reports can only cover so much information and the police investigation likely won’t be detailed enough to determine anything other than whether this trucker should be given a traffic citation.
When someone causes an accident through their negligence, they can be held liable for injuries they inflicted. Of course, the law requires that you prove this, not just make allegations. That’s why having an investigation is so important. I don’t know whether this motorcyclist would have a case against the semi-truck company, obviously, but you get the gist of how this works.
As a side note, Ryder Integrated Logistics is a major company with thousands of truckers in their employ. However, they’ve also got hundreds of wrecks (321) on their record, with 15 fatalities in just the past 2 years. I’ve seen trucking companies with 10,000+ truckers in their fleet and they don’t have half that many accidents on their record. I’m not saying that these statistics prove that this accident was the trucker’s fault, but it’s important information to consider because it might reflect on how much attention Ryder pays to safety regulations and hiring safe drivers.
— Grossman Law Offices
