Grifton, NC — According to some recent news reports, it looks like a man was critically injured just outside of Grifton this past Friday (November 27, 2015) after his minivan was hit by a semi-truck. The accident happened along Highway 11, near Hanrahan Road.
Not many details about what happened have been released, but we’ve learned a few of the facts.
The police said that a Florida man was driving a semi-truck along a side road last Friday evening at about 5:30 p.m. when he pulled out onto Highway 11, directly into the path of a passing minivan.
The man driving the minivan was badly injured and had to be airlifted to a Greenville Hospital. At the last update, he was in critical condition.
The trucker wasn’t harmed, but the police later charged him with reckless and careless driving, as well as operating with no license. That driver’s name wasn’t released either.
Map of the Accident
Commentary:
If what I’m reading in the news is correct, then it sounds like this truck driver ought to be held accountable for his mistakes. The article I’ve provided below describes my point here in a little more detail, but I want to illustrate that just because this trucker was charged by the police doesn’t mean that he or his trucking are going to be required to take responsibility for what happened.
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In other words, there’s a difference between being at fault for an accident and being guilty of negligence. The way the legal system works, plaintiffs (victims) in an accident case are required to prove that the accused party was negligent in causing their injuries. Simply relying on the police report to prove your case for you won’t suffice, because trucking companies will mount their own investigation and look for ways to avoid taking the blame.
Furthermore, as you’ll read in the article above, police reports are not inherently admissible in court, and if they’re not properly “proved up,” a jury will never get to see them.
I don’t really know if there’s a “claim” here, but I get calls all the time from people wanting to know their rights after they’ve been involved in an accident with a commercial truck. By a wide margin, most people don’t realize how much work goes into filing a claim against a trucking company, so I try to provide helpful information here.
However, I will say that driving a semi-truck with no commercial driver’s license is a major offense and any trucking company who’s letting their driver do that is guilty of negligence. It’s their responsibility to make sure only safe drivers are behind the wheels of their trucks.
— Grossman Law Offices
