Hendricks County, Indiana — A man named James Jones, 58, from Monrovia was badly injured this past Thursday morning after his motorcycle was rear-ended by a dump truck in an accident. This happened near Plainfield on I-70 out in Hendricks County, the police said.
James Jones had been riding his motorcycle west along I-70 that morning around 6:45 a.m. when something happened and his bike broke down.
As Jones sat on the shoulder with his motorcycle, awaiting help, a dump truck driven by 48-year-old Ronald Thomas came along. For unknown reasons, Thomas’s dump truck crashed into the back of Jones’s motorcycle, which left Jones with a serious leg injury.
Ronald Thomas wasn’t harmed, but after a local tow truck company came out to haul the dump truck away, something went wrong and part of the truck fell on the tow truck worker. He was injured and had to be taken to a hospital as well.
Right now, it’s not clear why Thomas’ truck hit Jones’ motorcycle and whether Thomas’ dump truck had swerved out of its lane when it hit the motorcycle or whether the motorcycle had been in its lane of traffic.
Map of the Approximate Area
Commentary:
Folks, I’m not quite sure what to say here because I think that this dump truck driver has a LOT of explaining to do. Why exactly did the truck hit the motorcycle if the bike was pulled off to the shoulder?
Has this driver been cited for anything? Has his employer been notified about this accident? If it turns out the dump truck driver here was negligent for hitting the motorcycle that morning, then it may be the man’s employer who ends up being held liable. In legal terms, we call that vicarious liability, which is when an employer is responsible by default for his employee’s actions so long as they are within the course and scope of their duty.
— Grossman Law Offices