MT PLEASANT, TX — A collision between a pickup truck and a tractor-trailer sent one driver to the hospital in Mt. Pleasant, Texas on Wednesday, May 28th, 2014, according to a news story from KLTV.
Police with information from the crash investigation say 80-year-old Joe Bradford was hurt when the Dodge Pickup truck he was driving was hit by a tractor-trailer while turning near NAPA Auto Parts on West Fergueson on Wednesday afternoon.
Scene of the Accident
Emergency personnel transported Joe Bradford in a helicopter to East Texas Medical Center where he was last listed in critical condition by medical staff. The driver of the tractor-trailer was immediately unhurt after the accident.
Representatives from the Mount Pleasant Police Department are handling the crash investigation.
Commentary:
This is another situation where I’d be very interested to have a look at the road layout in the area at the time of the accident. Additionally, the news report indicates that the victim may have been struck when they were turning out of a parking lot. If this is true, determining the speed at which the tractor-trailer was traveling should be the next order of business. Why is this information important? Think back to whenever you have turned across traffic when you assume you have plenty of room, but as soon as you make it safely across, you see a vehicle that has missed you by a few feet in your rear view go whizzing by. Why is this? When a vehicle is traveling in your direction, as is the case when you are waiting to turn across traffic, it can be extremely hard to determine the speed of the vehicle, and people tend to assume these cars are going the speed limit. If the truck was speeding, the victim may have assumed there was enough room when there actually wasn’t and the trucking company could be to blame.
–Grossman Law Offices
