Ridgefield Park, NJ — A driver was injured after his 18-wheeler burst into flames after crashing into a concrete barrier in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. The accident took place on the New Jersey Turnpike, around 5:30 in the morning.
Lawrence Scherf has been identified as the driver of an 18-wheeler who lost control before crashing into a guardrail and a concrete barrier. The truck came to a stop with its cab hanging over Overpeck Creek. Scherf was rescued from the creek by three state troopers, but not before he suffered burns over more than 60% of his body. It’s unclear at this point whether he was thrown from the truck or if he jumped out.
Police are currently investigating the accident in an attempt to discover what caused Scherf to lose control.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary
There are two things we need to distinguish between here, and those are workers comp cases and products liability cases. Workers comp comes into play when an employee is injured during the course of their regular duties. If the driver has been injured while operating a forklift, then workers comp would get involved. What happened here cannot be considered to be reasonably inside the course of the driver’s regular duties.
Keep in mind that we’re not talking about the accident itself. It is conceivable that a truck driver would get into an accident during the course of this or that run. Those wouldn’t be considered extraordinary circumstances. We’re talking about the fact that the truck burst into flames after the accident. Trucks aren’t supposed to do that. Occurrences like this often speak to something being wrong with the truck itself. Who would be responsible for something like that? Oftentimes it’s whoever is responsible for truck’s maintenance. Other times it’s the manufacturer. In any case, it’s something that needs to be looked into, because if something was wrong with the truck, the truck driver’s owed some answers.
— Grossman Law Offices
