Urbana, OH — A man from West Liberty, 40-year old Charles Godwin, was badly injured on Tuesday in Urbana after his pickup truck was hit by a semi-truck that ran a stop sign. This happened along U.S. Highway 68, police said, a few miles south of Urbana.
Godwin was driving along U.S. 68 yesterday (November 4, 2014) when he came to the intersection with Dallas Road. A semi-truck headed east on Dallas apparently flew through the stop sign and jackknifed while trying to brake.
The semi-truck crashed into Godwin’s pickup truck, leaving him with very serious injuries. He was airlifted to a hospital and his current condition hasn’t been released.
The semi-truck driver was identified as Gary Baker, 60, and he was only moderately injured. Another driver was also involved in the accident, 21-year old Matthew Vogel, and he was slightly injured. At this point, though, it’s not clear how Vogel was involved in the wreck.
Right now, police are working on determining why Baker ran the stop sign and whether charges will be filed.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
There are a lot of things that might have gone wrong here, but if I were a betting man, I’d guess that this truck driver just wasn’t paying attention to the road and realized too late that he had a stop sign. I’ve heard lots of excuses about how “my brakes failed all of the sudden!,” but most of them are plain hogwash when you really get down to the fine details and investigate the accident scene.
The bottom line here? This truck driver seems to be completely at fault for the accident. However, I never recommend that people get too comfortable with things when you’re dealing with a trucking company in an accident situation. At the end of the day, these companies have big insurance policies and they don’t like opening their wallets unless they absolutely have to.
The most common thing I see in these situations is the trucking company trying to push some of the blame onto something else – like another car, the weather, bad brakes, etc. Although it seems strange, the company is usually committed to protecting their driver because that means they’re protecting themselves from lawsuits and other financial issues.
The best medicine for this kind of behavior is to have all the evidence that proves the truck driver was at fault. A regular police investigation is a good place to start, but a third party accident investigation is the best way to get all the details with an unbiased eye.
— Grossman Law Offices
