Wilmington, NC — A driver was injured in Wilmington earlier today (Monday, December 1, 2014) after there was a serious accident between their minivan and a dump truck. It happened along MLK Parkway, at the intersection with College Road.
Police said that a dump truck tried to make a left turn when it was unsafe, crashing into a Toyota minivan and injuring that driver. The time of the accident was listed at just before 12:00 p.m.
So far, though, no names have been released yet. The news reports made it sound like the minivan was headed along MLK Parkway while the dump truck trying to turn left onto MLK from College Road.
The accident caused a fuel leakage issue with the dump truck and the driver off the minivan was immediately taken to a hospital. So far, their condition isn’t being released.
The driver of the dump truck was later identified as Larry Britt, 63, and he was charged by police for making an improper left turn.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
I’m glad this accident wasn’t worse because heavy vehicles like dump trucks can cause some major damage when their drivers make mistakes behind the wheel. It looks like this dump truck driver made an unsafe turn, which makes it sound like he was ta fault for the accident. Now, I really hope that the company that owns this dump truck does the right thing and wants to take care of the damage their driver did. But, in my experience, profits are typically placed above feelings, and companies with big trucks like this are required to carry some very large insurance policies. To be completely honest, it’s in the trucking company’s best interest to protect their dump truck driver and at least try to avoid taking all the blame — after all, that can get expensive.
So why am I bringing this up? Well, our firm gets a lot of calls from people who have legitimate claims with insurance companies or even transportation companies. But more often than not, people make the assumption that the trucking company will assume responsibility and take care of the damage because it “seems” like they were at fault. In reality, the trucking company is more interested in shielding its financial exposure than doing the right thing, it’s a business decision.
But that “business” gets pretty personal when an insurance company only pays a mere percentage of your damages as opposed to the whole thing, doesn’t it? The key is to investigate as soon as possible and to take every opportunity to make sure that you can prove in court if need be that the truck driver is at fault. If you wait around for the police, you’ll be waiting a long time and the trucking company’s insurance carrier is going to use that extra time to build a solid argument against any claim you have.
Obviously, I’m not trying tell anyone what to do or that they ned to file suit — that requires much more time and effort that I simply don’t have the room for right here. But, I do want to encourage my readers to be prepared for when accidents like this happen. Make sure you have a plan to ensure that the appropriate party will be held accountable, because companies like have more than enough money to wait it out.
— Grossman Law Offices
