www.wavy.com
They said that the accident started when a semi-truck failed to slow down in time for slower traffic ahead of it. A farm truck was driving slowly along Quay Road that afternoon, according to their reports, with a pickup truck driving behind it.
A semi-truck came upon the pickup and the farm truck and failed to brake in time, crashing into the back of the pickup truck. The impact forced both vehicles off of Quay Road and into a residential yard. The man in the pickup truck had to be taken to Sentara Obici Hospital for his injuries, but was believed to be in stable condition as of Wednesday night.
The semi-truck driver was taken to a hospital in a medical helicopter, but his condition wasn’t ever released. So far, the police are going to keep looking into what happened and will determine later whether any charges will be filed for the trucker’s failure to brake.
Map of the Accident
View from the Road
Commentary:
Looking at this accident, it’s fortunate that it wasn’t more severe because a semi-truck of that size can do some serious damage. Does anybody known why didn’t this trucker stop in time? Was he just not paying attention to the road that day? Had he dozed off behind the wheel? Had he been using his phone or fiddling with the radio?
The reason I’m asking is because something must have gone wrong for a semi-truck driver to not notice two vehicles in front of him moving so slowly. If the pickup and farm truck had their flashers on as well, then it doesn’t paint a very good picture for the semi-truck driver. I would be curious to see what a jury would say about an accident like this because the police didn’t seem to be very interested in filing any kind of charges, traffic or otherwise. The trucking company that employed this driver and owned the truck should step forward and make things right, taking responsibility for their employee. At the end of the day, we need to make sure that accidents like this one happen less and less often. If, for example, a truck driver isn’t paying attention to the road or has fallen asleep at the wheel, that’s usually indicative that there are larger problems beneath the surface. I don’t know about you, but I like to feel safe when I’m on the road with 18-wheelers and semi-trucks, so holding them accountable for their driver’s actions is extremely important.
— Grossman Law Offices
