Jamestown, MO — Police identified Kenneth Ernst, 68, as the truck driver who was badly injured on Thursday of this week, May 21, 2015. They said that Ernst was hurt after his semi-truck was hit by a tanker truck along Missouri Highway 87, in the Jamestown area.
The accident happened at about 9:30 p.m. that night in the northbound lanes, and it appears that the tanker truck driver may have been the cause of it.
24-year old Devin Baysinger was pulling his tanker truck from a driveway onto Highway 87 and part of his truck was jutting out into the northbound lanes. Kenneth Ernst was driving north that night in his semi-truck and wasn’t able to brake in time, crashing head-on into Baysinger’s tanker truck.
The accident didn’t harm Baysinger at all, but Ernst was flown to a hospital with very critical injuries. It’s not clear if Baysinger was working for a company at the time.
Map of the Approximate Area
Commentary:
This truck driver here may have been driving for himself that night, but I’m guessing he was part of a larger transport or trucking company. Why is that important? Well, you have to consider here that this young driver may a pretty critical mistake that resulted in very serious injuries for another driver. I don’t know if that’s because he just wasn’t paying attention, wasn’t trained very well, or was even under the influence — the police report doesn’t contain any of that information. But regardless, this reflects back on his employer, who will have to responsibility for his actions.
One more thing, it appears that the victim here may have been a commercial truck driver himself, which would make this technically an “on the job” incident. Well, that may be how the victim’s employer sees it, but that’s not exactly how the law would look at things. Since the trucker who caused this accident presumably wasn’t a co-worker with the victim, a claim here would be treated the same as any other personal injury lawsuit, not a work-related claim. Obviously, I don’t know what really happened here, so I’m not suggesting that there is a viable claim, just explaining how the law works. Many peoples’ employers don’t take the time to explain what kind of legal rights their employees have (and many don’t even know!) so I understand how things can look a little murky in the aftermath of an accident as serious as this one.
— Grossman Law Offices