Middletown, CT – Peter Virgo, 40, Christoper Hylan, 54, and David Delisle, 35, were injured when an 18-wheeler crashed through a Middletown, CT construction zone, Monday.
The accident occurred as a semi-truck, driven by Leon Nelson, 55, reportedly tried to use the breakdown lane along I-91. Unfortunately, this lane was occupied by construction workers and their equipment. It looks like Mr. Nelson’s truck struck a construction pick-up, causing Mr. Virgo to suffer a non-life threatening head injury. As the tractor-trailer continued threw the construction zone, Mr. Hylan and Mr. Delisle were forced to jump over a guardrail to avoid getting hit. They also suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to a nearby hospital where they were treated and released. It appears that the truck driver was uninjured.
The driver of the 18-wheeler received several citations and OSHA is said to be opening an investigation into the incident.
Map of the Area Near the Accident
Commentary
In instances like this, where people are hurt and the person who hurt them is cited by the police, it’s easy for an armchair lawyer to assume that it’s a pretty simple case, that one party is certainly liable. However, legal cases are rarely so cut and dry.
I mention this because in my experience, professional truck drivers usually don’t pull off to the side of the road absent some sort of mechanical issue. In cases like that, it’s quite possible that the person who ultimately ends up being to blame for the whole mess is not even mentioned in the news story. It happens more than we’d like to admit that trucking companies do not always maintain their vehicles as they should, placing both their drivers and the people who end up being hurt by their trucks at risk.
This isn’t to take away the very real suffering and damage done to those who are injured in cases like these. The law is in place to attempt to make them whole, but before we rush to judge people based upon the contents of a news article, it’s important to step back and ask the extra questions, like who was in charge of maintaining the vehicle and why did the truck pull off the road in the first place? You can’t have justice, until you have answers to those and many more questions.
–Grossman Law Offices