Panama City, FL — Earlier on Wednesday morning of this week, May 20, a dump truck pulled into the path of a Nissan Versa and caused a serious accident that left both people in the Nissan with critical injuries. They were identified as Felton Bland, 26, and Heather Williams, 26. They were from Panama City, the police said.
This accident happened at about 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, at the intersection of Highway 77 and McKenzie Road.
Bland was driving his Nissan Versa south along Highway 77 with Williams as a passenger when he came upon the intersection with McKenzie Road and crashed into a dump truck that pulled out in front of him.
The dump truck’s driver, Cyle Potter, had apparently been going east on McKenzie Road that morning when he tried to turn left onto 77 and didn’t yield to Felton Bland’s oncoming car.
So far, the FHP said they’re investigating and may charge Potter for the failure to yield. Potter was not harmed in the accident, but both Williams and Bland were last said to be in critical condition.
Map of Panama City
Commentary:
Unless there are some details missing here that I don’t know about, it doesn’t sound like the couple in the smaller care did anything to cause this accident. The question is: “What caused this wreck and how can it be prevented in the future?” If the dump truck driver here caused it, then he and his employer would need to be held liable. Without any details posted about what happened, it’s hard to say how this would play out. But, for example, what if we investigate this truck driver a little more and find that he’s not qualified to be behind the wheel of a commercial truck in the first place? What if we find he was distracted or even under the influence?
I’m not saying that any of these things are true, but something obviously went wrong for this to have happened. And if this trucker is facing charges from the police, I’m guessing there may be more going on here than we’re hearing from the news.
— Grossman Law Offices