New Burnside, Illinois — Authorities in New Burnside have identified the victims from last Wednesday’s fatal chain-reaction wreck on Route 45. Amy Sturms and Amy Duncam, both 31, along with Christopher Jones, 47, were all seriously injured after they were rear-ended by a semi-truck that failed to brake for a construction zone.
The accident happened at about 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning, May 27, 2015 just north of New Burnside.
Amy Sturms and Amy Davis were in Sturms’ van and were headed along Route 45 when they came to slowed traffic due to a construction zone. This was near South Walnut Grove Road. Christopher Jones was behind Sturms in a semi-truck.
Sturms’ vna and Jones’ semi-truckbegan to slow down, but another semi-truck behind them (driven by Ronald Parker) did not. Parker crashed his semi-truck into the back of Jones, pushing his truck into the back of Amy Sturms’ van.
The accident killed Ronald Parker while leaving Amy Sturms, her passenger Amy Duncan, and Christopher Jones all with serious injuries. It’s not clear why Parker didn’t stop that morning, but this may need to be investigated some more.
Map of the Accident
Commentary:
I’d be curious to know if any of my readers saw this accident or knowing anything more about it. At first glance, it appears that this is as simple as one driver not paying attention to the road ahead of him. While that’s certainly a very serious mistake to make, what if there was something else going that morning?
The reason I’m putting that question forward is because it seems like any driver ought to be able to stop construction traffic ahead of him, especially a semi-truck driver who sits up a higher vantage point than most. So what went wrong here?
Most truck drivers out there are hardworking, safety-conscious individuals who take their jobs very seriously. Then there’s all the other truck drivers that you read about on the news; the ones that fall asleep behind the wheel, drive while drunk, or run stop signs. Whenever I get into take on cases where things are nebulous or the police just flat-out don’t know much about what happened, the first thing I do is have a thorough investigation done to see if anything’s been missed. In cases where a driver is suspected of negligence, his records, his employer, his truck’s ECM data, and much more are taken into account to get a better picture of what really happened.
— Grossman Law Offices