Trucking Accidents Rumble through the Courts

Forth Worth, TXWhen a semi truck accident happens, you don't even have to read beyond the headlines to know what comes next. Trucking accidents translate to death, injury, and carnage on the highways. Until they find a way to segregate 18-wheelers onto their own highway and out of the path of smaller cars, the carnage will continue.

Imagine what can happen when an 18-wheeler tangles with a small car. Now, imagine that car in the middle of six 18-wheelers.

That's what happened in Tyler Texas on September 30th, when a semi truck hauling hazardous materials overturned and caught fire on Interstate 20 in Smith County, about 100 miles east of Dallas. The driver of the truck escaped, unharmed. But the same can't be said for the two occupants of the small car that was traveling behind the truck, but stopped in time to avoid what would have become, for them a funeral pyre.

It didn't help them. Just as the car pulled up several yards behind the roaring flames, it was violently struck from behind by another 18-wheel rig. The latter couldn't stop in time, and the diminutive car was no match for the hulking goliath, which also burst into flames on impact. The car was hurled across another line of traffic, and the two occupants didn't stand a chance.

It was the only car involved in the accident. The other six vehicles were all 18-wheelers. The eastbound lanes of Interstate 20 at exit 560 were closed for hours while emergency crews cleared the wreckage, and cleaned up fuel spills.

If the sheer weight of a fully loaded 18-wheel rig is a sizeable-enough risk, so too is the cargo that sometimes comes loose, with equally tragic results.

In this story, also in the great State of Texas, a Cleburne couple was driving southbound along Farm Road 157 in Venus, Texas. Little did they know that the 18-wheeler coming the other way would spell disaster in mere seconds. That's because the 21-year-old driver of the rig allegedly failed to control his speed, or ensure that his load was adequately secured.

As the two vehicles passed one another, a large piece of oilfield equipment tumbled from the trailer and slammed into the driver's side of Rhonda Henson's car. She was killed. It was not reported if damage also extended to the driver's side-rear of the vehicle, but it is reasonable to assume the tragedy may have taken on even greater proportions had the Henson's three sons—aged 14, 15 and 18—been in the car with their parents at the time of the crash. As it was, Rhonda Henson's husband Thomas was the only passenger in the car. He survived, and the family is suing Pioneer drilling Company, PDC MGMT. Co., Pioneer Drilling Services Ltd., and the driver, Daniel Armstrong.

Accidents can, and do happen—and sometimes they can't be prevented. But more often than not, they can. A truck can be driven responsibly, maintained and serviced diligently, and loads strapped down securely.

When that doesn't happen and the result is death or injury, someone should be made to pay. When trucks are allowed to lumber along the nation's highways in increasing numbers, while cars are becoming increasingly smaller, someone has to be made to answer for such an allowance—especially when lives are lost needlessly.

In both cases two families, simply driving from Point A to Point B, are suddenly and irrevocably devastated.

It could have easily been you.

And that's why the courts are busy, inhabited by truck accident lawyers lobbying for financial compensation on behalf of clients just out for a drive, minding their own business. Perhaps driving a smaller car to cut back on fuel, and to minimize their environmental footprint.

An individual. A family. Wiped out in an instant, through no fault of their own.