Truck Accident in the Bronx
WABC is reporting that a "horrible truck accident" took place this morning (May 17) in the Bronx between a tractor-trailer and a truck cab. (It looks like the truck cab may have been attached to a cement mixer, although it's hard to tell from the report.) Here are two of their photos:
The article says nobody was injured (though of course, it'll mess up traffic in the area, at least for today). If so, kudos to the driver of the smaller truck for thinking quickly enough to escape in time, because it looks like the cab of the truck was flattened. In fact, this accident illustrates the fundamental safety problem with large trucks: the laws of physics say that in a collision between two vehicles of unequal size, the smaller vehicle always loses. Passenger vehicles are designed to withstand an impact with another vehicle of equal size -- not a larger vehicle, whose weight brings significantly more pressure to the accident. That's why a collision between a large truck and any private passenger vehicle will probably result in death or serious injury to the people in the private car. And as you can see, even large trucks of unequal sizes aren't immune.
Of course, professional truckers have training and experience that's supposed to keep them from getting into accidents. But it doesn't always work that way, as some of our clients have, unfortunately, found. We were able to win $550,000 for one client who was hit by a turning tractor-trailer while she was stopped at a red light, causing spinal injuries as well as damage to her car. Between two economy cars, that probably would have been just a minor accident, if it had occurred at all. And that's why truck drivers -- and the companies that employ them and provide the trucks -- have a legal duty to be careful when they share the road with oprivate vehicles.
