Articles Posted in Trucking Accidents

Our San Diego truck accident lawyer was saddened this week to read reports of yet another deadly crash on our area highways. This latest San Diego truck crash struck last night on Interstate 805. According to reports in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the crash occurred just past 10 p.m. on the highway’s southbound lanes just south of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard. It involved a small sedan and a Federal Express semi with two trailers being pulled.

The California Highway Patrol reported that the accident is still being investigated, however a few early details are known. It seems that a Federal Express semi truck somehow T-boned the car. The car suffered significant damage, with the impact occurring on the passenger side of the vehicle. The broadside impact caused the car to spin off the roadway; the tractor-trailer eventually made its way to the center divider of the freeway. As is often the case, this San Diego Fed-Ex crash was deadly. A front seat passenger, 56-year old Thoy Insixiengmay as well as a woman in the back-seat of the car, 59-year old Tem Thirakul were both killed in the collision. The driver has yet to be identified; however, she was taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital in serious condition. All of the victims are thought to be from the San Diego area.

Our San Diego trucking crash attorney knows that so many of these collisions involving semi-trailer end up causing severe injury and death. It is no surprise that these large machines are capable of severely injuring those in the smaller vehicles around them, particularly when traveling in high-speed areas like freeways. The immense risks associated with these collisions make it imperative that truck owners and operators do everything possible to ensure that there are no lapses of safe driving practices.

The most damaging accidents on our area roadways are often those involving large semi-trailers. San Diego truck accidents continue to take the lives of many area residents. Unfortunately, a large number of these tragedies are caused by negligent truck driving and could have been prevented if the truck driver had exhibited proper care. Just this week the Sierra Vista Herald reported on yet another tragic San Diego truck crash. This latest accident took the life of a 65-year old pickup truck driver and a 2-year old girl. Four other people (including three children) were also injured in the crash.

The accident struck early Tuesday afternoon on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 10 just east of Wilcox. A truck driver was traveling on the highway when he lost control of his vehicle. The truck eventually flipped over on its side, blocking all eastbound traffic lanes on the interstate. It was only a matter of time before an unsuspecting on-coming vehicle approached the accident site. The first vehicle to come up upon the overturned truck was a 2001 Ford pickup truck. The driver was unable to account for the stopped semi, and the pickup collided with the rear of the trailer.

There were four passengers in the pickup truck as well as a driver. The youngest passenger, a two-year old girl named Mercedes Young, was killed in the collision. Also killed was 65-year old Isaac High. Four other members of the Young family were injured including three children aged 4, 7, and 8. It remains unclear what led the truck driver to lose control of the machine. It is important that a thorough investigation be conducted to understand what happened and figure out if the accident could have been prevented.

There is a great story in the L.A. Times today about an out-of-work and homeless plumber named Stephen Schulman who was run over by a large delivery truck while sleeping near a dumpster. His legs were crushed, and in a great scene, he checks himself out of the nursing home where he is recuperating and spends a day, riding busses, and limping across Los Angeles County to confront the trucking company owner about his injuries:

He climbed the concrete steps into a bungalow office. Sweat poured down his frame, slight but for his potbelly. His wounded foot felt like it might give out, but this was his moment, the one he had been waiting for. He faced the company owner.

“One of your truck drivers ran me over,” he said.