truck accident

Published on: January 25, 2023

Ford Motor Company Held Accountable!

Between 1999 and 2016, Ford Motor Company made a lot of money selling defective Super Duty trucks. Over 5.2 MILLION of the defective trucks were sold during the time period. The roofs on the trucks were dangerously weak and prone to collapse in the event of a rollover. This put vehicle occupants at risk of serious injury or death. Though Ford Motor Company knew about these risks, the defects remained concealed from the general public. As reports of injuries and fatalities mounted, Ford Motor Company continued to sell the defective trucks. No safety recall was issued.

In April 2014, two unknowing victims, 62-year-old Voncile Hill and her husband, 74-year-old Melvin Hill, were driving their 2002 Super Duty F-250 on a highway in Georgia when one of their truck’s tires blew out. The truck overturned, the roof caved in, and the elderly couple was crushed and killed.

In the negligence and wrongful death lawsuit that followed, attorneys for the couple’s estate sought out to prove that the couple would have survived the wreck if the truck’s roof had not been defectively designed and manufactured. At trial, the personal injury attorneys presented evidence of nearly 80 similar occasions where accident victims were either killed or seriously injured due to roofs on the defective trucks caving in during rollover accidents.

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Published on: August 12, 2017

Big Rig Collisions Causing More Suffering Than Necessary, And How We Can Fix It

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

A collision between a personal vehicle and a big rig can be devastating. Those involved may experience injury or death, while their loved ones are tasked with caring for them (if they’re lucky), or making arrangements for a memorial service (if they’re not). Under such tragic circumstances, the victims and their families should be provided with fair and adequate compensation to aid with their expenses. However, many commercial trucks carry the absolute minimum amount of insurance coverage— and typically, that’s not nearly enough.

The federal minimum for liability insurance for truckers is $750,000. Although that may sound like a lot of money, the damage that tractor trailers inflict in a collision often dwarfs this minimal sum. Congress set the minimum at $750,000 back in 1985, and has not been changed it since. It has not even been adjusted for inflation. If it were, the minimum would now be $2.2 million. Needless to say, the victims of collisions caused by negligent truck drivers are increasingly finding themselves fighting for compensation that is woefully insufficient to cover their medical bills.

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Published on: November 15, 2015

City Responds to 11 Pedestrian Deaths in Single Week

By Caesar, Napoli & Spivak PLLC

Last week was one of the worst for New York pedestrians, with 11 pedestrian deaths occurring across the city in a span of several days.

This recent surge in traffic fatalities reflects poorly on Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative, a plan introduced last year that reduced speed limits, increased the number of red light cameras and cracked down on jaywalkers in order to eliminate auto injuries and fatalities. Many critics say Vision Zero is not doing nearly enough to reach the mayor’s goal.

Last week’s pedestrian deaths included 3 trick-or-treaters killed when a car jumped the curb, as well as a grandmother struck by a dump truck on her way to a Bronx laundromat. 50-year-old Floria Burton, known as Ms. Pat by her friends and neighbors, was caught under the truck’s wheels while crossing the street with her friend Maritza Delesus. When Maritza banged on the driver’s door asking him to stop, the driver reversed back over Floria, crushing her body a second time.
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