Articles Tagged with Trucking Accident

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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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Tracy Morgan made his first television appearance Monday, just a few days after reaching a settlement with Walmart over the horrific auto collision last June that put him within an inch of his life. It’s been nearly a year since a Walmart tractor-trailer rear-ended Morgan’s vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike, but the actor and comedian still has a long way to go to full recovery.

Morgan’s vehicle was flipped on its head during the crash, causing serious injuries to two other passengers and killing Morgan’s good friend, comedy writer James McNair. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the Walmart truck was traveling at 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, and the driver had not slept in over 24 hours at the time of the collision.

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Tracy Morgan, the actor-comedian caught in a gruesome six-car pile-up this weekend, is in critical but stable condition, according to a spokesperson at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. Morgan is one of three passengers who are now in critical condition from the crash. His friend and fellow comedian James McNair died on the scene.The incident occurred early Saturday morning when a tractor-trailer owned by Wal-Mart collided with the back of Morgan’s vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike.The driver of the Wal-Mart tractor-trailer, Kevin Roper, has since been charged with vehicular homicide and assault by auto. According to NJ State Police Sgt. Gregory Williams, the collision was caused by Roper failing to anticipate the slow-down in traffic. “At the last minute, he swerved to try and avoid [Morgan’s vehicle] but struck it from behind, forcing the limo to rotate and overturn,” Williams said.In the coming weeks as the three passengers in critical condition continue to be treated for their injuries, the question will arise as to who will be paying their assuredly astronomical hospital bills. Wal-Mart, whose insurance will cover the damages if tractor-trailer driver Kevin Roper should be found responsible for the collision, has already begun taking steps to protect themselves.A Twitter account under Kevin Roper’s name has a biography section that up until recently read, “Trying to win more than lose! Driving trucks for a living it’s my road move or get hit! #Wal-Mart.”Since the collision, the statement, “it’s my road move or get hit!” has been removed from the bio, and Wal-Mart spokesperson Brooke Buchanan has stated that the account, which tweeted an apology to Morgan following accident, in fact does not belong to Roper.While the criminal complaint filed against Roper claims that he had not slept for over 24 straight hours prior to the crash, Wal-Mart has already come out with a statement saying, “It is our belief that Mr. Roper was operating within the federal hours of service regulations.”Wal-Mart has a long history of going to extreme lengths to avoid taking responsibility for its actions. I will be writing in future blogs about the scorched earth tactics Wal-Mart uses to “defend” itself in court. It saddens me that the message we are already receiving from Wal-Mart’s corporate offices indicates that in the case of this crash we can expect more of the same from this corporate giant.Sources: Kevin Conlon and Doug Ganley, “Police: Driver charged in Tracy Morgan crash was awake 24 hours,” CNN, June 9, 2014.Laura Bult, Eli Rosenberg, and Daniel Beekman, “Truck driver charged in Tracy Morgan crash had ‘Move or get hit’ in Twitter bio,” NY Daily News, June 9, 2014.

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