Hopkinton, MA — August 22, 2024, one person was injured following a box truck accident at around 2:30 p.m. along Interstate 495.
According to initial details about the accident, it happened along northbound lanes of I-495 about a mile south of Exit 58 for the I-90 interchange.
Investigators said that the victim was in a car going along northbound I-495. A box truck also going northbound apparently lost control and crashed into a guardrail. This led to the box truck crossing traffic lanes and hitting the victim’s car, forcing it off-road where it overturned. Due to this, the driver of the car was seriously injured. There were not other reported injuries.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Right now, the cause of the crash is unspecified. It’s possible this was all due to something sudden, like a tire blowout, for example. But it’s more common for this sort of thing to be the result of driver error. Did that happen here, and if so, why did it happen? At the end of the day, it’s not just about finding a bad guy to pin blame on. Oftentimes, thorough investigations can show a truck driver’s mistake to be the inevitable result of the environment their employer put them in.
Let me give an example. A while back, a fatigued truck driver who had been behind the wheel for over 20 hours straight caused a serious accident. It was clear he messed up, and authorities felt that was case closed. Well, we kept digging, and it turned out the driver’s employer incentivized that behavior. They routinely set unreasonable deadlines, expecting drivers to cut corners and break rules to meet them. The drivers who did so continued getting work. The drivers who prioritized safety were passed over for further work, meaning they either had to find a new job or fall in line and start breaking the rules, too.
I’ve handled hundreds of commercial vehicle accident cases, and these companies are not outliers. Plenty of companies out there care far more about productivity than they do the safety of the general public or even their own drivers. But when they let their driver take all of the blame, they’re let off the hook to continue their behavior, and people will inevitably get hurt again. That’s why it’s crucial in these situations to know the whole story. Was this some unusual, unavoidable accident? Was this one individual’s mistake? Was this a series of decisions from multiple parties that culminated in a foreseeable, preventable accident? The evidence needs to be able to answer these questions.
