Phelps, NY — September 26, 2024, Richard Puryear, Donnie Miller, and one other were injured after a semi-truck accident at 4:35 a.m. on the New York Thruway.
Preliminary details about the accident say that it happened on eastbound lanes of I-90 in the area of Exit 42 for Highway 14.
It appears that 38-year-old Richard Puryear and 42-year-old Michael Villegas, both of Texas, were in a tractor-trailer going along the thruway. Up ahead, another tractor-trailer apparently lost control, crashed, and overturned across lanes of travel. Puryear’s truck then crashed into the overturned trailer. After this, another 18-wheeler driven by Donnie Miller crashed into Puryear and Villegas.
As a result of the collision, Puryear, Miller, and the driver of the overturned truck were injured. Michael Villegas had no confirmed injuries. Right now, the cause of the crash remains unconfirmed.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
As any experienced trucker will know, investigating crashes like this is likely to involve a lot more than just checking cell phone records and intoxication. With commercial vehicles, there are many other contributing factors that can lead to accidents, particularly when it comes to the possibility a driver worked for a reckless employer.
For example, it’s important to know how long a driver had been behind the wheel. I handled a case not long ago where a driver was driving for over 20 hours straight. That was obviously a mistake, but our continued digging revealed his employer routinely set unreasonable deadlines for drivers to meet. They coerced drivers into reckless behavior by essentially threatening to take away their livelihood if they didn’t cut corners to meet the ludicrous deadlines. It was just a matter of time before someone got hurt.
Many of the hundreds of commercial vehicle accident cases I’ve handled involved responsible, safe commercial drivers harmed by reckless commercial drivers giving the profession a bad reputation. It was never a surprise to those responsible drivers that their injuries were the result of employers who either encouraged reckless behavior or failed to take proper action to make things safer. There are plenty of companies out there that just want trucks on the road and have no regard for the experience or care of the drivers in those trucks. Depending on what exactly happened here, it could be similar shortcomings led to these events, as well.
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