Chester County, SC — April 16, 2024, one person was killed following a rear-end truck accident shortly after 12:00 noon along Interstate Highway 77.
According to authorities, a Dodge Ram pickup truck was traveling northbound on Interstate Highway 77 in the vicinity of mile marker 33 when the accident took place.
The causal factors that led to the wreck remain unclear. Officials indicate that, for as yet unknown reasons, the pickup truck failed to safely maintain its lane of travel. It reportedly veered off of the side of the roadway and where it collided with the rear-end of an 18-wheeler. The victim who had been behind the wheel of the pickup truck incurred reportedly fatal injuries as a result of the wreck. No other injuries have been reported.
Additional details pertaining to this incident—including the identity of the victim—are not available at this point in time. The investigation is currently ongoing.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
I’ve seen it countless times in rear-end crashes, people are far to quick to blame the driver in a rear-end collision for causing a crash. This is especially true when the driver crashes into a parked vehicle. However, in the real world these crashes are far more complex than people tend to think, and who is to blame isn’t always so clear-cut.
Allow me to explain. First, on most highways, the shoulder is for emergency stops. When I say emergencies, it’s important to be clear that I mean events such as unexpected mechanical problems or medical issues that prevent a vehicle from driving somewhere safer to stop. I don’t mean someone who just wants to get out and stretch their legs or a commercial driver who mismanaged his hours of service and needs to stop anywhere, no matter how unsafe.
What does this look like in practice? I litigated a case where a represented the family of a man who died as the result of crashing into the back of an 18-wheeler trailer that was disabled in the lane of travel. In that instance, the truck driver claimed he didn’t have any choice but to stop because the brakes on his trailer locked up. He said he had to stop right then and there.
Unfortunately for the driver and his employer, that story did not hold up under examination. When independent engineers looked at the vehicle, they concluded that while the trailer’s brakes locking up was not ideal, the vehicle could still move. In fact, had the driver not panicked, he could have driven the truck over to the shoulder and babied it to the nearest service station. This isn’t to pick on the driver. In that case, his employer had never trained him to deal with such a scenario. He didn’t even know that his truck could still move with the trailer brakes locked.
In the end, it was the trucking company’s poor training that led their driver to panic when something went wrong and make a dangerous decision.
Unfortunately, this happens more often than we would like to think, particularly in the trucking industry, where professional drivers are held to higher standards than other motorists. Often, it’s not even driver’s fault, but his employer who didn’t adequately prepare him to do the job safely.
My point is that while the average person reflexively blames the driver who rear-ends a parked car for causing the crash, the reality is often far more complex. That’s why we should all keep an open mind until more investigative work is done.
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