Semi-truck versus car: It’s a matter of physics

If you drive about two and a half hours southwest of Akron, you will come to the bucolic village of Enon, Ohio, sitting along the Mad River and Interstate 70. On a recent afternoon a wrong-way car recently ran head-on into a tractor-trailer on the highway. The car burst into flames and its 35-year-old driver was pronounced dead at the scene of the violent crash.

“You got 80,000 pounds approximately in the truck versus approximately a 3,000-pound vehicle. You know who the winner is going to be,” said a lieutenant with the Ohio State Patrol. “It’s going to be the truck.”

The physics of that fatal truck accident play out over and over again across our state. Large, commercial vehicles and much smaller, much lighter passenger vehicles collide and it is almost invariably the occupant of the car, the pick-up or the SUV who loses. Sometimes they suffer severe injuries — head injuries, back injuries, amputations, deep lacerations, etc. — and sometimes they are killed.

In the accident we cited, it appears that the passenger vehicle driver was at fault. When the trucker is the cause of the crash, it can be due to a variety of reasons, including distractions, fatigue, substance abuse (alcohol or drugs), driving too fast for weather conditions, inadequate training, or vehicle failure, among others. In all of those cases, the burden for the cost of medical care, lost wages and other damages can fall to the victim — the driver of the passenger vehicle — rather than the truck driver or the company he worked for.

In order to get them and their insurance company to take financial responsibility for damages, it often requires an experienced attorney to initiate litigation (or issue the threat of vigorous litigation) to force them to give the victim full and fair compensation. An Akron law firm experienced in motor vehicle accident litigation can answer your questions about your circumstances and legal options.