Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog
While passenger car drivers can certainly be seriously hurt or even killed as a result of a highway collision with a large commercial truck or bus, the drivers and occupants of those heavier motor vehicles can also be subject to severe or fatal injury. As Baltimore auto accident attorneys and Maryland personal injury lawyers, our job is to represent the victims of accidents who have experienced pain and suffering due to another individual’s negligent actions.
In cases where a traffic accident results in death, there may be sufficient evidence to support a wrongful death lawsuit against the other driver. Certainly, when a motorist causes an injury accident, there are instances where the victims may wish to recover some of all of the costs associated with the medical treatment and rehabilitation following such an accident.
Earlier last month, a Georgetown man crashed his vehicle head-on into an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig along a stretch of Rte 9 on a Tuesday morning. According to news reports, 50-year-old Richard Baker was traveling west on Rte 9 when for some reason the man’s minivan crossed over the centerline, running head-on into a semi driven by a Baltimore trucker.
State police reports indicated that the two-vehicle accident occurred just after 11am when Baker’s Chrysler minivan hit the eastbound commercial truck. Although police were still investigating the crash at the time of the news item, this kind of accident can many times be attributed to driver error. However, defective vehicle equipment such as a broken steering tie-rod or blown-out tire could have caused the driver of the passenger vehicle to lose control and veer into the oncoming lane.
In this instance the force of the crash caused a fire to start in the minivan, which then apparently spread to the semi tractor. When police arrived at the site of the collision, they were able to pull Baker from the burning wreckage, but all attempts to revive the motorist failed and he passed away at the scene from the extent of his injuries.
The truck, George Cherrey, 50, from the Baltimore area, was treated at the scene by emergency personnel for apparently minor injuries. He was subsequently transported to Beebe Medical Center for further medical attention and was not long after released from the hospital. According to police and news reports, the extent of the accident and investigation that followed resulted in closure of the highway for nearly three hours.
UPDATE: Name released in fatal Route 9 accident, DelmarvaNow.com, January 11, 2011