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Car Falls Off Tractor-Trailer In Jackson Leading To Injuries

On Behalf of | Aug 26, 2013 | Personal Injury

Police in Jackson, MS say that a car accident along I-55 occurred last week after a vehicle fell off a car carrying truck. According to officers, the car carrier was too high and hit a bridge which knocked a Nissan Xterra off the truck and down onto the interstate.

Another vehicle then crashed into the Xterra soon after it fell off the back of the truck. The driver of that car, an as yet unnamed female, was injured in the accident and was taken by ambulance to the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The truck driver, Tony Izaguirre, says that as he was driving when he heard a loud pop and saw the SUV fly off the back of his truck. The trucker reportedly told news reporters in Jackson that the bridge was high enough to clear, saying, “It was my fault.” The trucker was heading from Texas to Jackson to pick up a vehicle and then drive back to Texas. According to police, the accident remains under investigation and formal criminal charges will not be filed until the investigation is complete.

Though freak accidents like this one are fairly rare, issues with trucking accidents due to unsecured loads are quite common. In fact, a study by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the main causes of truck accidents every year include driver fatigue, poor vehicle maintenance and the failure to secure loads properly. This failure to secure loads properly has led to many serious tractor-trailer accidents, like the recent one in Jackson. Many drivers are injured from colliding with trucks while trying to avoid unsecured items that have fallen off of or out of trucks. According to NTSB data, load problems are responsible for up to 10 percent of all truck accidents in the U.S. each year.

Every time that a truck pulls out of a yard and onto a roadway, the driver and the company responsible for loading the gear have a duty to all parties on the road to ensure that that the load is properly secured. When loads are unsecured and cargo falls off and either strike motorists or an accident occurs when a motorist attempts to avoid the cargo, someone is responsible for the damage that was done.

If a warehouse, dock or other distribution center allows a truck to leave without ensuring that the contents on the truck have been loaded properly, that warehouse could be held liable if the truck driver is involved in an accident due to that cargo shifting or falling onto the road. The driver is also responsible for performing his or her own safety check before leaving the warehouse. Even the trucking company may be held liable for any incident that results from improperly loaded cargo.

If you have been injured in a Mississippi car, motorcycle or tractor-trailer accident and think you may have a personal injury claim, please contact the Jackson / Ridgeland / Madison personal injury lawyers at Kilpatrick & Philley at 601-707-4669.

Source: “Vehicle falls off car carrier, causing wreck on I-55,” by Tammy Estwick, published at WAPT.com.

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