Personal Injury Law

Three Dead In New York Tractor Trailer Accident

Three people died in a Long Island tractor trailer accident after their Ford Escort rammed into the back of a big rig parked on a residential street, The New York Times reports. According to the news report, the truck driver was asleep inside the stationary vehicle when the 1995 Ford Escort hit the tractor trailer and ended up almost entirely underneath the truck.

The three people who suffered fatal injuries in the crash were the driver, Araceli Carpenter, 19, of East Patchogue; and passengers Stephen Nowakowski, 25, of Ronkonkoma and Meagan Ferraro, 17, of Islip. Officials reportedly issued 15 citations to the truck driver, 29-year-old Charles Howard of North Carolina, but said that he was parked legally on the residential street and that the driver of the Escort was not speeding. Neighbors however told the newspaper that other truck drivers often park illegally on their street causing danger to other passenger vehicles.

This is a tragic yet typical case of a tractor trailer underride accident where a passenger vehicle, usually the front of the passenger vehicle, enters below the base of the trailer of a large truck. This type of ?underride? happens most often with smaller passenger cars and less with sport utility vehicles or pick-up trucks. These types of accidents often result in catastrophic or fatal injuries.

Full post as published by New York Injury Talk Blog on May 05, 2008 (boomark / email).