A Cell Phone in the Hands of a Semi Driver Can be Deadly!

Our client had eaten lunch with a friend whom she had met in Avon, Indiana. They had a nice lunch, and our client was on her way back home. She stopped at a stop light waiting for the light to turn green when, without any warning, a semi tractor pulling a flatbed trailer slammed into the rear of her vehicle. The truck was owned by a towing company. The flatbed was used to haul vehicles. Unfortunately, our client didn’t have a chance. The semi had not slowed before impact. Our client died at the scene. There was no evidence of braking or swerving on the part of the semi-driver before impact.

Craig, Kelley, & Faultless, a personal injury law firm was hired by the decedent’s husband. When something like this happens, the victim’s family wants to know why. Why did this accident happen? They are confused, overwhelmed, and in shock. Although our law firm didn’t have immediate answers, we promised the family we would do a complete investigation.

The first thing that we did was put a team together to represent the victim’s family. The team was headed up by myself, David W. Craig, and Scott A. Faultless. Both of us are board-certified in Truck Accident Law and have years of experience handling these types of cases. The team also consisted of Clint Crabtree, our Crash Response Team Coordinator, our firm investigator, retired state trooper Don May, a file manager, and the litigation supervisor, Ashley Napier. Outside of the law firm, we retained an accident reconstructionist, mechanic, and download expert.

The next thing that we did was send out Preservation of Evidence letters to the truck driver, his employer, and their insurance carrier. Once we tracked down the semi and the client’s car, we sent Preservation of Evidence letters to the tow yard. We then coordinated a date and time to inspect both vehicles. At the same time, we sent our investigator and reconstructionist to the scene of the wreck.

From the witness statements we were able to determine that the truck driver never slowed or swerved before impact. We also confirmed that our client was stopped at the traffic light and the light was red at the time of the collision.

After our inspection of the semi-tractor, its trailer, and the client’s vehicle, we confirmed that our client was stopped at the time of the collision and our client had her seatbelt fastened. We confirmed that the semi did not brake or slow before impact.

Cell phone use, distraction, or the driver falling asleep were our suspicions after gathering witness statements and reports from the vehicle inspections. In these types of cases, we utilize a forensic expert to download cell phones. We also conducted other discovery, including non–party requests for the production of documents to the cell phone companies. It was ultimately determined that the semi-driver was using his cell phone for GPS. He was trying to find the location where he was to pick up a vehicle.

The semi-driver only took his eyes off the road for a short period of time, but that was long enough for the semi to rear–end our client’s vehicle and cause her death. This goes to show that taking your eyes off the road for even just seconds to look at the map on a GPS can be deadly.

A lawsuit had to be filed in this case, but the case did not have to go to trial, and it was settled. One of the more frustrating things about this case was that the police did not charge the driver of the semi for distracted or reckless driving. Nor did the semi-driver even get ticketed for using his cell phone at the time of the wreck.