Police in New Jersey say that a tractor trailer merging onto I-295 onto the New Jersey Turnpike in Salem County overturned on the entrance ramp onto another vehicle, killing the second driver. 

The deceased driver was in a Nissan pickup truck. The rear of the big rig landed on top of the front section of the truck, which was completely flattened. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

The scene of the crash, police say, is a common place for tractor trailers to overturn as they merge from the curved ramp coming from I-295 onto the turnpike.

Our View

Truck accidents involving driver error are far too common in America today. There often is a tendency for truck drivers to be in a hurry so they can make more money; most truckers are paid per mile. Also, many trucking companies pressure drivers to get to their destination on time. This can making cutting safety corners very tempting.

However, the highest obligation that a truck driver has is to drive safely. The truck driver in this case should have known that he needed to take that ramp very slowly or his truck could overturn. Unfortunately, another person had to pay with is life for the trucker’s mistake.

Families who lose a loved one in this manner should know that they can file a wrongful death lawsuit and be compensated for their emotional pain. They also can receive money for the lost income and burial expenses of their loved one.

Our wrongful death truck crash attorneys handled a wrongful death action on behalf of a family whose loved one was killed by a careless truck driver; his vehicle was rear ended when he was driving slowly after a tire problem. That case netted the family $3.5 million.