Two women died in Coolbaugh Township, Pennsylvania on Dec. 5 when their slow-moving car with a flat tire was hit by a tractor trailer. 

The tragic truck accident happened just after midnight on Dec. 5 in the southbound lane of I-380 in Monroe County PA.

The two women – Brooke Hughes, 18, and Chaniya Morrison-Toomey, 19, were traveling slowly in the right lane because they had a flat tire, according to the Pennsylvania State Police.

The tractor trailer behind them was unable to slow in time and slammed into their Suzuki Forenza. The car then smashed into the guardrail and burst into flames. Both women died at the scene.

Our View

This is a particularly tragic tractor trailer accident that needlessly resulted in the deaths of two young women. Our tractor trailer injury and wrongful death attorneys in Virginia once worked on a similar truck crash case.

A commercial truck driver rear ended a car on I-64 in Virginia, as the vehicle was driving slowly due to a tire problem. The vehicle caught fire when the truck slammed into it and our client died.

The truck driver admitted in deposition that he failed to see the car until just seconds before the crash. The defense attorneys argued that the driver of the car caused the fatal truck accident because it was going 25 MPH on an interstate.

However, our wrongful death attorneys successfully argued that the truck driver had violated Virginia CDL manual rules, and he also had a diabetes issue that he had not treated adequately. This condition was shown to have contributed to the crash.

The result of this rear end truck crash lawsuit was a $3.5 million settlement, part of which was used to ensure that his five year old daughter would be properly cared for.

Our experience in this type of rear end truck collision shows that with proper legal counsel, it still is possible to receive a large wrongful death settlement, even if the vehicle that was struck by the truck was traveling well under the speed limit on a US interstate.