A man from Harrisburg, Pennsyvania died late at night on Dec. 9 after he was hit by a jackknifed tractor trailer on I-78 in Berks County, Pennsylvania. 

The Pennsylvania State Police reported that the tractor trailer crash happened at 11:55 PM on I-78 near mile marker 35. The driver of the big rigt was going east when his trailer began to jackknife. The truck slammed into the rear of a 1999 Honda Accord that was on the shoulder of the road. It was disabled in a prior accident, and the car’s driver was standing outside the vehicle when he and car were struck by the truck’s trailer. He died at the crash scene.

Our View

Our tractor trailer crash attorneys who are licensed in Virginia and North Carolina are saddened that an innocent man lost his life when a truck driver lost control of his rig. Our truck crash law firm has years of experience working on truck crashes that lead to serious injuries and death, and we recently worked on a case where a passing tractor trailer sideswiped a disabled truck and driver on the shoulder of I-95 in Virginia.

In that truck crash, the widow of the deceased retained our personal injury law firm to look at the circumstances of the truck crash and represent her in a wrongful death lawsuit. This case was complicated by the fact that the truck driver that sideswiped our client died before the lawsuit took place. Our lawyers proved that the deceased truck driver had a medical condition that was not treated, and it led to the tragic truck accident. That case settled for $2.25 million. 

We don’t know why the truck in the Pennsylvania crash jackknifed, but it is the responsibility of the commercial truck driver to drive his rig safely and responsibly. The family of the deceased could benefit from having an experienced wrongful death attorney look at the case.