A $939,000 settlement was reached in a truck crash lawsuit stemming from a 2013 crash in Saline County, Illinois. 

A woman and her husband were awarded the settlement for their personal injury lawsuit after the woman’s ankle was severely injured in the head on crash.

The lawsuit documents state that the crash happened on July 12, 2013 in Saline County, when a coal truck hit the rear of a slowing flatbed truck. The flatbed truck then crossed into oncoming traffic and hit the woman’s van head on.

The husband and wife filed a lawsuit against the coal truck company and driver. The suit alleged that the driver did not drive at the proper speed, which led to him hitting the flatbed truck.

The coal truck driver could not explain why he was unable to stop his 80,000 pound rig. The plaintiff’s attorney contended that the coal company incentivized its drivers to make several coal runs per day. This could have caused the driver to drive faster than he should have.

The injured woman had to undergo several orthopedic surgeries to repair her ankle. While the surgeon was able to save the foot, she is now disabled and was not able to go back to work.

Our View

There are approximately 500,000 tractor trailer crashes per year, and many of them are due to speeding. Our tractor trailer accident attorneys in Virginia would like to see fewer of these tragic crashes occur. A good start would be for truck drivers to obey the rules as stated in the commerical driver’s manual for their state. Ours in Virginia stresses the importance of these big, heavy vehicles driving at a safe speed.

It also would help if trucking companies would not pay truckers extra to make more runs in a given day. This can lead to truck drivers driving in an unsafe manner.

Truck crashes will often lead to very serious injuries, such as in the above accident. Even if the person survives and largely recovers, they can be crippled for life with injuries that prevent them from working and enjoying life.

That is why those injured by a trucker who was at fault should think about filing a personal injury lawsuit. If you are injured so much that you can no longer work or enjoy life, you should be compensated in a personal injury lawsuit.

We once won a $420,000 settlement for a client in Virginia who was run over by a truck in a parkling lot. While he did survive, his legs were crushed by the truck and he was no longer able to work. We were glad to be able to get him financial justice in this case.