A tow truck was sideswipded by a tractor trailer on the New York State Thruway on Feb. 8, leading to minor injuries to two people. 

The Thruway Authority stated that a disabled vehicle and tow truck were sideswiped on the shoulder of the highway by a tractor trailer between exits 47 and 46 on the New York State Thruway.

Two of the people from the car that was being towed were hit by flying debris and suffered non-life-threatening injuries. They were taken to a local hospital for medical treatment and were listed in stable condition.

Our View

The Federal Highway Administration reports that tractor trailer crashes kill thousands of people every year, and at least a few hundred annually are due to truck sideswipe crashes.

Our North Carolina and Virginia tractor trailer accident attorneys are familiar with the tragic results of truck sideswipe accidents.

Our wrongful death attorneys recently represented the family of a truck driver who was killed on I-95 in the City of Emporia, Virginia. He  had pulled over on the shoulder of the highway to check on his rig. While he was examining it, another truck came along and hit him, killing him on the spot.

His widow hired our wrongful death lawyers to look into the circumstances of the sideswipe crash and to represent their family. She had several young children, and there were serious financial problems resulting from the truck crash.

Our attorneys obtained the medical records of the truck driver who caused the crash. This was an unusual case because the truck driver who killed our client himself died from a medical condition soon after the wreck.

We had to determine if the truck driver had hidden his medical condition from his employer, and that medical condition may have caused the tragedy.

Next, our attorney hired a doctor who could testify that the truck driver knew or should have known about his medical condition and that it could have interfered with his ability to hold a commericial driver’s license and drive safely.

We filed a lawsuit against the trucker’s employer, arguing that the driver had been negligent in sideswiping our client. The other side argued that their driver had a medical emergency and he had an excuse for his negligence. But it has to be an unforseeable medical emergency.

We could prove that this was a medical condition that the truck driver should have known about. He had a heart condition and he either knew about it or should have known, and it led to the fatal crash.

At the end, the wrongful death lawsuit netted our clients $2.25 million.