A tractor trailer driver in Palm Beach County, Florida struck and killed a pedestrian on the shoulder of a highway on April 5. The truck driver himself died in the resulting accident, but it is believed he may have suffered a medical problem that contributed to his death.

The pedestrian who died was a 68 year old man who had pulled his car over to the shoulder and was getting out of his car when the big rig veered onto the shoulder and killed him.

The tractor trailer also struck the man’s car, which had a trailer attached to it. The pedestrian died at the scene, and the truck driver was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

The police in Palm Beach County are continuing to investigate.

Our View

Tractor trailer accidents account for more than 3800 deaths in a typical year. Approximately 16% of these deaths in 2015 were the occupants of the truck, and 69% were occupants of other vehicles. Approximately 15% were pedestrians.

Our tractor trailer accident attorneys who are licensed in Virginia and North Carolina have handled a number of similar truck crash cases in recent years. One of our wrongful death lawsuit cases was where a tractor trailer operator stopped on the shoulder of I-95 in Virginia to check on his trailer. As he was looking at his rig, another truck driver veered off the road and hit our client. He died within a few hours of the crash.

What made this case unusual was that the truck driver who caused the accident himself died due to a medical condition soon after the crash. After the first trucker died, our personal injury attorney sent a request for documents to the trucking company to get a copy of the truck driver’s medical records. He also got other medical records of the truck driver that he could find.

Next, our legal team contacted a doctor who could testify that the truck driver knew or should have known that he had a pre existing medical condition that could have interfered with his ability to drive.

We filed a lawsuit against the trucdking company on the basis that their truck driver was negligent in hitting our deceased client. But the trucking company tried to claim that their driver had had a sudden medical emergency, and that would create a legal excuse for any resulting negligence or carelessness.

Our lawyers and experts were ready to show that this was not a sudden medical emergency, and the truck driver should have not been in that situation. The result was a $2.25 million settlement in this truck crash that provided financial security to the family of the deceased.