Police in New Jersey are searching for a tractor-trailer that was involved in a hit and run accident that killed a 60 year old man on I-295 on Jan. 20. 

The man was killed after the big rig rear ended his minivan at milemarker 45 in Westampton Township, New Jersey. Police are asking for the help of the public to find the trucker.

Police added that the driver of the minivan was going northbound on I-295 when his vehicle was rear ended by the big rig. Due to the impact, the car ran off the road, slammed into a tree and flipped.

Officers said the man died in the vehicle due to his injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene. 

The big rig is believed to be a Peterbilt and probably has extensive front end damage.

Our View

Any rear end crash can cause serious damage and serious or fatal injuries. But when the vehicle in the rear is a tractor trailer weighing up to 80,000 pounds, it is more likely there will be serious injuries and death. When someone is hit in the rear by a commercial truck, the medical costs, vehicle repairs and assorted other expenses can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The FMCSA reports there were 400,000 truck crashes from 1994 to 1999. Almost 20% of those crashes were believed to be rear end accidents. Approximately 42,000 rear end truck crashes happen every year where the truck hits another vehicle.

Rear end truck crashes are more dangerous for several reasons:

• Big trucks are 40 times heavier on average than passenger cars. The much higher mass of these huge vehicles hitting a smaller vehicle can have devastating consequences.
• The stopping distance for big rigs is much longer than for passenger vehicles.
• In 20% of truck crashes, three or more vehicles were involved when the big rig rear ended another vehicle, leading to many more injuries and deaths

Rear end truck accidents lead to more than 23,000 injuries and 700 deaths per year. Our Virginia personal injury attorneys have worked on many of these cases. It saddens us particularly when rear end truck crashes take lives; so many of those accidents are avoidable.

A particularly tragic rear end truck crash we worked on was in Virginia Beach. The truck driver apparently fell asleep and rear ended our clients’ small car at a stop light. The rear end wreck severely injured one of the children who is dealing with a traumatic brain injury to this day. The case was settled for $5.5 million but it would have been so much better if the trucker had gotten enough rest and not caused this tragic accident.