Getting Questions Answered after a Semi Truck Driver Kills Your Spouse or Child
Commercial truck accidents that injure or kill a bicyclist raise unique legal questions during bicycle accident litigation between the cyclist’s family and the trucking concern:
- Why didn’t the truck driver stop?
- Was this a hit-and-run accident?
- Was the length of the trailer lawful under federal and state regulation?
- Was the weight of the trailer lawful under federal and state regulation?
- Had the truck driver logged too many service hours leading to the crash?
- Did the truck driver’s logbook contain falsifications?
- Was the semi making a legal turn?
- Were the truck’s mirrors in proper position and did the driver use them?
- Was the truck driver distracted by a cell phone, eating or not looking?
- What was the truck drivers’ safety record?
- Was the truck driver adequately trained and certified?
To Win Truck-Bicycle Accident Lawsuit, Accident Reconstruction Specialists May be Needed
When the back wheels of a right-turning tractor-trailer ran over a bicyclist in at a busy intersection in Minneapolis, killing the rider, bicycle accident lawyers Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman conducted their own, independent investigation of the facts. Representing the bicyclist’s next of kin in a bicycle death lawsuit, they hired their own reconstruction experts and demonstrated the crash for a jury by employing hi-tech, large-screen, color video animation prepared by a specialist. The jury awarded a $2.46 million dollar verdict in favor of the cyclist’s family at the outcome of the eight-day trial.
In the courtroom, lawyers for the trucking concern asserted that the bicyclist was primarily at fault because she had fallen off her bike prior to getting run over, should have seen the semi and did not have the right-of-way. The jury disagreed.
Contact our law firm if you have a personal injury or wrongful death claim and you need a lawyer licensed to practice in Minnesota.
Recent News
A bicyclist killed by a tractor-trailer in heavy street traffic late last week, is being remembered in her adopted city for being a brilliant surgeon, dedicated researcher, caring person, top athlete and expert cyclist. Days after she was struck in a busy intersection by a flatbed semi-truck hauling steel, police are still investigating what happened. The tractor-trailer did not stop, but investigators caught up with the truck driver in another state and are piecing together what happened. Her death in the Friday morning semi-bicycle collision has stirred Boston’s attention toward bicycle safety.
The woman was killed while riding through the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Beacon Street. Police said the long flatbed truck made a right turn from Massachusetts Avenue onto Beacon when the cyclist was struck.