A young man from Osmond, Nebraska, passed away after a semi hauling rock broadsided the grain truck he was driving.
The crash happened Tuesday morning at the intersection of Highway 77 and Waverly Road, just north of Lincoln, Nebraska. The driver of the semi hauling rock had been traveling westbound on Waverly road. He stopped at the intersection of Highway 77 and Waverly, and then attempted to cross all 4 lanes of 77 to continue on Waverly, witnesses told the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP). While he was crossing Highway 77, he crashed into a grain truck that was traveling southbound on the highway.
“The grain truck rolled on its side and burst into flames on impact,” according to the NSP press release.
Tragically, the driver of the grain truck, only 21 years old, could not be saved. He died at the scene. Our thoughts are with the family.
Drivers on Highway 77 have the right-of-way at the Waverly intersection. A truck driver that does not have the right-of-way needs to take extra care before entering an intersection. The safety of others needs to topmost in the driver’s mind. And when it is dark outside, which it was at the time of this crash, even more care should be taken.
Our experience is that most accidents like this one are caused by distracted driving.
“Distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving” (distraction.gov).
Talking on the phone, a quick look at a text, changing a radio station, all of these can lead to fatal traffic accidents.
Every year, thousands of people are killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers. The most recent U.S. DOT statistic is 3,179. We believe this number is low. In many of our cases, it has taken a significant amount of work to gather the evidence needed to prove a driver was distracted at the time of the crash.
This crash may not have been caused by a distracted driver, but as accident wrongful death lawyers who see too many families suffering from the loss of a loved one, we want to remind our readers to keep their eyes on the road when they are driving.
Be safe.
