Brooklyn

Published on: January 30, 2012

An action was filed seeking declaratory judgment

by Stephen Bilkis

An action was filed seeking declaratory judgment. The plaintiffs, who are the insured and one of their insurers, seek an adjudication that another insurer, is obliged to defend a certain action for personal injuries based upon the alleged negligence of one of the plaintiffs. The personal injury action was filed by workers who were injured as a result of a truck accident. According to sources, the motor truck involved in the accident had been leased. The truck was covered by a liability policy.

The policy not only protected the named insured, the owner of the truck, but also any person or organization legally responsible for the use of the subject truck. The policy, however, does not protect the named insured if the accident occurs while the automobile is not being used exclusively in the business of the Named Insured and over a route the Named Insured is authorized to serve by federal or public authority.

The plaintiffs contended that at the time of the truck accident the truck was operated in the business of the named insured and that therefore the policy applies to the pending personal injury suit. The insurer, on the other hand, asserted that the named insured did not operate the truck exclusively in his own business at the time of the accident and that therefore there is no coverage here.

Published on: January 23, 2012

Semi backs up over man killing him

by Stephen Bilkis

This was a horrific truck accident that devastated the lives of many, said the report. The family of the dead man in this case filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the trucker that backed up over their dad in a parking lot.

The semi driver was attempting to move his rig to a different location in the parking lot and for some reason, failed to see the man walking behind him. Unfortunately, that man lost his life and even though responding EMS crews got there fast, reported the witness, he didn’t survive his injuries from the truck accident.

There are obviously some questions the police will need answered in this case, not the least of which is why was the deceased walking behind a big rig in one of the trucker’s blind spots? Why was he walking behind a moving rig in the first place? Did he fail to hear the backup warning signals, asked the questioner? Why was the driver backing up and not checking behind his truck? And why would the deceased, a trucker himself, walk into the path of a moving semi? In Brooklyn and Staten Island there would be an investigation.

Published on: January 15, 2012

Four killed in taxi versus semi collision

by Stephen Bilkis

Four men on their way to a wedding were killed in a truck accident when the cab they were riding in ran into the back of a big rig parked in the middle of the road, said the observer. What was the big rig doing in the middle of the road without any flares or warning signs? This is a good question and one that the police will want answered when they succeed in tracking down the negligent truck driver.

Because there was no warning that a truck had been abandoned in the middle of the highway, the taxi driver didn’t see it, as they were traveling in the very early hours of the morning, when visibility was not good. When the cab rear-ended the truck, three passengers and the driver died on impact, reported the source. There was one survivor, who was rushed to hospital for medical care.

Why a trucker would leave a big rig sitting in the middle of the road without any warning signs or flares just defies all common sense logic. Would he not have anticipated that someone would come along and possibly hit his vehicle? Why weren’t the authorities called when the truck had problems and needed to be abandoned? Why did the trucker not follow safety rules and put out flares, direct traffic around his rig or put up warning cones for several hundred yards down the road to keep people from running into his truck? Truck accidents like this one are not often reported in places like the Bronx or Brooklyn.

Published on: December 25, 2011

Speeding Big Rig Kills Mother and Daughter

by Stephen Bilkis

Although the police tracked down the suspected rig driver in this fatal hit and run truck accident, he was choosing not to talk to them. Since he was not saying anything one way or another, the police had not moved to charge him, indicated the report.

The police will make it a point to send a criminal complaint to the DA’s office, asking he be charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter. The facts of the case are heart-wrenching. A 56-year old woman and her 28-year old daughter were brutally killed in an intersection while crossing the street when a hit and run rig driver sped through the intersection and kept right on going. The daughter left behind a son, a newborn and a grieving husband.

According to eyewitnesses, both the women were in the crosswalk and had the right of way. The police were planning further investigations to determine if the driver was under the influence, texting, had defective brakes, was not paying attention to what he was doing or whether he was drifting off to sleep behind the wheel causing the truck accident, said the observer.

Published on: December 14, 2011

Red Light Runner Slams into Truck

by Stephen Bilkis

Some days, it doesn’t pay to get out of bed. This particular day was not a good one for this woman and her two children. The woman, who was driving a PT Cruiser was headed east on a street when she careened into a commercial truck that was heading south.

While the details are not crystal clear in this case, what is known is that the woman blew a red light just prior to the accident. She was taken to the hospital. Thankfully, the two children were not hurt and the trucker was in good shape as well, said the source.

Chances are that the police with cite the woman for running the red light and will also want to take some time to find out what she was doing just before going through it. They will want to find her cell phone and determine whether or not she was using it at the time of the truck accident, as in texting or having a conversation while driving.

Published on: December 7, 2011

Truck Wreck Nets Family $3.5 million Award

by Stephen Bilkis

In this case, a truck accident victim and his wife were awarded a total of $3.5 million for their future pain and suffering. It was one of the largest awards handed out in recent history in Michigan.

The man and his wife were heading west on a road in 2008 and were waiting to turn left onto another road, when a tractor-trailer pushed them into oncoming traffic, where they were hit by an oncoming semi. The first big rig in this horrific chain of negligence wasn’t paying attention to the van in front of him and when he noticed it was stopped, tried to hit the shoulder to avoid an accident.

Instead, what happened is that the rig that swerved, caused the attached trailer to spin into the van, whipping it out into oncoming traffic where the van was hit by another tractor trailer. The victims injuries were catastrophic, with the man suffered two fractured vertebrae, depression and traumatic brain injury.

Published on: November 4, 2011

Injured and Declining to sue, an Accident Survivor is Financially Strapped

by Stephen Bilkis

In some cases, the truth is stranger than fiction and this case has all of those elements; a bit of hard, cold truth and an old world element of what may be considered to be fiction, but, is also truth.

A 60-year old Amish woman who survived a very ugly tractor trailer crash that killed three and left more than a dozen others badly injured, has declined to sue the trucker who caused the accident, indicated a New York Trucking Accident Lawyer. That is the Amish way; not to take money from others when a situation is considered to be God’s will. And, according to God’s will, she would not participate in suing the man who killed her father.

The truck that hit them was fully loaded with scrap metal – 13 tons of it. The trucker had been driving for more than 86 hours over an 8-day period and was in violation of the hours of service regulations. He had been cited 41 times for fraudulently altering logbooks.

Published on: November 3, 2011

Off-Duty Firefighter Saves Lives

by Stephen Bilkis

Firefighters worked to remove the driver of an SUV after it crossed the median on an Oregon highway and hit a semi-truck. Another car flipped onto its roof during the incident.

“The driver of the black SUV was sent to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries,” a witness said.

One morning last week, an off-duty Portland firefighter and paramedic was driving southbound when he witnessed a small SUV a few cars ahead veer to the left, cross the median and strike a semi-truck in the opposite lanes. A third vehicle involved rolled onto its roof.

Published on: October 31, 2011

Logging Truck hit by car Kills Two and Injures Three

by Stephen Bilkis

The weather took a turn for the worse in this case and when it did, the consequences were not pretty.

Freezing mist was falling on the highway and those traveling it were hard-pressed to get any traction. They even had a hard time going the designated speed limit, as the road conditions were so treacherous. Further back down the highway, five people were headed north in a Pontiac G5. On another road, up ahead of the Pontiac, was an empty logging truck and trailer just pulling out onto the highway and about to start heading south, explained the NY Trucking Accident Lawyer.

The Pontiac had no idea the truck was there, as they were climbing a hill. When they hit the top of the crest and realized the truck was right in front of them, they tried to slow their forward momentum down. The ice was too bad and the wheels spun out of control, sending the vehicle directly into the path of the logging truck.

Published on: October 17, 2011

Sometimes There Really are Guardian Angels on the Highways

by Stephen Bilkis

This was a case that warmed the hearts of many and shed a different light on truckers.

While most people consider 18-wheelers to be dangerous and deadly, it appears that there are truckers out there who will go to the max to help someone in distress. Such is the case here when a trucker was recently awarded a medal of excellence for saving a soldier’s life, indicated a NY Trucking Accident Lawyer.

It was a usual day at work driving a long haul truck, but it rapidly turned into something else when the trucker spotted a man who had been thrown from an overturned vehicle and was lying on his back, next to a guardrail. The quick thinking trucker maneuvered his big rig to protect the victim from oncoming traffic, called for help and stayed on the scene, offering aid, until the emergency response crews arrived.