Roadside worker dies because truck spilled

Posted by Bruce Westbrook

July 22, 2008

Again, a person has died in a traffic accident which should not have happened. In this traffic fatality, no one fell asleep at the wheel or failed to yield, nor did a fast-moving car have a blowout. Rather, this accident can be traced to a common problem on America’s roads and highways: cars, trucks or pickups carrying loads which were not properly secured.

According to Houston Police, a Tuesday morning accident which claimed the life of a roadside work crew member was triggered by the fact that a box filled with insulation fell off a truck and onto the Gulf Freeway near Edgebrook. A southbound car then swerved to miss the box and clipped the rear of another vehicle. Both vehicles then veered out of control and off the road, where the second vehicle hit and killed the roadside worker, who was in a crew picking up trash.Thus, a 27-year-old man loses his life, and a driver will forever be haunted by the fact that he or she was at the wheel of the vehicle which struck him. Yet neither person was in any way at fault. Meanwhile, the truck which dropped the ill-advised load passes into the distance, with its driver perhaps heedless and oblivious of the havoc and tragedy caused by the fallen load.

How many times have you driven behind a pickup or other vehicle piled high with furniture, appliances, pipes, boards, boxes, large panes of glass and assorted sharp, bulky and heavy things which easily could damage your car – and thus injure you — if they fell off? And how many times have you winced as you wondered if you’d survive your trip without such a vehicle spilling its load?

When the load is your own, you can do something about it. So the next time you pile your vehicle high with belongings to cart across town, stop and think, if only for a minute: Is this load completely secure, or am I just hoping that if I go slowly I’ll get lucky? Worse, do I figure since it’s junk, if it falls off, no great loss?

If you can’t emphatically answer that the load is fully secure, then keep securing it, using ropes, wire, tape or anything which will anchor a potential road hazard and keep it onboard, rather than in the path of an oncoming vehicle. The fact is, if it falls off, you are responsible.

If the truck driver who spilled the insulation box had done this, another human being still would be alive, rather than a victim of life-robbing carelessness. So don’t just buckle up yourself when you drive. Also buckle up your load.

If you need a pedestrian accident lawyer or traffic accident lawyer, then Jim S. Adler & Associates can help.

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