Each day you hear or read it in news reports: A driver “lost control” of a vehicle, causing a deadly car accident crash. But apart from slick roads and sudden mechanical malfunctions, just how did the driver “lose” control? Or, did the driver not truly lose control, but rather surrender it — by driving too fast, driving while drunk,  driving while cell calling or texting or otherwise failing to pay proper attention to the road?

The resulting wreckage might be blamed on “lost control” in a news report, but a wreck’s cause, in many cases, is that a driver gave up — rather than “lost” — proper control of his or her vehicle by willfully indulging in unsafe behavior.

That certainly might apply to the tractor trailer driver who was charged Monday in Oklahoma with 10 misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide in the deaths of 10 people on June 26. That’s when the big rig driven by Donald Creed plowed into a line of stopped vehicles on the Oklahoma Turnpike, killing 10 innocent persons.

Those people died because, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Creed was guilty of “driver inattention.” From his perch high up in his semi truck, he could see unobstructed for 2,400 feet ahead, or about half a mile, says the OHP. Yet he slammed straight into a line of vehicles with no evidence of having braked or taken any evasive action — even for a moment — before the fatal crash.

A misdemeanor charge seems minor for killing 10 people, though Creed, 76, faces up to a one-year prison sentence for each of the 10 charges filed against him by an Oklahoma district attorney.

Creed, of course, wasn’t killed or badly hurt in the accident. Drivers of enormous 18 wheeler trucks needn’t worry much about that, compared to the drivers and passengers in far smaller cars that they hit. Perhaps this simple yet profound fact even contributes to “driver inattention,” or to wrecks caused by the proverbial and mysterious “lost control” excuse.

Driving is a privilege, not a right, and that privilege is regulated by law. Yet too many drivers disregard their huge legal responsibility to others, not just themselves, by driving without respect for such laws and without due attention to the road. They don’t “lose control” — they abandon it.

At Jim S. Adler & Associates, we won’t abandon you. If you or a loved one suffers injury caused by another driver’s error, law-breaking or “lost control,” let a personal injury lawyer know by submitting the free case review form on this web page, and we’ll try to help.

There’s no need for you to “lose control” of your life due to a reckless driver — not when full and fair financial compensation can be achieved.

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