In the blog “Truck left in gear injures man,” the author discussed about an accident where a truck was left in gear by the driver and ended up running over and trapping a 40-year old employee of Wild Animals Park.
It is a clear case of negligence and the author is right that the victim can and should pursue a personal injury case.
There are three possible parties that can be held liable in such cases:
Obviously the first one is the driver as his lack of attention directly caused the accident.
However aside from the driver, who else can be liable for the truck accident?
A second possible liable party is the manufacturer of the truck or of its parts.
A defective brake that could have stopped the truck or a defective tire that could not hold the whole weight of the truck could have also caused the accident even if the driver did not forget that he left the truck in gear.
Another possible liable party is the trucking company who the driver works for.
Under the law, truck companies have a level of responsibility (at least partially) for the actions of their drivers.
They could have also inadvertently caused the driver to be inattentive by overworking their drivers.
Driver fatigue has been proven to impair the driver’s coordination, reflex and road judgment.
And this clearly is a bad judgment.
But whoever the liable party is, the victim should be entitled to recover damages from the neglectful third party and their insurance company.