Georgia Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Car and tractor trailer accidents are too common in Georgia, and this blog has discussed numerous reasons why tractor trailers are particularly dangerous vehicles on the road. The Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety states that one in six deaths from vehicle crashes involve a large commercial truck. In 86 percent of those fatal tractor trailer crashes, it is the person in the passenger vehicle, not the truck, who dies.
Unfortunately, there was another instance of this type of fatal crash last week on Ga. 316. According to news reports, 68-year-old Anvir Karim of Dacula was driving westbound on Ga. 316 in his 1997 black Nissan Maxima when the accident occurred at 6:45am last Thursday. A tractor trailer heading eastbound, driven by 34-year-old Latora Barrett of Columbia, South Carolina, turned left suddenly onto Hurricane Trail in Lawrenceville. He turned in front of Mr. Karim's car, causing the Maxima to slam into the side of the trailer. The car then wedged underneath the trailer, according to Gwinnett police Cpl. Edwin Ritter. The preliminary investigation of the crash has found that Mr. Karim did not have sufficient time to stop and avoid the crash.
Captain Eric Eberly, of the Gwinnett fire department, said the department's Technical Rescue Team used air bags and large timbers to lift the tractor trailer off the ground and stabilize the truck. Then they dragged the Maxima out from under the truck and cut Mr. Karim out of the severely mangled car. Cpl. Ritter noted, "It took well over an hour, maybe almost two hours for fire and EMS to extricate him from the vehicle.He was taken to Gwinnett Medical Center in critical condition, but later died of the injuries he sustained in the accident. As is the case most of the time, shown by the statistic above, Mr. Barrett, the driver of the truck, was not injured. Cpl. Ritter told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in an email, that Mr. Barrett is facing charges for this fatal accident. Gwinnett County Detention Centers show that the uninjured Mr. Barrett was booked the afternoon of the day of the accident on charges of failure to yield and vehicular homicide.
Georgia Tractor Trailer Accident Attorneys
If you or a family member has been involved an accident with a tractor trailer or any other type of vehicle, the Georgia vehicle accident attorneys at Van Sant Law, LLC can help you figure out whether you have a case and what legal options you may have. Often, tractor trailers are commercial vehicles, used by companies to transport goods, and this means there are special regulations and laws in play that an experienced attorney knows how to deal with. If the worst happened, and a loved one was killed by a reckless driver, our wrongful death attorneys are also available to help navigate the laws on getting compensation to ease the financial burden, at least. Please call us at 404-991-5950, or fill out our confidential online case evaluation form for a free consultation.