Maryland Trucking Accident Lawyer Blog
Maryland truck accidents are always unfortunate, and in some cases, can be tragic, causing severe bodily injuries or even death. While many of these accidents involve just one or two vehicles—usually a truck hitting a sign, a tree, another vehicle, etc.—some truck accidents can involve multiple vehicles, injuring many people.
What Is a Chain Reaction Accident?
Often, these accidents originally just involve one or two vehicles, but this original crash causes a chain reaction, leading to more and more damage. For instance, if a truck crashes into a tree suddenly, a car behind it might swerve to avoid the wreck, but in so doing may crash into other cars. Other vehicles may not be able to stop when a crash happens suddenly and may rear-end other vehicles. Additionally, sometimes Maryland truck accidents can send one vehicle tumbling in an unexpected direction, where they may hit other vehicles. These occurrences can cause large accidents, injuring many people from multiple different vehicles.
A real-life example of one of these multi-vehicle chain-reaction crashes occurred just last week, in an accident involving 13 different vehicles. According to a local news report that covered the accident, the initial crash occurred early on Monday afternoon, when a semi-truck with a trailer driving east did not slow down for a snowplow (in the passing lane) and another semi-truck (in the right lane). The first semi-truck struck the snowplow and then a guardrail, before going into the ditch. The second semi-truck cut across two lanes of traffic to avoid the collision, causing three other vehicles to go up onto the median to avoid hitting the truck, but fortunately, none of these vehicles got into any collisions. However, seven additional vehicles were involved in a secondary crash as they tried to avoid collisions but ended up hitting either other vehicles or the guard rail. These additional vehicles included two pickup trucks, a pickup trailer, two semi-trucks with trailers, a compact car, and a FedEx truck.
Multiple individuals were injured as a result of these crashes and were taken to the hospital. The interstate where the accident took place was closed for roughly three-and-a-half hours. The accident is still under investigation, but investigators believe that the reason for the initial crash was driver inattention. This crash illustrates a sobering fact—sometimes just one brief moment of inattention on the road can lead to a disastrous accident, involving many different vehicles and drivers. This is yet another reason that Maryland drivers must be careful on the roads.
Have You Been Injured in a Maryland Truck Accident?
If you or someone close to you has recently been injured in a Maryland truck accident, you may be wondering what your legal options are for recovery. Contact the attorneys at Lebowitz & Mzhen, LLC, to schedule a free initial consultation with one of our dedicated and experienced attorneys. We can help you understand all your options so you can decide what is best for you and your family. By calling us at 800-654-1949, you’ll be one step closer to holding negligent drivers responsible for the harm they caused you.