Rocky Hill, CT — April 1, 2023, a driver was injured as the result of an accident where a vehicle crashed into a semi-truck along Interstate 91.

Investigators said that the incident took place at around 8:00 p.m. near the exit for Highway 99/Silas Deane Highway. It appears that a vehicle was going northbound along I-91 at the time. Somehow, that vehicle crashed beneath an 18-wheeler that was said to be "parked in one of the travel lanes." Rescue teams were able to transport that driver to a hospital with unspecified injuries.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

The key detail here is likely going to be what the news means when they say the tractor-trailer was "parked." Sometimes, what they actually mean is that the truck was stopped due to traffic. There's not much a truck driver can do wrong there. Other times, however, they can mean it as it sounds, and a commercial vehicle is blocking a lane of travel. Depending on why a truck does that, the implications could be very serious.

Not long ago, for example, I handled a situation involving a truck that blocked a lane of travel due to a mechanical issue. But there were several serious mistakes surrounding the truck stopping in the roadway. For one, the truck driver did not put out any cones or flares despite having ample time to do so. Secondly, the mechanical issue was the direct result of neglected maintenance and was entirely avoidable. Lastly, the truck driver should have been able to continue driving until they were safely out of the roadway, but the driver instead panicked and came to a stop immediately, creating a deadly hazard.

Not all broken down trucks are avoidable as the example above, so proper investigations must also consider that there are many situations a truck driver can't avoid which can lead to a crash like this. But whether or not that's something that happened here will require more thorough investigations than what little is available in the news right now.

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