Driving on interstate thoroughfares is a daily part of many people’s lives in Southern Illinois, and residents in the Belleville area would like to have some reasonable assurance that drivers on these large and fast roadways would exercise due caution. Unfortunately, too many drivers take to the roads in a reckless or negligent manner, and as a result, people suffer serious injuries through no fault of their own.
One such accident happened recently on Interstate 255 when a car that police say failed to break crashed into a Belleville man’s tractor-trailer. The 21-year-year old driver of the car and his two passengers were seriously injured in the accident. The driver of the truck was apparently uninjured.
According to the police report, neither passenger in the car was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. One passenger, a 21-year-old from Columbia, was partly ejected from the car and had to be airlifted to St. Louis University Hospital with serious injuries. An ambulance took the other passenger, a 27-year-old from Cahokia, to St. Anthony’s hospital for treatment.
The truck driver said that he had been stopped on the right shoulder of the roadway and was gaining speed to merge with traffic when the accident happened.
The injured driver of the car was reportedly unable to remember which lane he was in when his vehicle crashed beneath the rear of the truck. He also did not remember seeing the truck before colliding with it. Police issued a ticket to the young man for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
This unfortunate crash is sadly only one example of many accidents that occur each month in Southern Illinois and St. Louis County. When a person is injured because of another driver’s reckless or negligent behavior, then the injured individual has a right to file a personal injury claim. Such a claim can help injured parties make up for medical bills, lost wages or pain and suffering that may have resulted from a car accident. To that end, consulting with an experienced personal injury attorney is a solid first step on the way to both physical and financial recovery.
Source: Belleville News-Democrat, “Driver ticketed in I-55 accident that seriously injured 3,” Jennifer A. Bowen, Jan. 27, 2012