Deadly crash with log truck is latest of Georgia truck accidents

Accidents involving trucks occur in Georgia on a nearly daily basis. Fortunately, they do not all result in personal injury or death. However, when a smaller vehicle crashes head-on into a large semitrailer, severe injury and loss of life are more probable than not. In addition, the idea that truck drivers are the cause of most truck accidents is also a fallacy that does not hold up to statistical review.

For example, a recent accident in Georgia occurred on Wednesday morning, July 25, in Columbia County on the bridge that connects that county with Lincoln County. A car smashed into a logging truck head-on, resulting in the death of one person. Details remain limited at this time so that it is not clearly known if the car driver or a passenger in the car was the deceased person. For that matter, it is not known if there were any injuries other than the decedent.

Witnesses reportedly have stated that the car was in the wrong lane on the bridge when it slammed into the logging truck. If there was no passenger in that errant vehicle, then the only potential damages claim would not be viable. The deceased driver’s apparent negligence would preclude a claim by his estate for wrongful death damages against the logging truck driver and owner. Under the facts now being reported, the truck driver was not negligent and was not at fault in causing any part of the accident. Witnesses stated that he was seen up and walking around after the accident.

If the car had one or more passengers, any injuries or deaths to passengers would establish injury or death claims against the sole negligent cause of the accident, the car driver. Although a logging truck will generally be a lucrative source of liability insurance coverage in truck accidents, one who has not caused the accident in any way is not liable for monetary damages. If later facts establish that the logger was partially to blame through his own negligence, then damages could be apportioned between the two faulty causes pursuant to Georgia law.