A Personal Injury Case Analysis: Impaired Dump Truck Driver Involved in Multiple Vehicle Accident

Craig, Kelley, & Faultless represented a married couple who were driving their car on US 36 in Hendricks County when they were involved in an eleven-vehicle accident near the intersection of US 36 and South County Rd. 625 East. The wreck seriously injured our clients, killed two others, paralyzed one person, and injured a few others.

The wreck was totally unexpected. Traffic was heavy like it normally is on US 36 in Avon, Indiana. The dump truck was being driven at a high rate of speed and erratically when it crashed into the first vehicle. Eventually, multiple vehicles would be involved in the collision including our clients, whose vehicle was totaled. Our clients, like every one of the victims, could do nothing to avoid the white dump truck.

The white dump truck had been driving erratically for several miles before it rear-ended the first vehicle. The dump truck then crossed the center median hitting a van and causing the other vehicles to be struck. When the dump truck driver was given a sobriety test after the crash he smiled and laughed. It was determined that he was impaired. He admitted to the police that he had snorted heroin. He had been observed driving erratically for several miles before the wreck. It turns out that he had also been involved in a hit and run accident the same day near the same area of the wreck.

Eventually, the driver was prosecuted and convicted of two counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and causing death and operating a vehicle while intoxicated and causing catastrophic injury. It turned out that the man had prior drug, alcohol, and driving offenses. He never should have been driving a commercial dump truck.

As a personal injury attorney who handles accidents involving cars and dump trucks, semis, wreckers, and other commercial motor vehicles, I have seen numerous wrecks caused by truck drivers who were impaired like in the case. Many of these drivers were unqualified to even drive a commercial motor vehicle. The danger of an impaired driver is so much worse when the impaired driver is operating a big truck. The weight and size of these vehicles makes them extremely dangerous when driven fast and out of control.

The challenging part of this case was that there was limited insurance and multiple victims. Two people dead, one person was paralyzed, and others, like my clients, received severe and permanent injuries. The truck, like so many commercial motor vehicles, only had a single limit $1,000,000 insurance policy. The minimum insurance required for this dump truck was $750,000 and that amount is completely inadequate when ever a person is killed or paralyzed. When there are multiple people injured and killed it is very hard to explain to the families that none of them will make a full recovery. In fact, the victims are generally pitted against each other to fight for their fair share. The single limit policy also has to cover the cost of the property damage in addition to the personal injuries and wrongful death.