On February 24, 2022, a delivery driver, driving a van, ran into the rear of a flat bed trailer. The semi pulling the trailer was stopped on I-70 near Terre Haute, Indiana. The delivery driver was travelling at highway speed when he hit the flatbed, causing his vehicle to go up in flames. It was later determined that the man had died upon impact, but his body was completely engulfed by the fire.

The accident was investigated by the Indiana State Police. The Indiana Crash Report put all the blame for the wreck on the delivery driver who ran into the back of the semi-trailer. The police report indicated that traffic had been stopped for hours because of an earlier accident. It was dark outside, and the weather was clear. It appeared to the police that the driver of the van must have been distracted, didn’t notice the stopped traffic, and ran his vehicle at full speed without taking any timely, evasive actions. The investigating officer put no fault on the driver of the semi. THE POLICE GOT IT WRONG.

When the widow called, she was very emotional, distraught, and angry. She was dealing with the loss of her husband and father of her adult children. She was grieving. But she was angry because the police blamed her husband for his own death. She made it very clear on that first phone call that her husband was a good, careful, and professional driver. He drove a van and made deliveries across the country. He didn’t use his cell phone when he drove. He didn’t drive tired. He planned his routes and avoided driving in dangerous conditions. She was shocked by what the police officer had told her. It didn’t make sense based on her knowledge of her husband’s driving habits. As with most clients that hire me after a catastrophic injury or wrongful death, she wanted to know what happened. What was the truth? She made it clear that if we found out that the wreck was his fault at least she would know that she investigated it and tried to clear his name. So, after that first call, she hired our law firm, Craig, Kelley, & Faultless.

After I hung up the phone with her and she had decided to hire us, I put a team together to handle this case. This team consisted of Clint Crabtree, the firm’s Crash Response Team Coordinator, paralegal Holly Hinds, litigation paralegal supervisor Ashley Napier, attorney Scott Faultless, and myself, David Craig. Scott and I are both board-certified in truck accident law and our paralegals and Clint are all trained in commercial motor vehicle accidents. We also hired an accident reconstructionist who does semi and big truck wreck investigation, downloads, and reconstruction. Lastly, we hired a private investigator.

Clint first got the police report which confirmed that the police blamed our client’s husband for the wreck and put no blame on the driver of the semi pulling the trailer. No witnesses were listed. This seemed strange to us because if the traffic had been stopped around this semi you would assume that someone would have seen the wreck and stayed and talked to the police. It did confirm that there had been a prior accident and that traffic had been stopped for over two hours. There was also a strange statement from the semi driver mentioned in the narrative of the police report where the driver said to the police officer that he was just getting ready to move forward because traffic was moving when he was hit. It also mentions that he had just come back from the sleeper berth area. It made it appear that this all happened quickly, but it certainly raised questions.

Next, Clint found the vehicles and notified the facility that was holding them not to move them because there was going to be litigation. I then sent out what we call Preservation of Evidence letters to the semi driver, his trucking company, their insurance carrier, the police, and the facility where the vehicles were located. That triggered the trucking companies’ lawyer to contact us, and we scheduled an inspection of the vehicles.

I personally attended the inspection of the vehicle with a professional videographer, our investigator, and our reconstructionist. The defense reconstructionist also attended the inspection. From inspecting the semi tractor, it was determined there would have been two video cameras looking forward in the cab. Although they didn’t hold any memory or clips there would have been footage sent in real time to the provider of the video service. We documented the type of equipment and additionally, insisted on one camera that had the possibility of video clips being stored in the camera removed and kept as evidence. It was determined that the semi was stopped at impact. The investigation of the truck showed rear-end damage. The trailer was black. The tarp covering the load was black. It also appeared that the lights were off on impact. The was nothing that could be learned from the client’s vehicle because it was burnt beyond recognition.

Next, we subpoenaed the police dash cam footage and the body camera footage. From the dash cam footage of the first trooper on the scene you could see him approach the van in flames. What you didn’t see was any traffic around the wreck. He was approaching from the opposite direction of the two involved in the wreck and the officer was traveling the wrong way on the highway yet there was no traffic ahead of the wreck.

We also pulled all the 911 calls. This is crucial when investigating a wreck. Not all witnesses stay at the scene following a wreck. If you get the 911 calls you often find witnesses whose names are not on the police report. They may have never talked to the police. Oftentimes, they don’t even get their name, but dispatch will record the phone number calling 911. We then had our private investigator contact all the people who called 911.

Our investigator did find an eyewitness. He was a truck driver. He was heading the same direction as my client. It was still dark. He was in the lane next to the parked semi and flatbed. The semi and flatbed were sitting stopped and powered off. No lights were on. As he passed the semi, wondering what was going on, he saw in his mirror our client’s husband strike the rear of the flat bed and he saw the van explode into flames. He said he knew no one could have survived the impact. He had already passed the wreck, so he called 911, but didn’t stop.

So, what happened? There was an earlier wreck. Traffic was backed up for miles and for over 2 hours. The driver of the semi flatbed was stopped in traffic. There were cars in front, besides, and behind him. He turned off his equipment to save fuel. He probably figured that it didn’t matter since there was stopped traffic behind him. He went to the sleeper berth and likely fell asleep. When he woke up all the traffic was gone, and he was sitting in the middle of the highway without power. He was then struck at the rear by our client’s husband, who wouldn’t have seen the trailer until it was too late.

Ultimately, we were able to settle the case for the trucking company’s insurance limits. It was a small trucking company that didn’t have the ability to pay above the limits. In addition, although we chased every other possible avenue to collect additional insurance there was none in this case. The amount of money received was insufficient to fully compensate his family. However, this case was about more than the money. Ultimately, we proved that the police were wrong, and found that the wreck wasn’t our client’s husband’s fault. We cleared his name. To the family, that was important.

Take Aways

1. The Police Often Get It Wrong. You should not count on the police to properly investigate any severe injury or wrongful death caused by an accident involving a passenger vehicle and a semi or other big truck.
   • Some police don’t have the expertise to investigate and reconstruct these wrecks.
   • Some police departments don’t have the equipment to do the downloads and preserve all the data.
   • Often the police don’t look at it as their responsibility to investigate unless there is drug or alcohol evidence.
   • Often, the police are more concerned about getting the road re-opened than they are about getting witness statements.
   • Sometimes, even when they try, they get it wrong.
2. It is important to hire an attorney who knows how to handle truck accident cases. The right attorney can put a winning team together to find out the truth. They will hire reconstructionists, data download experts, mechanics, and investigators like we did in this case.
3. Hire a truck wreck attorney quickly before the evidence disappears. For this case we were hired soon after the wreck, so we were able to examine, inspect, download, and preserve the evidence to prove the police wrong and to recover for our client.