A fatal accident at a Delaware intersection left a 62-year-old woman dead at the scene of the crash. The accident involved a commercial dump truck.
According to police, the driver of the dump truck approached and intersection but disregarded the stop sign. The woman was driving her own car also entered the intersection, where the dump truck struck her vehicle. The driver of the dump truck was not hurt.
While police say that they do not expect that alcohol or illegal substances played a role in this accident, it was not clear whether the driver will be cited for running the stop sign or if he will also face additional citations or even criminal charges in connection with this tragedy. Police spent four hours investigating and cleaning up the crash.
This sad story illustrates that while being drunk or drugged certainly can cause a fatal accident, fatalities can happen on the road for any number of reasons. For instance, the driver of the dump truck could have been too fatigued to drive or could have been distracted by something in his vehicle or even by a thought in his own head. He may well have just simply made a mental error or just didn’t see the stop sign.
Whatever the reason, though, motorists in Delaware, particularly if they are driving a commercial vehicle, have a obligation and important responsibility to follow all traffic laws, including obeying traffic signs and signals. In this case, eligible members the victim’s family may have the option of pursuing compensation against the truck driver and, possibly, his employer by filing a wrongful death cause of action.
Source: Delaware Online, “Woman dies in crash with dump truck southeast of Felton, police say,” Alonzo Small and Xerxes Wilson, Sept. 16, 2017.
