Chicago Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

Tractor-trailer driver James T. Kruger was cited for failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident after allegedly causing a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 77 on Wednesday. Six vehicles were involved in the Illinois 18-wheeler truck accident.

According to police, Kruger didn’t notice that traffic had stopped until it was too late because he was reaching down to throw something in the trashcan. The semi-truck struck and drover over a car that was being towed on the back of the U-Haul, rear-ended the truck, which then hit a Nissan and a Honda. The cars then struck a Mercury Marquis. The impact of the crash lodged the tractor-trailer and U-Haul together, and the two vehicles kept going into the median. Two people were transported to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries from the chain-reaction crash.

Distracted Driving
Once again, distracted driving has likely played a role in causing a collision that could have lead to serious injuries and minor injuries. That said, even minor injuries can take a toll on a Chicago truck crash victim, who may have to take time off work to recover from a sore back, neck problems, aches and pains, and other “minor” injuries.

Motorists cannot afford to take their eyes off the road or their mind off the task at hand. A few seconds of distraction is all that it takes for a catastrophic Illinois traffic crash to occur.

According to the US Department of Transportation, there are three main kinds of distraction:

Visual—eyes are off the road
Cognitive—mind is not on the task at hand
Manual—hands off the steering wheel

Any non-driving task that a driver engages in while driving is distracted driving.

Truck driver cited in wreck that snarled I-77, Statesville Record & Landmark, April 14, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Distraction.gov

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration