Are Authorities Held Responsible If Improper Maintenance Of Roadside Greenery Contributes To An Accident?

That’s why I kept my response vauge, sounded like a troll trying to stir up drama…….

I’ve read through this post a couple times trying to figure out if it is real or not. The opening statement is one that people often use as deflection from their own mistakes or to prompt interest in the writing.

A pretty far out there thought process that this was a setup by a township.

IF it happened then it’s on the driver. Several good points already made toward this conclusion.

Sounds to me like your company needs to have this spot inspected by an outside source knowing engineering. Sounds like this township was looking for a sucker, and you just happened to come along and smack their bridge issues. The tow company shouldn't really be worrying about that part, as long as they get paid for the tow etc let the township deal with it. Basicly, mind their own damn business, unless they too are looking for more compensation they should get......GREED is always the root of lots of things in our world lol

The tow truck driver was friendly and gave me a head-up of what could happen. It seemed he knew what was going on around that small municipality/township.

And it made me wonder how is it that the small township was able to process the damage so quickly and come to a conclusion the whole bridge would need to be replaced. While I am a company driver and I can walk away from the job, I wouldn't want the company I work for to go bankrupt over this, not all trucking companies are multi-billion $ corporations even if it may seem so to some people in a small PA township.

What is typical for something such as this is your employer's insurance company would immediately get their in-house counsel involved. It's not something for an employee to get involved in trying to deal with or arranging for counsel for your employer. If this is a small town, they probably have very limited legal expertise in-house and the insurance company should be able to clear things up quickly. If they had proper insurance coverage, the company's liability should be limited. Large trucking companies often self-insure for most legal problems with coverage for catastrophic events that would cause them significant financial problems. I can't imagine any small companies trying something like this.

This is a small trucking company based out of Chicago, the accident happened in PA. I fear hundreds of thousands or a million dollar bill would bring the company down. I can simply find another job, but the company owner spent years building his business from being a truck driver himself to being a good employer to his employees.

What is typical for something such as this is your employer's insurance company would immediately get their in-house counsel involved. It's not something for an employee to get involved in trying to deal with or arranging for counsel for your employer. If this is a small town, they probably have very limited legal expertise in-house and the insurance company should be able to clear things up quickly. If they had proper insurance coverage, the company's liability should be limited. Large trucking companies often self-insure for most legal problems with coverage for catastrophic events that would cause them significant financial problems. I can't imagine any small companies trying something like this.

This is a small trucking company based out of Chicago, the accident happened in PA. I fear hundreds of thousands or a million dollar bill would bring the company down. I can simply find another job, but the company owner spent years building his business from being a truck driver himself to being a good employer to his employees.

That’s what insurance is for, to protect even small companies from crushing claims. You seem to think all the cost will come out of your boss’s back pocket. Not if he has insurance, which he no doubt does have.

Let's break this down to elemental basics.

I was driving a semi-truck at around 1am on a foggy dark night on a curvy road with no street lights.

So all the "signs" were there telling you to use extra caution, due to conditions.

the impact point is completely obscured by tree branches and tall grass.

So what made you drive into the tree branches and tall grass?

There was only a 'Yield' sign, not sure if there should be more to alert drivers that a 2-lane becomes 1 lane over a bridge/platform that suddenly appears around the corner on a curvy mountain road.

The conditions were foggy weather with low visibility, night time with no street lights, mountainous region where gravity pull is stronger than what it normally is for that kind of a slope. I used brakes coming down the curvy road, the speed was not an issue.

What confused me is the road suddenly narrowed coming out of the curve, the opposite lane disappeared and it made me stick more to the right thinking I would be in the lane of oncoming traffic. That is when the tire hit the stone wall hidden behind the grass. The truck didn't hit the wall head-on, it stayed on the road upon impact.

Let's break this down to elemental basics.

I was driving a semi-truck at around 1am on a foggy dark night on a curvy road with no street lights.

So all the "signs" were there telling you to use extra caution, due to conditions.

the impact point is completely obscured by tree branches and tall grass.

So what made you drive into the tree branches and tall grass?

What and to where were you delivering? Why did you go down a one lane road at night? In the fog? Was there a weight limit sign preceding the bridge itself? We’re you lost and/or out of route? Me thinks there is more to this story than what you have stated. I don’t understand why you were even on that road to begin with. Can you elaborate?

Dry van going to Chicago with a fixed appointment time. The road became a one lane road going over the bridge/platform. Being an experienced OTR truck driver, foggy conditions in September in wooded areas are not unusual. There wasn't a weight limit sign preceding the bridge itself. I planned to use US-30 to avoid I-90 toll, there was/is some construction going on US-30 so I used the smaller road.

What is the address or maybe it would help us to see screen shots of the Google Street View.

This will be one for the carrier's insurance company, the municipality, etc. Lots of affected parties will be mixed into this soup. As for yourself, it should be a "Preventable Accident" at a minimum because this was avoidable. I do not think a town decided to let the vegetation grow with a plan to purposely obscure infrastructure in order for a trucking company to fund a future road improvement project. How many drivers did not make contact on other dark, foggy nights while traveling this same route? This is all on you, not the municipality or anyone else. You were behind the wheel, so own up to your error without trying the Blame Game of being the victim.

How much truck driving experience do you have? Whenever I encounter some bad spot as you described, I put on the 4 ways, stop, and check out the area on foot.

I tried uploading a photo with the original post, it didn't go through. I hope it will with the reply.

I completely agree it was a 'preventable accident', I didn't say I was a victim. I questioned the expenses the township is trying to put on all of this, if they are trying to get out a $ million or millions over this kind of incident, I question if they hold a certain responsibility for not maintaining the road property and perhaps the amount they are attempting to get from the company would come down to a reasonable number that equals the damaged caused to a 2ft high/25 long stone wall.

That’s why I kept my response vauge, sounded like a troll trying to stir up drama…….

I’ve read through this post a couple times trying to figure out if it is real or not. The opening statement is one that people often use as deflection from their own mistakes or to prompt interest in the writing.

A pretty far out there thought process that this was a setup by a township.

IF it happened then it’s on the driver. Several good points already made toward this conclusion.

To the moderators: please delete my profile along with the thread I started, I don't see that option within the profile.

Your company insurance agents will deal with the issues you bring up. The legal folks will get all the relevant facts and discuss a settlement. If they do not agree then it will go to court and a judge and/or jury will decide what is reasonable.

I guess I'm more confused why you would take that route to save a few bucks in tolls, especially when you say your experienced and these conditions are not unusual.

If more information was provided about that location, I’d really be interested in taking a satellite look-see.