Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

In this case, a tractor trailer backed up unexpectedly, crushing a landfill worker between the trailer and a bulldozer blade. The tractor trailer didn't have a back-up alarm - an inexpensive device designed to alert workers to backing trucks and designed to prevent just this sort of incident.

The truck driver, who had only been on the job three days, became stuck at the landfill. Apparently, this wasn't the first time this had happened, because the landfill had policies in place to deal with the situation. Landfill policy required truck drivers to personally hook a chain to their trucks so that a bulldozer could back the truck up to free it. The landfill instituted this policy to promote safety and prevent damage to the trucks. In this instance, the new truck driver simply waited in his truck and a landfill employee hooked a chain to the truck (a violation of the landfill’s own policy). A bulldozer operator then pulled the truck backwards to the machine the injured worker attended at the landfill (he did not work for the landfill; he worked for the machine owner). The worker later testified at deposition that he went to the cab of the truck and told the driver that he was going behind the truck to unhook the chain, to which the driver nodded. The worker then walked to the rear of the truck and entered the area between the truck and the bulldozer. Without warning, the truck started moving backwards and crushed the worker. The quick-thinking bulldozer operator rotated his machine, thus sparing the worker any further injuries. The tractor-trailer driver claimed another landfill worker motioned for him to back up just before the tragic incident.

This incident snapped the worker’s femur and crushed his pelvis. He now requires a walker to attempt to walk even short distances, and he must use a wheelchair for any longer movements. Needless to say, he can no longer perform his former job or any other similar work. A single father of three teenage sons at the time of the incident, he sustained lifetime earning losses estimated by an expert to be between $800,000 and $1,200,000.

This case settled before trial for $3,350,000: $2,350,000 from the landfill and $1,000,000 from the trucking company that employed the driver.

Perhaps this sort of injury could have been prevented by a simple back-up alarm. You have probably heard these on many trash trucks, school buses, and other machinery. With a properly functioning back-up alarm, the worker would have heard the alarm start beeping the instant the truck was put in reverse, giving him warning to move out of the way. This is an all-too familiar situation, one I have written about before, but some trucking companies continue to ignore the rest of their industry and will not install these devices, despite the cost to others in terms of safety.