Four people were taken to the hospital after a wreck involving two 18-wheelers and an automobile in Montgomery Tuesday afternoon. The crash happened around 3:00pm at the intersection of Taylor Road and Troy Highway.
Several traffic safety concerns have been triggered in the wake of an accident on a stretch of I-65 in Kentucky that claimed the lives of 11 people - an accident that authorities say is one of the worst traffic accidents in the state's history. The accident occurred when a commercial truck driven by 45-year-old Kenneth Laymon of Alabama left the interstate, plowed through a cable barrier, and struck a van head-on, killing the truck driver and ten people in the van. Two children who were secured in safety seats inside the van survived.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Local employers Kraft Foods and Supervalu are pushing Congress to allow an increase in the weight of trucks, claiming such a change could save money, cut fuel use and reduce emissions. A bill pending before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would increase the allowable weight of trucks from 80,000 pounds to 97,000 pounds. But it would require a sixth axle be added to trucks carrying that much weight. The bill is backed by the Coalition for Transportation Productivity, made up largely of companies that ship products by truck, and the American Trucking Association. Opposing the bill are some independent truck owners and highway safety groups.
Birmingham News blogger Don Kausler Jr. shares his harrowing experience as an 18-wheeler collides with traffic stopped on Interstate 20 from a previous accident. According to his story, while stopped near mile marker 147 waiting for traffic from another wreck ahead to be cleared, "A big rig loaded with two trailers came squeezing between an 18-wheeler and the concrete median barrier. It sideswiped the Dodge Ram pickup truck to my left, knocking it into my truck. And then the big rig slammed violently into the 18-wheeler that was turned sideways."
A Chilton County jury awarded the Sanderson family of Clanton, Ala., a verdict of $3.5 million for the death of James Sanderson, who was killed when the van he was driving was crushed between two logging trucks. Beasley Allen attorneys Benjamin E. Baker and J. Cole Portis represented the Sanderson family, including James Sanderson's widow, Annie M. Sanderson, and children, Derek, Josh and Amy Sanderson; against defendants Ken Gorum Trucking and Gary Fruge.
