Utah Law Talk

Five people have been hospitalized following a Magna, Utah car accident on September 15, 2009. According to the KSL news, a car attempted to avoid a bale of hay and collided with other vehicles. The two vehicles crashed head-on at 7520 S. Fetzer Dr. at around 8:40 p.m.

According to Salt Lake County officials, a woman attempted to swerve around the hay which had fallen onto the Interstate while being unloaded from a truck parked on the side of the road. While the woman attempted to swerve, she was read-ended by another vehicle. The woman and her 5-year-old daughter were critically injured. Three others suffered very serious injuries.

Utah Highway Patrol say a flag was posted to direct traffic around the hay but the road and the bale of hay were dark. The investigation has been handed over to the district attorney’s office where they will determine if any charges will be filed.

Debris Related Highway Crashes

According to AAA, 25,000 crashes are attributed to debris related causes. The New York Times reports that trucks traveling with unsecured loads contribute about 140,000 cubic yards of debris to the road each year. Enough to fill 8,750 garbage trucks and extend 45 miles. Road debris causes the driver to lose control oh his or her vehicle and often causes sudden braking that endangers both those in the car and other vehicles behing.

I had the opportunity to read some of the comments to this story posted on KSL.  Some of these appear to be from those involved in moving the hay and from witnesses who saw this unfold. From all appearances, it appears that large bales of hay, described by one commenter as half-ton bales, were left in the road for an extended period of time while they were being unloaded. It is not clear if these workers used adequate warnings to warn motorists of the dangers ahead. One commenter stated that there were little to no warnings of the obstruction ahead.

There is a basic principle of law that says that a person or company is never allowed to needlessly injure another. Leaving obstructions on the road that motorists will want to steer around to avoid is a recipe for disaster. It seems like there were a number of safer ways to get the job done than how these people did it. If this is truly the case, then I suspect that those injured in this crash have a claim against these hay handlers for negligence in causing this accident to happen. I would recommend that they talk to a Magna, Utah accident and injury lawyer to find out what rights they have available to them

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Utah car accident. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.