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Norfolk, Virginia (VA) teenagers killed by an out of control truck.

Two families in my home town of Norfolk, Virginia (VA) are grieving at the recent loss of their children when a tractor trailer truck lost control, crossed the median, and wrecked into the Volkswagon Jetta that the teenagers were riding in. It happened in West Virginia near Beckley. A third young person who also attended Virginia Commonwealth University with the two Norfolkians was also killed in this automobile accident. The truck driver was from Powhatan, Virginia. After hitting the three young college students, the semi then hit another vehicle.

Unbelievably, according to published reports, the West Virginia police did not immediately give a traffic citation to the truck driver. According to the newspaper account in the Virginian Pilot from Norfolk, Virginia (VA), the police were saying there was no indication that the truck driver was speeding or that he operated his tractor trailer rig recklessly. There was rain at the time of the crash. I don’t understand how the police did not conclude that losing control of your vehicle and colliding with two other vehicles going the opposite direction on the highway is not evidence of driving too fast for the circumstances or recklessness. I am sure that the accident reconstruction experts for the semi-driver and his company were at the scene talking to the police within hours of the event. As soon as a big truck accident happens, the insurance companies for the trucker and trucking company get out to the scene immediately. Knowing that they are working for the insurance company for the potentially at fault driver, they will try to influence the police and the collection of evidence in a way most favorable to the truck driver.

In a situation like this it is extremely important for the family to hire an experienced, personal injury lawyer almost immediately. A personal injury lawyer can in turn hire an accident reconstruction expert to work on the family’s behalf to go and investigate the circumstances of the truck accident/wrongful death. Having your own expert of the scene of the collision as soon as possible makes sure that all of the facts that may confirm the truck driver’s errors are preserved before they disappear as a result of the passage of time. The admissibility in court later of any accident reconstruction facts or opinions often depends on the speed with which the expert gets to the scene. If the expert doesn’t get to the scene before it’s altered or see the actual vehicles before they are repaired or salvaged, then his testimony can often be excluded by a judge as being without sufficient foundation.

One problem is that the last thing that a grieving family wants to deal with when they have lost their child is thinking about lawyers and lawsuits. As a veteran personal injury lawyer, I am hesitant to inject myself into the family’s private pain even if I know them. Obviously, most ethical personal injury lawyers are sensitive to the need to give the family time to mourn without worrying about compensation and insurance claims. I think the best thing for families to do is to decide the most appropriate, competent attorney to handle the wrongful death matter as soon as possible. By hiring that attorney and getting that issue settled, the family can go back to dealing with the hard, unpleasant work of dealing with funerals and other logistics at the time of a death of a loved one. That way, the lawyer can deal with the insurance companies and the kinds of evidence issues I mentioned above. The family, having chosen and hired a legal representative, can go back to focusing on what is most important to them and leave the lawyer to do his job on their behalf.

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Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton, P.C.
1294 Diamond Springs Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23455

Toll Free: (800) 752.0042
Phone: (757) 460-7776
Fax: (757) 460.3428

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