According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, two motorists were killed in a chain-reaction, eight-vehicle collision. The horrific accident took place on I-55 in Jefferson County. The news article reveals that a 32-year-old semi-truck driver “took his eyes off the road” just briefly and then when he looked back to the road, he saw that traffic had come to a stop in front of him. By that time, the trucker was unable to stop his tractor-trailer in time and struck one car, then ran over a compact vehicle, pulling it along for almost 100 yards.

I handled a case in St. Louis City just like this one. The events, as described above, were catastrophic. A young lady was sitting stopped in traffic on I-44 waiting to exit the roadway. An out-of-state truck driver looked away from the roadway and then found it impossible to stop in time to avoid striking the cars in front of him. The young lady’s car was shoved under another semi-truck in front of her and she was killed instantly.

Truck drivers, like all motorists, must pay close attention to the roadway and its conditions. Because tractor trailers are so heavy, it is even more imperative that truck drivers watch the roads for indications that a sudden stop may be necessary. Driver inattention is the main cause of such crashes and is easily preventable.