A dangerous situation just south of Boston could have been much worse when a negligent truck driver ran a red light and hit a Brockton city bus. The truck accident, which sent two people to the hospital, was allegedly caused by an inattentive truck driver who was looking at paperwork while driving and who failed to stop at a red traffic light. The truck driver’s negligence caused his tractor-trailer to rear-end the city bus and to throw the bus off the road and into the yard of a residential property.

While the injuries and property damage in this accident were relatively minor, the victims of the accident are very lucky to have escaped without suffering greater harm. Other victims of similar accidents have not been as fortunate. Due to their immense size and incredible weight, tractor-trailers and other big rig trucks dwarf standard automobiles and pose great threats to personal safety when they are negligently operated. Inattentive truck drivers, such as the one involved in the Brockton accident, are often to blame for such accidents.

While the paperwork-reading truck driver may have been directly responsible for the truck accident, other parties associated with the truck driver’s employment may also be held accountable for the injuries and damages suffered by the victims. For example, the company that hired the driver to deliver goods or the employer who failed to adequately train the truck driver on proper truck operating procedures may also be responsible for the resulting injuries and damages.

Inattentive truck drivers injure many people and the negligence of those drivers and their employers makes them liable for their victims’ injuries. Therefore, those injured in truck accidents may be entitled to compensation.

Source: The Enterprise, “UPDATE: BAT bus careens into house after hit by truck,” Maria Papadopoulos, March 5, 2013