January 10, 2011, ERIE, PA — A tractor trailer rear-ended a car on Interstate 90 in Springfield Township in an Erie County commercial truck accident that can trace its origins to an earlier accident in Ohio.
The chain of events began near 3 p.m. Sunday when a Conneaut police cruiser and another vehicle were involved in an accident near the Conneaut, OH exit of I-90 that closed the westbound lanes. The resulting back up of traffic caused a westbound 1998 Ford F-150 driven by Robert L. Conklin, 40, of Uhrichsville, OH, to stop in the left lane.
Mr. Conklin’s vehicle was rear-ended by a westbound Freightliner truck driven by Kelly Moore, 49, of Erie, PA, who was apparently unable to stop.
A passenger in Mr. Conklin’s vehicle, Julie E. Sweet, 40, of New Philadelphia, was taken to Brown Memorial Hospital in Conneaut for treatment. No report on her condition was available. It is not known whether anyone else was injured in the accident.
The question of liability for this crash may not end with the driver of the tractor trailer that failed to stop. Certainly, that driver had a responsibility to stop his vehicle in time. However, in Pennsylvania chain reaction crashes, sometimes liability also should be allocated to the driver who caused the initial accident. Whether or not liability attaches to the driver at fault in the first accident is a complex question and involves a determination of whether that driver’s negligence can be fairly linked to the later accident.
For more information on commercial truck accidents, visit our commercial truck accident page or take advantage of our offer to give you a free book, “The Ultimate Guide to Car Accident Cases in Pennsylvania: A Roadmap to Justice.” We are northwest Pennsylvania truck accident lawyers who believe in providing free information to the public about truck accident injuries and the cases that result from them. To schedule a free consultation with one of our experienced Erie truck accident lawyers, call today locally at 814-273-2010 or toll free at 814-273-2010.