A semi truck accident is usually anything but mundane, as the gigantic vehicles can cause all sorts of catastrophic damage. A recent tractor trailer accident in Virginia, though, proved particularly dramatic and left a wake of serious injuries and fatalities.

During the very early hours of the morning on Interstate 81, a tractor trailer overturned. Another car, a Lexus headed in the same direction, collided with the overturned truck. Tragically, the female driver of the Lexus died en route to a hospital, although the semi truck driver managed to escape the wreck. Police later charged that driver with reckless driving.

The series of events didn’t stop there, however. The collision apparently caused a piece of guardrail to go into the other lane of traffic, and a semi heading in the opposite direction hit the guardrail piece and swerved off the road and into the center median. The semi continued in the median until it slammed into the edge of a bridge. Following that impact, it then tumbled onto the roadway below, Route 90, where it caught on fire. The 34-year-old truck driver perished at the scene, while a man in the sleeper cab was ejected from the vehicle. That man suffered severe injuries in the accident.

When multiple truck drivers are involved in a crash, victims will want to look at who authorities charged with infractions such as speeding, distracted driving or reckless driving. The absence of these charges, though, doesn’t mean no one is liable for a wreck, especially a multi-vehicle crash or complex chain of events. A skilled attorney can perform his or her own investigation of a damaging truck accident and review all pertinent potential causes of a crash.

Source: WDBJ, Two dead in wrecks on Interstate 81 in Wythe County,” April 1, 2014