On Sunday, December 4, 2016, a dump truck was southbound on Highway 52 north of Pine Island, MN, when it lost its drive train. A Honda CRV was also heading southbound on Highway 52 when it struck the drive train and went off the road into the right ditch. The passenger in the Honda, Janet Swanson from Shoreview, MN, was injured. We have not found a GoFundMe account. If anyone knows of one, please let us know and we can link to it.
The Minnesota State Patrol was assisted by the Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office and Zumbrota Ambulance.
Can an Injured Person Sue When a Vehicle Part Falls onto the Road?
Yes, you can sue if you were injured because a vehicle part, like a drive train, fell off of a vehicle, here, a dump truck. Your lawsuit would be against the driver of that vehicle, the owner of it (a construction company, for example), and the business that serviced the truck before the accident. An injury caused by debris falling off of a truck may be fatal. In these cases, the family has the right to sue. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, hundreds of deaths are caused each year in the United States by stuff in the road that should not be there. due to litter and debris on the road. Thankfully, yesterday’s crash was not fatal.
4 Tips for Finding a Lawyer
- Find a lawyer who has won lawsuits against dump truck drivers. Nothing substitutes for experience, and attorneys Fred Pritzker and Eric Hageman have that. Two of our recent cases involved very similar situations, where dump truck drivers had run over and killed bicyclists on busy city roads.
- Make sure that the law firm is successful and has money available to fund your case. Personal injury lawyers work on a contingency basis, meaning the firm pays the expenses until the client gets a payout. If the law firm has not been successful and doesn’t have access to enough money to build you a winning case, that will probably not go well for you.
- Contact the Minnesota State Bar Association and search for information about the lawyer.
- Hire a lawyer you think you can trust. This is more than the person being “nice” or looking professional. Search the lawyer’s name on the internet. Find out if the law firm is rated on the Better Business Bureau site.