According to statistics, a person is seriously injured or killed in an accident caused by tractor-trailers, also called 18-wheelers or semi-trucks. Annually, there are about 500,000 trucking accidents in the United States, and about 1%, of 5,000 of them are fatal. Sixty-eight percent of tractor-trailer accidents don’t occur in cities, but instead take place in rural areas. More than half took place during the day and a great majority of the accidents took place on weekends. When a tractor-trailer accident occurs, 98% of the fatalities involved occur to the people in passenger vehicles
Fox 5 Atlanta reports on a fatal tractor-trailer crash that occurred in Henry County, shutting down I-75 northbound. The accident happened on Thursday, May 16th and involved two tractor-trailer vehicles and a pickup truck towing a trailer.
According to police, a tractor-trailer carrying rubber particles and a Chevy 2500 pickup carrying pine straw slowed for traffic. Another tractor-trailer failed to stop in time, crashing into the Chevrolet pickup. The impact of the crash forced the pickup truck into the rear of the other vehicle, crushing it between the two tractor trailers.
There were four people in the truck. All were pronounced dead at the scene. The identities of those killed were not immediately released. The driver of the first tractor-trailer was not seriously injured. The cab of the second tractor-trailer was engulfed in flames, which were fought off by firefighters that arrived at the scene.
As of late Thursday evening, the accident was still under investigation and there was no word as to whether the second tractor-trailer driver would be facing charges.
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