Distracted Trucker Flips Vehicle in Redding
On Monday, May 22, 2017, a truck driver caused a single-vehicle collision that left the driver with severe injuries and blocked traffic on a local highway for several hours. In interviews with California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers, the driver admitted driving while distracted.
Accident Details
According to CHP, the truck accident occurred at about 1:15 p.m. when the driver, a 63-year-old resident of Fortuna, was driving on the eastbound section of Highway 299. The driver reportedly entered a turn at a dangerously high speed, causing his top-heavy vehicle to flip over. CHP reported that after the truck overturned, the vehicle slid along the westbound lanes and collided with the guardrail on the side of the highway.
Additionally, the driver admitted to CHP officers that he had been using his cell phone when he entered the turn and that his cell phone use caused him to make the maneuver at an unsafe speed.
Injury and Response
When emergency responders arrived at the scene of the accident, they found the truck driver had sustained traumatic injuries, including a severe laceration of his left arm. The medical helicopter took the driver to the Mercy Medical Center in Redding for emergency treatment. No other vehicles or persons were involved in the crash.
There is no further information available on the driver’s condition. However, severe arm injuries can result in the loss of a limb. Amputation injuries are highly traumatic and often take a lot of energy and resources to recover from.
Traffic
When the collision occurred, the truck’s logs had been hauling scattered across the freeway. Work crews took hours to remove the debris, the damaged vehicle from the roadway, and traffic control signals were in place to help drivers avoid the wreckage until 5:15 p.m.
Another truck accident on a nearby highway was reported at 2:30 p.m., and nobody was injured. As a result, this accident compounded traffic problems for drivers using the county’s highways.
Distracted Driving Statistics
Distracted driving is a severe problem that is causing an increasing number of accidents in the U.S. Some statistics about the issue are included below:
- Sending or reading a single text message diverts a driver’s attention for about 5 seconds. At 55 miles per hour, this is enough time to travel the length of an entire football field.
- The NHTSA reports that every day, about 660,000 drivers are using their cell phones while driving at any given moment
- 3,477 people were killed by distracted driving in 2015
Redding Personal Injury Lawyers
I’m Ed Smith, a Redding personal injury lawyer. Auto accidents can leave victims with life-altering injuries. If you or somebody you care about has been critically injured or killed in an accident, call me at (530) 392-9400 to receive friendly advice. A telephone consultation with me is free. I can also be reached at (800) 404-5400, free of toll.
I’ve been helping residents of Redding and nearby areas to recover the money they are justly owed in their cases involving personal injury and wrongful death since 1982.
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