Semi Truck Crosses Median on I-95 Near JTB and Crashes in Bad Weather in Jacksonville, Florida
A semi truck crashed into other vehicles on I-95 near J Turner Butler Boulevard (JTB) in Jacksonville, Florida causing injuries after days of heavy rain, according to an article on Firstcoastnews.com. The weather the last few days in Jacksonville and other areas of Florida has been terrible with constant rain and heavy winds. The roads are soaked with pockets of standing water. This makes for very dangerous conditions which are expected to continue for a few days.
Those of us driving on the roads in the Jacksonville, Florida area may have seen a higher number of accidents, which of course are more common in such poor weather. The semi truck accident referenced in the article above is just one example of many.
When people get injured in accidents, whether they are caused by semi trucks or other vehicles, can the driver who caused the accident use the poor weather and driving conditions as an excuse? When we represent people who have been injured in an auto accident or had a family member killed in an accident, we certainly do not accept poor weather as a valid defense to negligent driving. We do not expect that juries in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit will either. When the weather is bad, whether it is due to rain, high winds, hail, fog, poor visibility or some other factor, we expect that people drive more carefully. Drivers must drive more slowly and be more alert to possible hazards caused by the weather. A person who is speeding, or even driving the speed limit, in poor weather cannot use the weather as an excuse if he/she was following another vehicle too closely and was unable to stop in time causing an accident. This is particularly true for semi trucks which are bigger, heavier, harder to stop and cause much more damage when they crash into other vehicles.
Defendant drivers in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits will sometimes blame the crash on the weather. However, it is important to understand that not only is the weather a poor excuse for an accident, it can often be used as a factor that supports the defendant driver's negligence because he/she failed to take the proper precautions and was driving dangerously as a result.
