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SEMI TRUCK HITS STOPPED TRAFFIC 10 DEAD. On June 19th, along Interstate 65 in Alabama at mile post 138 near the bridge over Pigeon Creek was the location of a deadly scene. Ten people were killed, including 8 children, teenagers and 2 adults, when a semi truck failed to stop at a queue, as the result of a series of accidents. A second semi truck also failed to stop, which also struck vehicles.
Initial reports said that 10 people were killed and 26 people were injured when rain from a tropical storm made the road slick and hard to navigate. But since then, there has been several lawsuits filed, claiming negligence on the part of the truck drivers and the trucking companies that are named as defendants.
The report from the accident is described as a Hansen & Adkins tractor-trailer, caught up to a queue of vehicles, striking a 2020 Ford Explorer from behind, then veered left and struck the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch van. The Hansen & Adkins tractor-trailer struck other vehicles and the left rail of the bridge before coming to a stop in the roadway, the NTSB report says.
The Ford Explorer overturned and struck several other vehicles. Two passengers in the Ford Explorer died.
Following those collisions, an Asmat tractor-trailer came upon the stopped vehicles, veered left, mounted the left bridge rail, and struck a Girls Ranch van, which wound up in the median between the two tractor-trailers. The van and other vehicles caught fire.
The Beasley-Allen law firm in Montgomery is representing Mrs. Candice L. Gulley. “The defendants, in this case, were negligent and displayed a complete disregard for the lives of fellow travelers around them,” Allen said in the release. “As a result, 10 people died that day, including eight children who were trapped in a van driven by Gulley. Those children burned to death needlessly. It is hard to imagine a more tragic and gut-wrenching set of circumstances, which demand justice and accountability to the fullest measure.”
A statement from Tom Terry who works for Hansen & Adkin is as follows
“Our hearts go out to everyone involved in the tragic accidents of June 19th and those affected by them,” “We believe the investigations will show there was a series of near-simultaneous accidents that stopped traffic on the bridge and that were caused by a number of different factors, including heavy rains from the remnants of a tropical storm. We also believe that the investigations will show that our driver was traveling at or under the speed limit. Click here to read the full story.
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