LEXINGTON, S.C. – A tragic accident on Tuesday afternoon in Pelion resulted in the death of a man following a crash between a tractor-trailer and a tow truck. The Lexington County Coroner identified the victim as Walker Wilkins, a 63-year-old resident of Augusta, Georgia.
The incident happened when Wilkins, traveling westbound on Fairfield Road, collided with a tow truck attempting to make a westbound turn from Bub Shumpert Road onto Fairfield Road.
Despite wearing his seatbelt, Wilkins sustained critical injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Meanwhile, the driver of the tow truck was transported to a nearby hospital, where he received medical attention for serious injuries. However, no updates on his current condition have been provided.
The South Carolina Highway Patrol has taken charge of investigating the collision, working diligently to ascertain the factors that led to the incident.
No further information was immediately available.
The Wilkins Family Deserves Answers.
The family will need an independent investigation into the crash to know what happened leading up to the crash. If this crash was the result of the tow truck driver failing to keep a proper lookout and yield to oncoming traffic, the driver should be held accountable.
If the investigation determines that the driver of the tow truck was distracted on a phone or some other device, the actions of the tow company should also be considered. Commercial companies have an obligation to the motoring public to institute policies and procedures to prevent drivers from using phones and other distractions while operating commercial vehicles. Failure to institute and enforce these policies results in careless drivers that endanger the public. In such cases, the company may be directly responsible for harm caused by a crash.
Our firm handles many cases like this across the country. Our clients often wish to hold the company responsible for the death of their loved one and force change within the company to prevent similar crashes from happening to others. This can be accomplished through negotiated settlement terms that require the negligent company to institute mandatory safety training, third-party oversite, or other procedural safeguards that ensure the company places safety over profits.
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The Ammons Law Firm represents clients nationwide in catastrophic injury and wrongful death litigation, with extensive experience in complex auto/tire defect and commercial vehicle cases.
Disclaimer: This post is not legal advice. Information contained in this blog was compiled from third-party sources or is the opinion of the author. Please inform us immediately if false or misleading information is contained in this post.
