Birmingham, Alabama – – An accident on Interstate 459 (I-459) unfolded on Monday afternoon, resulting in the loss of a truck driver from North Little Rock, Arkansas. Mr. Jeffrey E. Cane, 42 years old, lost his life in the incident.
The accident occurred when Mr. Cane was operating a 2023 Freightliner tractor-trailer, and the tractor-trailer struck a tire that had dislodged from a 2002 Ford Explorer.
The collision with the tire caused the tractor-trailer to veer off the roadway, and a fire erupted.
Emergency responders arrived at the scene; however, Mr. Cane passed away at the accident site.
The Cause of the Tire Dislodging Must be Determined to Ensure all Wrongdoers are Held Accountable to the Surviving Family
Tire maintenance is crucial to safe tires, but what happens when the people you depend on to keep your tires in good shape fail you and the public? They need to be held accountable. Each year, hundreds of lives are lost due to tire-related crashes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2021, 622 road fatalities were tire-related. Many of these accidents happened due to a poor repair job by a tire maintenance company.
Proper tire installation is necessary for any vehicle to run safely on the road. When a tire is incorrectly installed and is not fully tightened or missing lug nuts, the company that failed at installation may be liable for any injury or death caused by their negligence. Many of these tire failure incidents can be traced back to the businesses that worked on the vehicle since fastening failures usually occur within days or weeks of installation.
Maintenance shops have a duty to the driving public to install tires correctly using the torque needed to ensure each lug is held securely. When companies fail to do this, they must be held accountable for any injury or death caused by their wrongdoing.
Unfortunately, we have seen many cases like this one. Tires falling off other vehicles is a real problem. We are currently handling a case involving an accident in Illinois where the left front tire and wheel on a 2010 Ford Fusion came off of the vehicle, crossed the median, and struck the windshield of a 2019 Kenworth tractor-trailer. The driver of the tractor-trailer suffered fatal injuries. After investigating the crash, we determined the Ford had been recently serviced by a tire shop. We are currently working to hold the wrongdoer accountable for our client’s passing.
There is not enough information available to determine who is responsible for the tire falling off of the Ford vehicle in this case. However, we do know tires should not fall off vehicles, and when they do, the parties responsible for the tire’s dislodgment must be held accountable.
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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.
