Georgia Injury Law Blog
Tractor Trailer Accident in Perry, Georgia Kills One
A hit and run tractor trailer accident in Perry, Georgia has killed one person. According to reports, the woman was a Michigan resident. She and her husband were in a Ford pickup truck when the truck was hit by a tractor trailer. The woman was declared dead at the scene, while her husband suffered serious injuries and had to be airlifted to the Medical Center of Georgia.
The driver of the tractor trailer, Texas resident Luis Lopez Guzman Jr. drove off after the crash. He has now been charged with drunk driving and leaving the scene of the accident. Guzman also apparently ran a red light before crashing into the pickup truck. So far, there is no information about the trucking company that employed Lopez Guzman.
Under federal rules, trucking companies are required to conduct random alcohol and drug testing of a truck driver. They are also prohibited from hiring or using truck drivers they know have a history of drunk driving. If a truck accident investigation determines that these rules were broken, then the trucking company could be held liable.Truckers also have a much lower legally allowed BAC level at .04, as opposed to .08 for the general population. All these rules reflect the seriousness with which the agency views intoxicated driving by truckers.
While this could be called an accident for purposes of litigation, there was nothing accidental about Guzman’s behavior here. Guzman chose to drink alcohol before driving, chose to run a red-light and commit whatever other traffic violations he committed, and chose to disappear from the scene of the accident, leaving a dead woman and her seriously injured husband on the roadside.
The Atlanta truck accident lawyers at the Katz Personal Injury Lawyers represent injured victims of truck, tractor trailer and 18 wheeler accidents in and around the metro Atlanta area.