An off duty firefighter from North Charleston, South Carolina died on January 19 in a crash with a tractor trailer on Palmetto Commerce Parkway in Charleston. He was 34 years old.
The Charleston Post and Courier reported that the firefighter lost his life in the truck crash when his Honda SUV hit the rear of the tractor trailer. The North Charleston Fire Department responded to the crash and they discovered during the operation that the driver of the SUV worked for the department.
The South Carolina State Police stated that the firefighter was driving east on the parkway when a tractor trailer pulled out in front of him as it was making a left turn. The SUV slammed into the truck’s driver side.
Two Others Treated For Injuries
Two other passengers where in the vehicle and they suffered non-life-threatening injuries. One of them is still in the hospital.
Our View
Our North Carolina and Virginia personal injury attorneys are saddened that this terrible tractor trailer accident took the life of a South Carolina firefighter. There are more than 3.5 million truck drivers in the US today. While many of them drive safely, there are just too many fatal tractor trailer accidents that should not happen.
From the description of the truck accident, it suggests that the tractor trailer driver may have pulled out in front of the firefighter, causing him to slam into the truck. This suggests negligence on the part of the truck driver. It is something that the grieving family may wish to talk about with a qualified wrongful death attorney.
Our personal injury law firm knows how painful and difficult it is to lose a loved one in a preventenable truck accident in South Carolina. We also understand that tractor trailer drivers possess a commercial driver’s license, which means that they have a legal obligation to drive more carefully than other drivers.
Our law firm once represented a family in Norfolk, Virginia, where their loved one was a passenger in a car that was driving slowly on I-64 after a tire problem. A commercial big rig slammed into the car, and both vehicles caught on fire. Our clients’ loved one, who was only 25 years old, died in the terrible fire.
The truck driver conceded that he did not see the car in the road until just seconds before the fatal impact. But the defense argued that the driver of the car caused the truck crash because it was going too slowly on the highway.
However, our wrongful death attorneys proved that the truck driver was violating Virginia CDL rules, and he had diabetes that he was not controlling. Through our efforts, we obtained a $3.5 million wrongful death settlement in Virginia, which is now helping to support his child, who was only five at the time of the crash.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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