When a distracted driver is a distracted truck driver

When we think about distracted drivers around Chambersburg, our first thought may be of a teen driver. Teens have grown up never knowing a world without cellphones and texts. They rarely make voice calls and much prefer texting in most situations.

And because they carry their smartphones with them 24/7, it is easy for them to fail to recognize that driving a motor vehicle is different than sitting around at a coffee shop and reading or sending a text.

For many teen drivers, it is practically impossible to resist reading an incoming text or replying to one. They have the youthful sense of invincibility and an inability to grasp the consequence to a car accident that could leave them in a wheelchair with chronic pain for the rest of their lives.

So they make an easy target as the stereotype of the distracted driver. But there are far more distracted drivers than merely teen drivers texting. And sometimes those distracted drivers are driving large tractor trailers.

A woman is suing over the death of her husband, who was also a truck driver and was killed in a truck accident when he was struck by his own truck as he stood by the side of the road in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Another truck driver, who claimed he was reaching for a soft drink, slammed into the first man’s truck and pushed it forward, running him over.

The second truck never applied his brakes and according to police, they appeared to be in working order.

Distraction comes in a million varieties and far too many of them are deadly.

Pennrecord.com, “Wrongful death suit claims tractor trailer accident caused by distracted driver,” Jim Boyle, October 6, 2014