A North Carolina man has been charged with three counts of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle in connection with a fiery crash in Johnston County that claimed the lives of three people on the afternoon of Aug. 29. A North Carolina Highway Patrol representative said that felony charges were not filed against the man because he was not impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash and did not attempt to flee the scene. The accident took place on Interstate 40 near mile marker 319.
According to a Highway Patrol report, the Garner man, who was driving a flatbed truck loaded with lumber, failed to slow down as he approached a line of stationary vehicles. The resulting chain-reaction accident involved nine vehicles. Media accounts indicate that troopers arrived at the scene quickly because they were investigating another crash on Interstate 40 when they were notified about the commercial truck accident.
Emergency services workers say that they arrived at the scene to find several of the vehicles involved badly damaged and engulfed in flames. A Youngsville man and a married couple from South Caroline were killed in the accident. Initial reports do not reveal how many road users were hurt in the crash or how seriously they were injured.
Pursuing compensation on behalf of accident victims is generally less challenging for experienced personal injury attorneys when the drivers responsible are charged by police. This is because negligence in car accident lawsuits is established by the preponderance of the evidence, which means that attorneys must only convince juries that their account of the sequence of events in question is more credible than the arguments made by the defendant.