We at SRI would like to thank Shane Hall for allowing us to assist him in a CMV collision that he had recently in the state of Virginia. In the early morning hours his client was traveling south-west on VA route 624 when he encountered a coal truck traveling north-east on VA route 624. During the subsequent investigation we determined that because of the height of a train overpass the coal truck could not remain on its side of the road and pass under the overpass. This was key information for the case, so we prepared several forensically accurate to scale 3-D models to help prove this point.
3-D model 1 illustrating the changes in height of the overpass because of the super elevation of the road.
Model 2 illustrating the truck impacting the overpass if it drove in the proper lane of travel.
Model 3 illustrating the truck clearing the overpass while traveling in the wrong lane of travel.
In addition to this during our mechanical inspection of this truck we found several out of service violations on the truck. The springs on the truck were broken and were extremely dangerous to the motoring public.
The brakes were in terrible condition. We found brakes that were so worn the brake chambers had bottomed out and could not apply the brakes.
We found the wiring on the truck was hazardous and not reliable
We found worn and broken suspension parts.
We found kinked and twisted air lines.
This truck was in such bad mechanical condition that upon the conclusion of the inspection, to remove the liability to SRI, we informed the owner and the defense attorney of our findings and advised them not to move this truck from their lot as it was an extreme danger to the motoring public.
During mediation Mr. Hall presented all of the violations that we found during his presentation. Mr. Hall was able to successfully resolve this case at mediation and ended with a very happy client.
SRI Owner, Joey Stidham, touched on this case during his appearance on Midday Kentucky:
