We are all creatures of habit. Our day-to-day lives are filled with repetition: wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, repeat. Routines and schedules keep us on track, but in truth, we may not even need them. As products of a fast-paced society, we are trained to be constantly active. Once we find a lifestyle that is comfortable, we tend to stick with it. Change is not welcomed in most instances; we have become so attached to our daily lives that we are often anxious to break the cycle.
Regardless of his or her standard of living, every person has one thing in common. Personal injury accidents occur every day in this country. Life-altering accidents can take place anywhere at any time, especially when we least expect them. Driving to work, backing out of the driveway or going to the grocery store—it doesn’t matter. In a split second, a person’s whole life can be turned upside down, or even destroyed.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, an accident is defined as an unexpected and undesirable event, especially one resulting in damage or harm. Under the law, personal injury accident victims may be financially compensated by those who are responsible for causing the harm. Even if a “freak” accident may appear to be no one’s fault, there is always a possibility that a jury would disagree.
On Monday, March 23, 2015, a 32-year-old mother from Martinez, California was killed in a freak accident involving a dump truck. According to NBC Bay Area, Lindsey Combs was in her house at 820 Shell Ave with her husband and 4-year-old daughter that afternoon. A worker from JJR Construction, a contractor hired by the city, knocked on the Combs’s door to ask them to move their car. The company was working on the Shell Avenue Sidewalk Project and needed to put down gravel in front of the Combs’s driveway. Lindsey kindly obliged and left the house to move her car. Little did her husband and daughter know that it would be the last time they saw her alive.
Combs began moving her car; the dump truck, driven by Daryl Crockett, began backing up into the driveway. Crockett began dumping the truck’s load onto the ground when he heard screaming. Combs’s car was beneath the bucket and was being crushed by thousands of pounds of gravel. Crockett immediately tried to halt the flow of gravel, but it was too late. Combs was already dead. Her husband ran out into the driveway to find a massive pile of gravel covering his wife’s car. Her daughter looked on from inside the house.
Crockett later told police that her car moved 10 feet between the time he looked in his mirrors and when he dumped the load. OSHA officials are currently investigating the fatal truck accident, but have yet to cite Crockett or JJR Construction with any violation.
