Brother Of NBA's Star Amare Stoudemire Dies In Crash With Tractor Trailer
The older brother of New York Knicks' star Amare Stoudemire died early Monday in an accident involving a tractor trailer. According to nytimes.com, Hazell Stoudemire, a resident of Lakeland, Florida, was killed when his 2007 Cadillac Escalade rear-ended a tractor trailer on Highway 27 in Lake Wales. The same article reports that Mr. Stoudemire was not wearing a seat-belt at the time of the accident.
Investigation Continues
The investigation of this case continues and it should be noted that although initial reports have Mr. Stoudemire rear-ending the tractor trailer, all facts are not known yet and it is therefore too early to place blame on anyone involved this accident.
Tractor Trailers Accidents Keep Happening With Alarming Frequency
On a separate note, one more victim has been added to those that perished in the recent pileup on I-75, according to clickorlando.com. The eleventh victim was a man traveling with his wife and daughter in a Dodge pickup truck that crashed into a tractor trailer as it travelled South early Sunday.
The investigation also continues in this recent multiple crash, according to ocala.com. Six tractor trailers were involved in that crash which, in addition, caused injuries to 18 people.
All survivors talk about suddenly "hitting a wall of smoke" and that from there on visibility was close to zero. As a matter of fact, ACFR District Chief Jeff Harpe stated to the press that upon approaching the scene and "hitting the wall of smoke" he couldn't see the hood of his own truck. I imaging that any driver reaching such conditions would instinctively slow down and stop. However, professional truck drivers are taught to lead their vehicles on to the shoulder of the highway and stop, which leaves me wondering why so many of these initial reports talk about a number of eighteen wheelers being rear-ended after stopping on the right lane...
It does not look like these professional truck drivers followed protocol and stopped their large commercial trucks out of "harms way" on the shoulder. Could it be that there was just not enough time for them to react and do what they were trained to do? Or, could it be that they were just too fatigued after many long hours at the wheel to react as fast as needed? I am sure the ongoing investigation will shed some light on this event and give us an idea of who, if anyone, failed to follow protocol. Yet, we cannot help but wonder why these trucks were stopped on the right lane and not on the shoulder of the highway as protocol dictates. After all, in our many years of practice we have seen how commercial truck drivers are forced by their employers to drive longer hours than they should and/or received very poor training by these same employers.
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