Truck Accident Attorney Blog

While many are questioning the decision to reopen the stretch of I-75 where the car pileup happened in the early morning hours of last Sunday, authorities are still trying to identify some of the victims of the fiery crashes that occurred near Gainesville. The latest victim was identified as Christie Nguyen, a 27 year old college student. Ms. Nguyen was the 7th victim to be identified. Authorities are still trying to identify three bodies that were badly burnt in their vehicles, making the process hard to complete.

No Federal Guidelines To Shut Down Roads

Apparently, there are no federal guidelines for the closure of highways. Be it a sandstorm in Arizona, a whiteout in Maine or a wildfire in Florida, the decision to shut down a highway rests with local state troopers, according to cbsnews.com. Typically, those on the scene will relay to their local supervisors information based on their visual appreciation of the conditions and these supervisors will then make a decision to close the highway or not.

Closing a highway can be a costly decision, given the volume of merchandise that's moved through our road system in large commercial trucks everyday. Timely delivery of those goods affects the profitability of trucking companies and freight forwarders alike. Therefore, local troopers "making the call" are likely to be under a lot of pressure to reopen a road.

However, there is no evidence that such was the case when troopers decided to reopen the stretch of I-75 where the pileups occurred. This part of the highway had been shut down earlier due to a previous accident. However, after being closed for three hours, a sergeant and a lieutenant from the Florida Highway Patrol decided that conditions had cleared enough to reopen the road. Apparently, conditions quickly deteriorated soon thereafter, causing the fiery pileups that ended up costing the lives of ten people and injuries to 18.

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