Cherry Hill, New Jersey (NewYorkInjuryNews.com – News Report) – A tractor-trailer crossed the median and collided with oncoming traffic in South Jersey. The large truck hit a Volkswagen soft-top convertible and a box truck. The tractor-trailer was carrying heavy machinery, and the box truck was transporting produce, which after the crash was strewn about the highway. The box truck and tractor-trailer lay were a tangle of metal. The cab of the box truck was pushed up against the concrete wall and the tractor-trailer was completely totaled.
The two passengers in the smaller truck were killed, as was the driver of the small Volkswagen. State police identified the dead as Lawrence Wright, 66, of Texas; Renee Lesenko, 44, of Philadelphia; and Juma Rajab, 42, of Philadelphia. The tractor-trailer driver Sheraz Khan, 40, of New York survived the crash and was treated for minor injuries and recently released from a hospital. Police investigators are still uncertain as what caused the accident.
There are always serious consequences when large trucks collide with smaller motor vehicles. In 2006 in New Jersey, there were 50 fatal accidents that large transport trucks were involved in, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA also reported that in 2006, the nation as a whole saw 385,000 large truck collisions; wherein 4,732 of these were fatal. That year, large trucks accounted for 8 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal crashes. As one can see, these are grave accidents in which many lives are damaged.