The holiday season is in full swing, which brings with it the holiday shopping season in New Mexico. As shoppers flood the stores, inventory is ramped up and our nation’s truck drivers strive to meet the increased demand for the cargo they carry. This can lead to added hours to an already fatiguing job, sometimes resulting in tragic truck accidents.
One morning in late November an accident involving a tractor trailer and multiple passenger vehicles occurred. The accident happened on U.S. 62/180 near Carlsbad. The tractor-trailer driver failed to notice that traffic had slowed to allow for construction work in the road ahead. The truck driver was unable to slow in time and crashed into five vehicles.
One of the vehicles was a Cadillac Escalade. Two women in the Escalade were pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the truck and two others were transported to area hospitals with injuries of varying degrees. According to reports, the truck driver may have been distracted, and that may have contributed to the cause of the accident. Alcohol does not appear to have been involved, though the cause of the accident is still under investigation.
The holiday season is an incredibly busy time of year in New Mexico, and people tend to have more on their minds than usual. However, when a person is behind the wheel the focus needs to remain on the road. Failure to maintain that focus can be the cause of tragic truck accidents. Losing a loved one at any time of year is devastating, and more so at the holidays. While legal action may not be on a person’s mind at such a time, a civil lawsuit against the party deemed responsible for the accident could provide compensation for medical costs, final costs and other verifiable losses.
