Tragic Crash With Truck Kills Woman and Child on Interstate 49 in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana (LA)

DESOTO PARISH, LA- Brproud.com writes that a tragic crash killed two people this week on Interstate 49 in DeSoto Parish in the early evening. The incident occurred on Interstate 49 when a northbound semi-truck left the roadway and rolled over.*

The large truck ejected all three occupants as it tumbled down an embankment on the side of the interstate. The crash killed a 48-year-old woman and a six-year-old child, both from Georgia, who were passengers in the truck. The driver, a 48-year-old man from Texas, was also thrown from the vehicle. The incident is still being investigated.

Fatal large truck crashes are on the rise. Nationally, overall fatalities caused by traffic incidents are down. Deadly collisions involving large trucks are the only area in which such deaths increased based on early data from 2019. While the numbers may be altered in the final release, it appears that although overall traffic deaths dropped 1.2 percent, collisions involving large trucks rose by one percent. 

Many officials suspect that a large part of the decline in fatalities is the result of improvements to vehicle safety in automobiles other than trucks. New cars and other lighter vehicles come with a variety of advanced crash-avoidance technology, including alerts designed to warn drivers when that are approaching a car too fast, automatic braking for emergencies, blind-spot warnings, and rearview cameras that show what is behind a vehicle. While such features are common in newer passenger vehicles, they are only beginning to appear in large commercial trucks. 

Studies indicate that the features designed to prevent crashes are working and that they are helping lower the number of passenger vehicle victims. No such benefits are yet impacting safety for the drivers operating large trucks. 

Accident News is a safety and education initiative from Montlick & Associates, designed to help people better understand and thereby avoid common accident causes.  To learn more about our injury prevention programs, including iridesafe.com - click here. We hope you are never in an accident, but if you or a family member are injured, call Montlick & Associates 24/7 for your free consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333) or use our live chat at Montlick.com.

Sources:

https://www.brproud.com/news/18-wheeler-crash-claims-life-of-woman-6-year-old-in-louisiana/

https://www.trucks.com/2019/10/22/trucking-fatalities-reach-highest-level-30-years/#:~:text=Driving%20faster%20to%20beat%20eight,crashes%2C%20some%20trucking%20experts%20say.

https://www.ttnews.com/articles/fatalities-crashes-involving-trucks-increased-2019-nhtsa-estimates