I saw a bad wreck happen today. A car ran over a bucket from a backhoe at highway speed. The car went airborne for a second or 2. No other car was hit but I assume the car was totaled. This happened about 100 feet in front of me so I almost got involved.
If they somehow could figure out who dropped the bucket, could they sue the owner of the bucket? I realize finding the owner is almost impossible.
You? Sue him for what? Almost running over the bucket? Seeing another car in a wreck?
The driver of the other car could probably sue.
sue him for dropping the bucket on the highway which caused the wreck.
He’s talking about the driver of the car which hit the bucket. which should have been clear since OP was asking if they could sue.
and we’re not talking about a plastic pail, a backhoe bucket is a big, steel scoop which could weigh up to 500 lbs.
I assume the bucket must have just dropped there or else some other car would have it before this car did. I saw the bucket in the road just before it was hit, I thought it was a cardboard box. I only figured out what it was after the wreck . There was a good amount of traffic so it was lucky that no other car was hit after the car went airborne. It also helped that the car somehow stayed in its lane.
I don’t see why they couldn’t sue. It’s the driver’s (and therefore the business owner’s/their insurance) job to make sure the load is secured. If parts are falling off, it’s not someone else’s fault.
As for finding the owner, it’s probably not that hard. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a serial number on it somewhere that can be tracked back to them, unless they bought it used (in which case that person may be quick to point out who they sold it to). Even without that, if there’s cameras on the highway, one of them likely saw it happen OR saw a truck carrying the backhoe pass through it right before it happened. That may give police enough information to figure out who was hauling it.
Also, someone’s going to be in the market for a new bucket soon. I don’t know if people keep extras floating around the shop, so they can watch for that as well.
It won’t be that easy. No serial numbers. The kid has bought a few, you just go to the local equipment dealer and buy one out of the rows of buckets. People need buckets all the time. They trade them in all the time. A quick check on our local Craigslist produces 62 hits for backhoe bucket. It was probably just sitting on the trailer, that’s where the kid keeps his. Some idiot forgot to tie it down.
Dennis
sure the transport people ( the person responsible for transport of bucket ) is responsible for the damage.
The bucket’s transporter breached the duty of care to “ensure load is secure”.
Its an incident not an accident.
Surely the owner of the bucket is going to have to report missing bucket to police to claim it on insurance ? "seems to have been stolen… ? Won’t the driver of the truck be having to answer the question "Hey driver, did you steal the bucket, or did you drop it on the road ??? there’s surely no other explanation right ? "
In the UK, the liability would be with the driver of the vehicle from which it fell. In law, a driver has the responsibility to ensure that their load is secure and failure is a criminal offence.
It doesn’t matter if the load is a suitcase on a roof rack, or a 60 tonne earth mover on a low loader - it’s down to the driver. Of course, in the latter case, the driver’s employer would also have to demonstrate that they had trained the driver sufficiently and provided the necessary equipment.
there are cameras but I don’t know if they have enough resolution , they mainly show how much traffic is on the road.
True, but they may show the color of the truck hauling it a blurry logo on a pick up. I know there won’t be a license plate, but just something to point investigators in A directions instead of just saying ‘well, we got nothing at all’. It might even point show them where they got on or off the freeway.
I’d guess there are probably laws (at the state level?) about properly securing cargo on a motor vehicle, that would be relevant in a case like this.
He said “they,” not “I,” so he’s obviously referring to that driver and not to himself.
Aren’t legal questions in another forum?
This is better suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Just get CSI to analyze the dirt on the bucket. They’ll be able to determine where the last job site was and then trace where the backhoes went from there. One of em will be missing a bucket. They can then compare wear patterns on the mounting pins to verify their ‘smoking gun’. Case closed!
I saw it on TV…:D:D:D:D
It typically would depend in part on how much opportunity the oncoming driver had to avoid the bucket. If there was enough lead time that he should have been able to stop or to change lanes, then the liability of the person who dropped the bucket may be reduced.
Talking about the cameras, I can’t speak for all of them, but the ones on Missouri’s highways are high enough resolution to read door placards and plates on stationary vehicles, but not moving vehicles. They are also not recorded.
There is always a chance that someone else witnessed the truck drop the bucket and called it in. We get phone calls in our 911 center all the time from witnesses. Sometimes it may be an hour or day later, but we have been able to link them up with the right calls fairly often.
Also I don’t know if the cameras here record the video.
Yes they could sue the person responsible for dropping it in the road. However the driver of the car still has a responsibility not to hit stationary objects. It sounds like it had fallen off earlier, not like it jumped out in front of him. Liability for damages would likely be shared.