Chicago Personal Injury Law Blog

A fuel truck tipped over and caught fire when the truck driver struck a mule which had gotten out its enclosures and wandered into the road. The impact with the mule caused the hood of the truck to buckle and when the truck driver tried to pull to the shoulder of the road, a roll-over accident resulted. The cab of the fuel truck then caught fire.

While two other motorists were helping the driver of the fuel truck escape, the wreckage was hit by another truck which could not see the wreckage of the fuel truck. One of the rescuers was injured in the secondary truck collision.

This fact scenario calls to mind the rescue doctrine which basically states that when someone is responsible for an accident where a third party suffers injuries while attempting to rescue the victim, the wrongdoer is liable to the rescuer as well.

In this case, the owner of the mules would be responsible for the injuries under the Domestic Animals Running at Large Act, which places responsibility for injuries resulting from the acts of at-large animals on the owner of the animals. Because the owner would be liable to the driver of the fuel truck, he would be liable to the rescuer as well.

Labels: animal injuries, truck accidents