Man killed when truck runs stop sign

A Buffalo-area man was killed Tuesday in an intersection collision with a tractor-trailer.  The truck accident happened when the tractor trailer ran a stop sign at the intersection and hit the man's pick-up truck.  The tractor trailer driver told authorities that he simply did not see the stop sign and entered the intersection, resulting in the wrongful death truck accident.

In many truck accidents, we tend to look for the extraordinary causes of trucking accidents: driving a truck while on a cell phone, systemic poor maintenance resulting in mechanically unfit trucks being out on the road, unfit or intoxicated truck drivers, truck drivers who fall asleep at the wheel, truck drivers who drove too many hours on falsified log books.  However, some truck accidents are due to simple causes such as the driver not being familiar with the route and missing a stop sign.  Truck drivers, like everyone else, must follow the rules of the road (in addition to all of the rules and regulations that apply to them), and this includes stopping at stop signs.

The great size and power of tractor trailers make it absolutely critical that drivers obey stop signs.  This probably would have been a serious but not fatal accident in private passenger vehicles.  The fact that there was a tractor trailer involved made this a fatal accident.