Why did the garbage truck cross the road? And cause a home fire?

All Practice Areas

When someone says that damaging accidents can happen anywhere and at anytime, it is the truth. Take a recent truck accident case from New Jersey, where it seems as though the damage the victims suffered was next to impossible to predict.  Firefighters responded to a report of a house fire in East Hanover. What was exceptionally unusual in this case was that there was a garbage truck protruding out of the side of the home. After an investigation into the incident, police learned of the chain of events that left one family homeless.  What they found out was that the driver of the garbage truck had been drinking a beverage when his nose began to tingle. He sneezed and said that the drink container became lodged beneath the brake pedal. So when he lost control of the vehicle, he was unable to stop it from crashing over the curb.  When the vehicle jumped the curb, it was moving so fast that it took out a tree branch and a light post without stopping. It eventually came to rest when it plowed through the garage and into the bedroom where two young children had been sleeping only minutes prior to the crash.  The damage didn't end there. The operation of the vehicle had increased the metal exhaust stack to such a degree that it ignited flammable material in the home.  When firefighters finally put out the flames, the building had been damaged to such an extent that the family was forced to vacate to a hotel in the area paid for with assistance from the American Red Cross.  What if the children had been in the bedroom? What if they were injured? Could someone injured in a house as a result of a careless driver recover compensation? Does physical injury have to occur in order to recover property damages?  These are only a couple of the questions that should prompt any victim to seek the assistance of a personal injury attorney in New Jersey.  Source: nj.com, "Sneeze may have prompted garbage truck crash, fire that destroyed East Hanover home," Justin Zaremba, May 8, 2013