A fatal collision in 2009 has resulted in criminally negligent assault charges against a Suffolk County sanitation company. The company will pay a $5,000 fine in the case after pleading guilty to the charges. The guilty plea by the company was because the apparently distracted driver failed to engage a third axel which could have actually prevented the collision.

The garbage truck tipped while making a turn, landing on a Honda Civic and killing the driver, a 56-year-old mother of two, at the scene. Initially, New York prosecutors charged the company with failing to replace faulty brakes on the garbage truck. Criminally negligent homicide charges were later dropped when it was discovered that the brake system actually had a manufacturing defect.

Negligence on the road is a fairly common occurrence in Suffolk County and elsewhere, but in this case the circumstances surrounding this truck crash were tragic. For the family, although the case has already been resolved in the criminal courts, there is still the option of pursuing civil avenues for a possible wrongful death suit. Wrongful death occurs when the negligence of another results in a fatality. A distracted driver causing this accident may well be sufficient for the family to sustain its claim, and the criminal conviction would likely be further evidence of negligence contributing to or causing the fatal accident.

As such, the family may very well be entitled to monetary damages for the death of their loved one. When a death is caused by negligence, the families have the right to know exactly what happened to their loved one and the reasons behind the actions that caused their death. Pursuing legal action against the people responsible for the truck wreck death of their family member may give them some measure of justice as they seek to hold wrongdoers fully accountable for their negligent and perhaps reckless conduct.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, "NY sanitation firm fined in garbage truck crash," Nov. 16, 2011