Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — Ohio residents, Thomas and Martha Grossenbacher, have filed a personal injury lawsuit against Marten Transport, Ltd. of Mondovi, Wisconsin and its truck driver, David Leopold, of Illinois, for a devastating tractor-trailer crash in 2008, which left Mr. Grossenbacher severely injured.
The lawsuit – Case No. 2:10-cv-01074-ARH – was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh on August 16, 2010, seeking unspecified damages. The lawsuit alleges that the crash was a result of the negligence and carelessness of the defendants and that Leopold was reckless and unlawful in operating the truck at an unsafe speed. Further, it alleges that Marten Transport, Ltd. failed to properly train Leopold on the safe operation of a tractor-trailer.
Cara Luther, a Pennsylvania and D.C. attorney from the national truck injury law firm of Baum Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, represents the Grossenbachers. “I suspect the truck driver fell asleep at the wheel, causing him to lose control and to cross a 90-foot-wide median strip. Trucking companies must be stopped from endangering the lives of other motorists by allowing sick, tired, incompetent, or reckless drivers to operate their trucks,” Ms. Luther stated.
In the early morning hours of August 22, 2008, David Leopold was driving a Marten Transport, Ltd. tractor-trailer westbound on SR 70 near the eight-mile marker in Buffalo Twp, near Claysville, Pennsylvania. Leopold lost control of the big rig and drove it off the westbound lanes, onto and through a grassy median and into the eastbound lanes of the freeway.
At about the same time, Mr. Grossenbacher, 61, a sports car enthusiast, was a passenger in a pick-up truck traveling eastbound on SR 70 on his way to a Corvette show in Carlisle with a friend. According to a Pennsylvania State Police crash report, the out-of-control big rig barreled through the grassy median and crossed the eastbound lanes into the path of the pick-up truck. The force of the impact stopped the small truck in its path and spun it clockwise, sending both vehicles south across the eastbound lanes toward the eastbound right shoulder. The big rig continued forward on its side and struck another dirt embankment before coming to rest. Both vehicles ended up perpendicular to the eastbound lanes, with the trailer blocking both lanes. The impact trapped Thomas Grossenbacher, causing him severe and life-altering injuries.
After being extricated from the crumpled wreckage, Mr. Grossenbacher was rushed by medical helicopter to the hospital. He spent almost fourteen weeks in two hospitals and continues to receive medical care and rehabilitation for his injuries and is also expected to undergo further surgery in the near future.
Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman is located in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia and has over 20 years of experience handling commercial transportation accidents, including over 165 commercial trucking accident cases across the country. Baum Hedlund won one of the largest verdicts in Ohio state’s history for the death of an unmarried person. In that case a Marine was killed by a Tyson Foods truck.
