In September of this year, a horrible collision killed a family of four travelling in two separate cars. Diana Schmidt died alongside her children Samual, 3, and Conner, 2, while her husband Christopher perished in the car behind them. At the time of the crash, Diana was 30 weeks pregnant. They died when a tractor trailer driven by Josef Slezak crashed through Christopher’s vehicle and into Diana’s with such force that it pushed the car underneath the trailer of the truck in front of them. Investigators say that Slezak was traveling at 75mph just before the crash and did not hit his brakes.
At the time, traffic had stopped because a truck driven by Vladimir Zhukov had broken down in the right lane of traffic somewhere up ahead. Despite not being involved in the accident, the parents of both Christopher and Diana are filing charges against Zhukov and his company in addition to the charges being brought against Slezak and his company.
The lawsuit alleges that Zhukov and his company failed to properly maintain his vehicle and that Zhukov failed to pull onto the side of the road when his brakes failed. Slezak and his company, AKI Trucking Inc, are being charged with four counts of manslaughter, four counts of vehicular homicide, and one additional count of manslaughter for the death of the Schmidt’s unborn child. It is very likely that there will be a good case against Slezak who was over his HOS by more than 3 hours at the time of the crash. Likewise the case against AKI Trucking may move forward as they had a FMCSA BASIC rating of 80.9% when it only takes 65% for federal intervention.
Also named in the lawsuit is the company of Keith Johnson, a truck driver who died in the crash. It alleges that Johnson failed to avoid crashing in to Zhukov’s truck even though his emergency lights were flashing, though how this contributed to the deaths of the Schmidt family is not readily apparent.
It’s unclear at this time what Zhukov may be charged with and how much blame should be assigned to him for his vehicle breaking down. How much of that blame should actually land on the company who is responsible for maintaining the vehicle?
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Source: mercurynews
This is just another “fly by night” trucking company. No matter how much regulation we have these types seem to flourish and keep replicating. Everyone associated with running that company knew what was going on. This is the side effect of deregulation. You get these little start ups who try and make up for their size by running illegal and forcing drivers to use equipment that is not in compliance. All I can say to drivers, is that YOU are the end of the line when it comes to that truck being road worthy or not. If its not, then don’t drive it! Don’t work for idiots who don’t maintain their equipment. Certainly don’t drive beyond your HOS for anyone.
Trucks brake down, that is a fact of life. No atter how well maintained when you least expect it they will leave you stranded or worse. Traffic stops for many reasons. Accidents, roadwork, animals in the road, ect. We are trained to look ahead, not just in front of you but way down the road, and respond to what we see. We are also mandated to maintain a safe following distance. The truck that killed that family did none of those things, and he is solely responsible for that accident. To try and blame somebody that broke down two miles down the road is just plain ludicrous. Don’t forget the driver that ran into the car had plenty of notice that traffic was stopped in front of him and he chose to ignore the warnings. Just imagine the next time you have a blowout or a breakdown you could be charged with murder. Lets not go down this road, put the blame where it belongs. The idiot the hit those people, and he is where he belongs. In jail!
Lawyers will drag as many people and companies as possible into a lawsuit so they have as many deep pockets as possible to steal from. It’s all about the money.
I too am a little flummoxed by how the driver and company of the truck that broke down can be named in the lawsuit. How many times have we seen cars broken down in precarious positions on the road?
This is a case of “Well, it was a trucker! He was supposed to be responsible!”
People in cars routinely cut each other off, cut off trucks and race across three lanes of traffic to snag exits. We see cars going down our roads with broken out headlights, taillights, with bald ties and severely cracked windshields. One of these idiots gets caught up in a crash, the insurance companies start looking for ways to get out of paying, or paying as little as they can get away with. Let a TRUCK get broke down though, and people come out gnash-teethed ready to start tearing someone to pieces.
I am saddened by the deaths of Diana Schmidt and her family. And I am definitely a proponent of the truck who crashed into them being held fully responsible. But the trucker who stalled down the road?
Yeah, doberman-eyed, self-righteous, gnash-teethed feeding frenzy.
Watch your peas and cues, drivers. They’re out there, and they will get you upon the first little mistake you make. You’re a side of juicy beef in the sites of the self-righteous highway minions!
I have done that once or twice way back when 2 keep a job .
Then when you stand up and report this they fire u and put crap on ur dac and they don’t fix it they just hire a new driver?
they make it hard 2 keep a job or get a nother job?
What do you do when no one protects you the driver?
Zhukoff, Slezak, AKI, hmmmmmmm. only 3 HOS.!!!!!!!!!!
Lots of foreign trucking companies out there man.
I agree with John! I believe DOT should profile trucks more closely. What do I mean? What’s the truck look like? Dents, dirty, crap scattered across the dash ect… to me this suggests someone who doesn’t really care or could it be that they are running like such a mad man, they don’t have time to clean. It also suggests a “I don’t give a crap attitude” these are the one’s that think they don’t have to follow the law. I know it sounds petty, but I believe it plays a role.
Really!! You think that I should have my truck torn apart by the MTO and Dot just because it is dirty or have some dents?? The hole point here is some jerk was 3 hours on his HOS and people died because he was too tired to drive. So you think the truck that broke down should be charged?? How about 2 cars bang in to each other and then there is a second accident 2 miles back you think we all should sue the first driver? The families are hurt and want someone to blame and so they should but only the one driver and his company are to blame here… I drive from Hamilton Ont to Toronto Ont everyday and it is the cars that’s the most dangerous ones with the I don’t give a crap attitude. Did you know that company like walmart can charge your company up to $1000 and turn you away if your 45 mins late? So if I have lots of HOS but my eyes are jumping out of my head what do you think I should do??? So in closing I would like to say to you that I am not a mad man but I am in the top 5 most dangerous jobs in North America……
This happened in western Nebraska, its not uncommon to see all these companies from the suburbs of Chicago running across the state at a high rate of speed tailgating unnecessarily like they are driving in heavy traffic. Two young drivers in a wide open truck, one foot in the window without shoes driving 85 mph whipping back and forth passing everyone on the road, need I go on. I have had them ride up on my ass when on my motorcycle and thought to my self if my bike would misfire or blow a tire I would be dead. I also drive truck so I know all the HOS stuff and doubt that really had much factor (yet it IS the law) in it just poor driving habits and attitude.
In my opinion not enough facts are presented in this article to show a conclusion for liability in the situation.
I lost my CDL 0n Sept,14,2005 in Fostoria Municipal Court. due to the Ohio State Highway Patrol covering up for an Ohio state employee,who was driving an Ohio state owned vehicle. He ran a red light into the right rear of my truck as I was making a turn on green. His passenger was thrown from the car,and died. There wasn’t one person in Ohio that stood up in court in my defence. ” Innocent until proven guilty” doesn’t work in Ohio..when the Ohio State Highway Patrol can change the facts to cover up what really took place. Ohio police officers made sure all their stories were the same, to play “politics” at the accident scene. The state of Ohio has witheld my Michigan CDL since 2006. I had driven for 38 years with no major problems,and was put in “Force Retirement” by the State of Ohio.They guy that ran into my truck turned around,and sued me. His neglience was never brought up in court. The Ohio Highway Patrol saw to that. I was never given a ” Fair trial” to be able to defend my self in court,the Forstoria Municipal Court was even covering up for this Ohio state employee,who lived in the same neighborhood as the court. How nice for him. I agree it was the a tractor trailer driven by Josef Slezak crashed through Christopher’s vehicle and into Diana’s who is at fault,not the guy one the side of the road,…unless he was blocking the traffic lane.
You are so very right. The trucks are held to a higher standard. When Law suits are filed, the assumption is the “rich” trucking company will pay so lets get as much as we can.
Larry is right. The police have a “Double standard ” when it comes to truck drivers. Here is my point…If you just drive a truck , and the officer pulls you over in his mind your “just another dumb truck driver ” , BUT if your in an accident THEN his opinion changes your automatically at fault, because ” YOUR A PROFESSIONAL TRUCK DRIVER and should have acted in a professional manner.” The double standard by police officers towards truck drivers.
I too have been a driver for 30 years,and the state of Ohio has been always against drivers. In your defense,never will the truth prevail in Ohio.
mpb071 ..you are so right there !
I’m confused. I get that the guy who rear ended those people should have been paying attention, but since when do people get jail time for running into something? I could see if it was intentional, but if it was just a mistake, then I don’t see the rational for a criminal charge.
Wrangler,
According to the article, he was driving 75 mph, and did not apply his brakes before impact. They also point out he was 3 hours over his hours of sevice limit. And, he rear ended them. In my state, you are at fault for hitting the vehicle(s) in front of you.
Therefore, they are making it a case of preventable driver fatigue.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a driver driving a tractor-dump-trailer, came around a curve and saw other vehicles stopped at a train crossing. This driver jumped out of his truck, and let it run rampant into the other vehicles, causing many injuries, and one death. It has come out, that he had done that before. And a prosecutor is now determining criminal charges.
Wrangler!!!!!! Say it isn’t so. You dont think a person who kills 5 people because of his negligence should be held criminally responsible. I can’t believe it. What do you think should happen to him? Three points on his license.
He was driving a truck. That’s all the rational they need for anything they feel like doing to you.
Really a broken down truck how desperate can you get for money to go after the innocent . So if a new unit brakes down being delivered then you due who. Or your car brakes down and an accident happens you get sued . The lawyer should be sued for knowingly causing a unjustified hardship on the innocent families of employees.
So suing for a pot of gold will bring everyone back to life?
Let’s look at response time for law enforcement. Were they on the scene directing traffic?
What about the drivers of the two cars could they have gotten out of the way or were they not paying attention to their surroundings?
Was anyone using a phone? If so shouldn’t the phone company also be held responsible.
Was alcohol involved in any of the drivers?
What constitutes a “professional” driver? Someone who drives their vehicle everyday to earn a living? That makes everyone a “professional”.
What about the cars were they in perfect condition? Should they have been on the road?
Sounds like some lawyers told these people let’s get you a pot of money so your suffering will end. So now when someone breaks down be it car or truck people can sue!! Well let’s go after everybody… Car manufacturer – made defective vehicle
Cell phone company- made distraction
State where accident occurred- they built the road
Other drivers who slowed down to gawk at scene- they caused traffic jam
Parents whoever had children- children grew up became drivers
Hospitals who delivered children that grew up and became drivers
Do you get where this is going?
Eventually you get to God who created everything.
This was a stupid accident !!! Suing for a bunch of money won’t bring back those who died. It just shows the world that people are greedy and lawyers just stoke the fire!!
Accidents happen. It’s a sad situation but accidents happen.
No doubt it is A ” dog eat dog ” business, trucking. Insurance companies, lawyers, simply people with an axe to grind may cost you your job, for no justifiable reason. I once , for the sake of an example , lost A job hauling coal because the ” long hood ” O/O crowd didn’t like company drivers coming into the tipple. They had CB radio contact with the loader operator , who would deliberately overload me so that I couldn’t scale out.I had to drive around, dump some and try again. The loader had A” load cell” on the bucket so he knew what was going in . Nobody else shared the problem , and one morning I happened to stumble upon the ” channel 4 secret connection ” when I adjusting settings to get the scale house. The mine eventually called my employer , saying I was too slow and I held up other drivers. I was banned from the property. Since that was our primary customer I was finished. Having said that , I offer the following: A heavy CMV is the equivalent of an aircraft or ship. The ” captain ” ( driver ) is accountable by virtue of position and accepting responsibility. Having taken the vehicle onto public highways , having completed the mandatory pre-trip process , you have in fact sworn that the vehicle is safe to operate. There can be no other option. The only entity that knows for sure is the operator.
I’ve read the article and the comments and a right conclusion it’s not easy to form unless, you give it allot of thought.
It is evident that a tragedy had happened, and people made mistakes and errors in judgement and in the way they reacted. This was a big factor in this tragedy. Something like this it’s enough to help you realise that life it’s not a guaranty and no human being is perfect. It is evident that humanity also has been plagued by ill intent, thus causing the invention of the concept of law and morality, even from the dawn of civilization. Morality, the sense of right and wrong and law that is intendet to provide justice experienced multiple and fundamental changes in our existance in time, allong mileniums. This changes are more so evident in the latest part ofour existance due to an increase in legislature void of morality. The problem is that humanity lost its moral compass and no matter of how many rules and regulations we might bring forth from our immagination, there’ll never be enough to insure justice. Laws void of morality does nothing to provide justice, and justice itself becomes immoral. That is why, in these days, the courts are nothing more then the arbitrates of law manipulators where justice has taken a decor aspect and material gains has taken the number one position. This has happened before, in the times long forgotten of the great civilizations of the past, the Persian, Greek and Roman empires. The demise of those civilizations was brought due to a decay in morality and the death of justice. As imorality becomes a”progressive” value, injustice becomes the mark of justice and prosperity it’s transformed into mass poverty. Poverty fuels the hunger of materialism in a morally bankrupt society used to be prosperous and thus, the courts and government institutions, become nothing more then “legalized robbery” powerhouses.
The conclusion: America is a civilization that’s speeding towards it’s own demise and eventually a total colaps. Materialism is the “god” of the “progresive” crowd that has tipped the scale in their favor, evidence it’s in this last elections. The “what and how much free stuff I can get” crowd are in the majority and has won the argument. The litigation for monetary gain it’s just one of the many symptoms of an immoral and collapsing society.
Justice will eventually prevail at an appointed time outside of our(humanity) control, in a court above any other court.
It has to be! Other ways, life’s nothing more then a joke, the biggest joke in the time and space realm.
PS: “Whoever has never sinned cast the first stone!” ……….. other ways, don’t be too quick to judge!
“Don’t set a trap for someone else, cause you may be the one falling in it!”
The truck that broke down in the right lane was the proximate cause of the slowdown of traffic and while the truck that hit the 4-wheeler was the cause of the accident, he may or may not have hit the car but for the truck that broke down. Vicarious liability will nail many defendants. It’s why tort lawyers are a magnitude richer than criminal defense lawyers.
Tort lawyers ave taken the next and final step in their absolute and insane arrogance, playing “god”. In their morally bankrupt minds they think that they reached an unsurpassed level of wisdom, but they became fools and also transformed the justice system into a mockery of what is supposed to be “justice”.
It is absolute insanity to pass a decisive and an irreversible judgement on presumptions like “it may or may not”, and “if this wouldn’t have happened, then the rest would’ve been perfect”
The so called “sophisticated and educated people” of our times, are the most corrupt and morally bankrupt individuals that ever walked on the face of this earth. They are spearheading the soft tyranny of the present day which will unavoidable evolve in what it’ll become the crushing tyranny of tomorrow. All in the name of “safety” and “justice”!
Well, the truth is that all this it’s done only for monetary/material gains. (“The love of money is the root of all evil”)
The only evolution here, it seems to be tyranny!
What a “magnificent future”!
Well, have at it!
Today you may think that “all it’s good”, while you are the “big dog on the block and you may carry proudly the big bone”, but, watch out, there’s always gonna be an even bigger dog then you!
And this is how humanity is reduced to the values of the animal kingdom: “Survival of the fittest”.
What an “evolution”!
Very “progressive”!
you are a perfesional driver and should allways be alert. i,ve been driving 30 years accident free. you must be a student just out of school. and as a perfesional driver he should have never left his termminal with his trk. if his brakes werent working . its called a good pretrip .so yes he is responsable.
heres the problem trucking schools are a joke. they tell u your now a perfessional driver bull u learn every day something new . look ahead keep 8 sec. distance increase it in bad weather make truking schools a 1 year mantaory course and stop these trk. co. from making u a trainner in 6 months its crazy i think 2 yrs min before u can train
these people lost there family have some respect for them most drivers in the trk industries are kids with 40 tons of freight trks arent toys and not your car trk. driving is a skill mantory age should be raised to 25 years of age with schools a 1 year min over the road 48 states .tell me this how can 4 weeks train u and how can astudent be trainned in fl. and go out west and drive the mtn. when he was not trainned for that type of terrain.
Let’s get real here,I don’t care what caused the traffic to stop. There is no excuse good or otherwise to run into stopped traffic at 75 mph. None NaDa ,never. Slesak should go to jail. Periood end of story. I advise any real pro take the Smith System Defensive driving course and live by it,as I have for the last 20 yrs. (accident free) Keep the shiny side up fellas.
@Dave
Easy chief, you then my friend are one of the few to take the steps to become part of America. If you ever travel I-80 anywhere east of Chicago you will notice all types of eastern european drivers in volvos driving like clowns and if you cant see that you are delusional. I travel that highway daily and get tired of the nonsense and also myself have over 1 million accident free miles. I wasnt generalizing but in this case that is what happened and it was preventable.
as a new driver, i take my job very seriously been on the road..i dont speed, and i always check my truck for issues.. i understand the great responsibility a truck hold, which can easily put you in a life or death situation..i want my one year over the run to be done asap so i can go local..to many manics out here
It’s worse local. Your in the mess all day every day.
I once drove across the state of Ohio in a company truck which was set up to look like an “owner Operator” vehicle but without cruise control. My boss was really surprised when I returned without getting a ticket and yes the Ohio highway patrol were waiting for me on the last hill going into Kentucky. They thought that I was going to be an easy victim… STILL LMAO!
First,let me say that I’m sixty years old.I have been driving trucks for forty-four years,and no I don’t know everything….But I have noticed a lot of the problems mentioned above….
The driver that broke down,sitting in the right lane,I’ve seen it to many times.What happened to getting off on the shoulder????..All of us can agree that you know immediately when you’re truck is starting to mess up and you start going for the shoulder to keep from being hit….That doesn’t seem to be the thing to do nowadays..Just let it quit in the lane and let someone hit it..
The driver who was traveling seventy five,I-80 in Nebraska has that speed limit…BUT,three hours over on his HOS????….He never applied the brakes????…He needs to rot in jail..
The Volvo’s from the Chicago area????…Yep,I agree…I deal with them on I-40 and I-44 all the time..They drive like they did in the country they came from…They have no respect for anyone,drive like maniacs,and are a menace to the highway…
One person mentioned distraction..Cell phone????…How about the laptop with the GPS software in it sitting on the dash or in the dummy seat???….C’mon,just how stupid can you get !!!!..If these drivers had to plan a trip with an atlas they couldn’t do it…I have a GPS built in the dash,but my atlas lays on the dummy seat and I still use it…
But what I love most is when I’m passing another truck…He’s weaving back and forth,off on the shoulder,coming across the zipper,just making it lots of fun trying to get by him…Then you get by his door,there he sits,phone in hand,texting..Sooooooooooo,I got to the point where I ran on the left shoulder all I’m going to…$2700.00 fine for the driver,$11,000.00 for the company.
I carry a digital camera and I started taking pictures of these drivers as I was passing..Yeah,I know,a distraction…Takes two seconds…Safety guys have been really interested in seeing the pics of their drivers doing this..Here’s the driver texting and the company name on the door..Enough said…
In talking with a Texas DOT officer,I asked him about writing tickets for this..He said he didn’t because it was to hard to prove and would be a waste of time….
I hate being a narc,but it has got to stop.Driving a truck is a big responsibility…To much can happen in the blink of an eye…Yes,things have changed a lot since I first started and I still love it…But I don’t need some idiot taking me out because he wasn’t paying attention to his work..
these pics that are taken do you not consider these a distraction people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. If we spend more time concentrating on our own driving and less trying to figure out what other drivers are doing wrong our highways would b a safer place. Because you hold a class one license does not make you a professional driver. professional driving is now and has always been a matter of attitude these are the people you see on the highway everyday not trying to ram 40 tons of truck and trailer up some ones ass. leaves that extra distance in case a emergency stop is required. plans all his moves in advance does a proper pre trip and post trip and do equipment check every two hours these drivers Maintains and keeps a proper log book does not let the let the situations caused by the stupid drivers do on a daily basis effect his skill as a professional driver (IE road rage). They do exist the unfortunate part is they are few and far between these days giving the trucking industry a black eye.
Valid point. I’ve been trucking 30 plus years. I keep my equipment clean and in D O T compliance. I’ve seen many trashed trucks and drivers cowboy in their way down the road illegal as hell. Those are the ones that cause fatal accidents. The also give us all a badname giving people hate truck attitudes.