Semi Crash And The Implications Of Governmental Actions

Two events intersected each other last week that present us with a couple of lessons. Traffic was stopped waiting for construction on I 35 in Lakeville. A semi smashed into three of those vehicles and two people were killed. Evidence is suggesting that the truck driver wasn’t wearing his glasses. Thousands of bees were being hauled in a semi that was one of the stopped vehicles. As a result, the road was closed for some time as the police dealt with the deaths , the damage, and the bees.

Just on it’s face, the story reminds us of the need for safety in construction zones, how quickly lives are affected by bad driving, and the number of different things there are out there on the road.

Beyond those lessons, last week also saw the veto of Minnesota Senate File 251, a bill that would have fixed a mistake that was made a couple of years back. In that case, the legislature had been making some changes in the law which had the unintended consequences of unlinking the coverage on a semi trailer from that of the coverage on the tractor. The insurance was still being purchased, but the protection for the injured party was no longer available.

I see it as unintended because the author of the bill to rectify the issue was the one who was involved in the first bill that made the change. It’s interesting because the Insurance Federation and the truckers who opposed the return to what has always been the law, actually would seem to benefit from the protection.

I see these two stories as being related because those families that will now suffer from the act of the semi driver in Lakeville aren’t going to have the remedies that they had just a couple of years ago and what really should be the law today. My sympathy goes out to them and their friends. Their justice shouldn’t be affected further like this.