Constantino Hernandez Resendiz Injured in Tractor-Trailer Accident in Parker County, TX
Parker County, TX -- December 16, 2022, Constantino Hernandez Resendiz was injured following an accident where his vehicle hit a trailer.
Preliminary information given by authorities indicated that the incident took place at the intersection of Highway 199 and Ashwood Road at around 6:20 a.m. It appears 42-year-old Constantino Hernandez Resendiz was in a Cadillac CTS traveling westbound along the highway.
At Ashwood, authorities say an 18-wheeler was crossing southbound and came to a stop on the crossover to eastbound lanes. Apparently, the cargo on the trailer was still protruding over westbound lanes, and Hernandez Resendiz's vehicle crashed into it. Due to this, Hernandez Resendiz was said to have incapacitating injuries.
While further information cannot be confirmed at this time, certain information immediately jumps out to me--in fact, some details are strikingly familiar. There was some information which suggested that the cargo had a visibility marker, but that marker may have been dirty and therefore ineffective in the apparently dark area. If this detail and other claims made about these events are true, that's a huge detail. Why is that detail so important? It's because not long ago, I helped a family out with a crash involving incredibly similar events.
That crash, too, involved a tractor-trailer attempting to turn across a highway and leaving cargo hanging out over traffic lanes. Also in that situation was a visibility flag so worn and gray with dirt and use that it was practically invisible. Tragically, that collision proved to be fatal, so it was crucial to get this evidence and ensure the family could tell the victim's side of the story.
Part of that was something I talk about often on this blog, and that's the possibility of more than one person being to blame. In the above example, our continued investigations revealed another company the driver wasn't employed by is the one that loaded the cargo, and the trailer holding it was far too small for the size of the cargo. Would that other company be off the hook just because the truck driver messed up by transporting that dangerous cargo? Not at all. The law is nuanced enough that all parties can be held adequately accountable for their portion of the blame.
That's why details like the ones I'm seeing here are incredibly concerning. Police may be able to come to a decision of who's at fault here, but they rarely have the tools to preserve all the important details and to find out if there are external factors that need to be addressed, as well. It's just another example of why thorough independent investigations are almost always the most prudent step forward following a serious commercial truck wreck.
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