In a tragic and freak wrongful death accident yesterday, a big rig truck carrying a shipping container apparently struck a bridge, causing the container to fall off of the truck and crush and kill a nearby bicyclist. This wrongful death truck accident occurred close to where Carson borders Long Beach, in Los Angeles County, California.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the LA County Fire Department said that the truck collided with a railroad bridge, which knocked the shipping container off of the truck. LAist.com is reporting that the bicyclist was riding on the sidewalk when he was hit and crushed by the container.
LAist has verified the identity of the deceased bicyclist as Robert Castorena, a resident of the City of Long Beach, California. Mr. Castorena was 51 years old.
We highly recommend that Mr. Castorena’s family members immediately contact a Los Angeles wrongful death lawyer who is experienced in proving wrongful death damages. Here, the liability, or fault for the accident, most likely is on the trucking company, as the truck should not have been operating in an area with bridges low enough to knock the container off of the truck.
Fortunately, although it is little consolation, a trucking company carrying shipping containers usually carries a large amount of liability insurance coverage. The wrongful death attorney will need to prove up all of the wrongful death damages in order to obtain as much money as possible for the heirs of Mr. Castorena.
Our office has been handling injury and Los Angeles wrongful death cases for almost 45 years. Our experienced attorneys work on cases all over California, including Long Beach and Carson. We recently settled a wrongful death case for over one million dollars, which was the maximum obtainable under the applicable policy limits. In this case, the insurance available might be much more and the wrongful death case for Mr. Castorena, if handled properly, may be worth millions of dollars.