Total Landscape Care Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/319872
I n 2011, an Ocean County, New Jersey, landscape company's trailer de-coupled from the pickup truck towing it due to a faulty trailer hitch and other safety cables and precautions not being taken by the driver. The trailer then struck a 58-year old woman, resulting in signifi cant injuries. A lawsuit ensued, and the landscaping company had to pay out $2.7 million because of their negli- gence. Two years earlier, the fam- ily of a Colorado man killed by a pickup towing a trailer that lost control and crashed into his vehicle was awarded $2.25 mil- lion in damages. The jury sided with the plaintiffs that the trailer was too heavy for the pickup the way it was equipped. More than $1.3 million in damages have been awarded to a Florida Fish and Wild- life Conservation Commission employee's family, and more lawsuits are pending as a result of a towing accident where that employee was a passenger and the driver lost control and hit an oncoming vehicle head-on. The driver of the oncoming vehicle was also killed. Investigators found the combined weight of the trailer totaled 10,420 pounds, while the maximum towing capacity for the trailer hitch was 6,000 pounds. The maximum towing capacity for the FWCC vehicle itself was only 8,000 pounds. J U N E 2 014 To t a l L a n d s c a p e C a r e . c o m 4 5 Those two towing words can mean the difference between a safe driver and a negligent one. Properly Equipped BY BRUCE W. SMITH