Yet another Riverdale dump truck crash

Some areas of New Jersey are more prone to truck accidents than others. One steep hill in Riverdale has proven to be extremely dangerous. The so-called “Kill Hill” has had six truck accidents in the past two months. Kill Hill is on Route 23 and there is an intersection with Windbeam road at the bottom of it. The steep hill sees so many accidents because dump trucks sometimes speed down the hill while hauling soils from nearby quarries. These trucks are then unable to stop in time to avoid hitting traffic stopped at the intersection.

The most recent accident happened on Monday and involved a dump truck that smacked into eight cars before flipping over. The truck driver says that his brakes failed but investigators have indicated that there is no mechanical evidence to support this. The accident happened around 8 a.m. and sent several people to the hospital. Five people received treatment for injuries to their heads and necks, although none of these injuries is life threatening.

Another accident happened the week before when a dump truck driven by an East Newwark man caused a two-car chain reaction. The East Newark truck driver hit a struck a Hyundai and pushed the Hyundai into a Honda. Back and neck injuries were also reported in relation to that accident. Authorities issued that driver a summons for an unsafe vehicle, failure to maintain brakes and light outages, among other things. It is also likely that both of the truck drivers will face serious personal injury lawsuits from the drivers impacted by their alleged negligence.

Source: The Record, “5 hurt in Riverdale crash involving dump truck, 8 cars,” Joel Schectman, Oct. 24, 2011; Suburban Trends, “Another dump truck crash in Riverdale,” Donna Rolando, Oct. 23, 2011