Early Saturday, January 23, a tanker truck delivering fuel from Brooklyn to Long Island attempted to pass a car on the Long Island Expressway. The vehicle had slowed down due to mechanical problems and was preparing to pull onto the shoulder when the tanker truck driver attempted to veer around the car, but hit it instead. The tanker rolled over and exploded, killing the driver of the tanker truck.

The driver of the car was pulled from the vehicle by a passerby. She was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and released.

The tanker driver was described as a 50-year-old man. Kittery Transport of Maine owned the tanker.

Emergency crews reportedly struggled for three hours to put out the flames with foam. Westbound lanes of the expressway reopened in the early evening, but the eastbound lanes remained closed.

Every year, hundreds of people are injured and killed due to commercial truck accidents. While a majority of these accidents injure, maim, and kill the occupants of the smaller vehicles, truck drivers are often crushed or trapped in their rigs and die of their injuries.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a truck accident, please contact the Accident Lawyers Network to find an experienced personal injury attorney in your area for an initial consultation.