Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of a motor vehicle accident on Interstate 95 that occurred on the Tuesday before Christmas. The fatal truck accident left a prisoner transport officer deceased. According to reports, the officer was on his way back from dropping off an inmate at the Palm Beach County Jail, and there were no other occupants in the vehicle.

Officials say that the 47-year-old transport officer was traveling in a late-model Ford van when the vehicle crashed into the back of a big rig just before 2 a.m. The cause of the accident was not known, and no negligence has yet been alleged against either the 45-year-old driver of the semi-tractor-trailer or the driver of the van. However, what appears to have occurred is that the van collided with the big rig as the tractor-trailer was merging into the outside lane of the roadway.

The van was dragged for several hundred feet, its front end crushed under the rig, before the tractor-trailer came to a stop. The transport officer was not wearing a seat belt, although it was unclear whether a seat belt could have prevented the tragedy. Nonetheless, even if he was partially negligent for not wearing a seat belt, his family may still be able to pursue a wrongful death claim against any at-fault party.

A wrongful death is a legal term referring to the type of death caused by the negligent or willful conduct of another, and that may well be the case here. In fatal accidents such as this one, the families of victims from Palm Beach County and elsewhere are often able to collect compensatory and sometimes even punitive damages. Unfortunately, the law cannot erase the family's pain in this time of grief, but there may be legal means to help provide them with monetary compensation and some measure of justice in the wake of their tragic loss.

Source: Florida Today, "Guard dies after prisoner transport van hits semi on I-95," J.D. Gallop, Dec. 20, 2011