SMITHFIELD – Two people sustained serious injuries after their car slammed into the back of a UPS delivery truck. The accident happened at 6:13pm Monday on S. Brightleaf Boulevard near E. Langdon Avenue.
A UPS truck was traveling southbound, and had slowed to approximately 10 miles per hour for slower traffic ahead, when it was rear-ended by a 2014 Toyota passenger car traveling an an estimated 45 miles per hour.
Two occupants in the Toyota, a 75 year-old female driver and 82 year-old male passenger, both from Benson, were transported to WakeMed for medical treatment.
Johnston County EMS, Smithfield Fire and Smithfield Police responded.
The accident temporarily blocked southbound traffic until the scene could be cleared.
I hope the two people will be ok and when you get back behind the wheel again remember, do not text and drive.
I highly doubt at 75 they were texting and driving. Though I could be wrong, but doubt it.
Not the way I thought this story was going to go……
To be honest, I can not believe more UPS, Fedex, and Amazon trucks have not been hit. What makes them think it is ok to park in the road to run to a house to make a delivery?? I seen a fedex truck the other night (it was dark) that was stopped in the road to go to a house that is not right on the road. Why not pull in their driveway?? Yes it may make it faster so you do not have to turn around….. But you will be behind if someone hits your truck in the road….. Makes no sense to me.
They are not doing it out of laziness. Many driveways that cannot withstand the weight of those trucks and they do not want to be liable for property damage.
I don’t understand how the comments want to fault the UPS truck. It’s not their job to not get hit while following basic road safety standards. Lol!
The UPS truck had slowed down due to slow traffic ahead, like how responsible drivers do. The elderly couple were at fault for running into the truck, because they failed to give adequate space between their vehicle and the truck (1 car length for every 10mph speed), or they have very poor reaction time (as occurs with age), or were distracted driving. When a car rear ends another car, it’s almost always because they failed to give themselves adequate space to slow down.
Just in front of my house, a UPS truck pulled over to deliver a package (much like how the USPS delivers mail), and a truck who was behind them chose to casually go around them without reducing speed or looking ahead. Well, there was a car coming from the opposite direction which had to swerve out of the way (thankfully they managed to not hit anything), but the foolish truck driver swerved into the drainage ditch and straight into someone’s concrete culvert, damaging both the truck and the culvert. Somehow, the truck was still drivable so the driver chose to leave without a second thought. Hopefully the UPS truck’s front-facing camera caught his tags. Btw, the UPS truck wasn’t even slowing down for traffic. It was already going slow to deliver packages, and the road is straight, allowing a clear line of sight for all other vehicles to be aware of them with ample space to adapt. Brightleaf is also mostly straight.
Where in my comment did I say the UPS driver was at fault?? Please tell me. lol!
JoComom, you most definitely indicated you thought the UPS driver was at fault when you said “What makes them think it is ok to park in the road to run to a house to make a delivery??”. It also indicated that you didn’t even read the story since that’s not what happened. If you meant to say something else, you need to spell it out. Based on what you wrote, the impression you left was that you believed the UPS driver was in the wrong.
Guess you did not read yourself….. Since the first thing I said was “Not the way I thought this story was going to go” Meaning I did indeed read the story. Thank you very much.
That statement means something to you but not to the rest of us. Communication skills require clarity. You are welcome.
@StopTailgating and @Click, I totally agree with you both. I sure thought @JoComom was saying the same!