A Texas hunter was catastrophically injured when he drove into the side of a 48′ trailer attached as part of an 18 wheeler tractor trailer rig. The accident happened on a dark, rural Texas highway late at night when the 18 wheeler operator pulled from a stop sign onto the highway. The police investigation found fault on our client for hitting the 48′ trailer that was blocking his lane of traffic. The resulting collision and injury was horrible and due to the severity of injury our client had no recollection of the accident. After investigating the accident scene, talking to witnesses and looking at the damage done to the vehicles we filed a lawsuit on behalf of our client. Our investigation revealed: 1) the driver of the 18-wheeler rig was an inexperienced driver and had a documented history of difficulty of starting from a stopped position; 2) the tractor trailer operator was illegally operating his truck on a road marked “No Thru Trucks” when he entered the highway; 3) the tractor trailer operator failed to submit a driver’s log, failed to keep an employee file and failed to submit to a drug/alcohol test following this accident; 4) the tractor trailer operator was attempting to illegally park his rig on the side of the highway when this accident occurred, contributing to the slow movement in blocking the main lanes of traffic on the Texas highway; 5) the evidence proved that the 48′ trailer was totally blocking our client’s lane of traffic as he approached at night at highway speed; 6) that underride and undercarriage accidents have been extensively studied and these studies prove that nighttime crashes result because of the extreme difficulty in distinguishing a trailer blocking a lane of traffic at night time to avoid the collision. Studies have shown that slow moving trucks create little contrast at night; that a driver’s might perceive truck markings as roadside markings or distant taillights; that a trailer at night will not be conspicuous and that by the time a driver’s headlights illuminate the trailer there is not adequate time to stop; and, that an unloaded flatbed trailer is virtually invisible blocking a lane of traffic at night. After identifying the facts of this collision and presenting these facts to the insurance company for the truck driver, the trucking company settled with our client.