The cell phone I ban I previously blogged about HERE has gone into effect, making American roads a little safer for 2012. This is not a complete ban, hands free devices are still allowed.

The American Trucking Association (ATA) has posted its interpretation of the rule HERE.

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I have previously blogged on the need for seatbelts on buses HERE. When a bus rolls over passengers are often slung out of the bus, resulting in paralysis and death. A simple lap belt. similar to what we use on an airplane, would prevent this.

Recently the highest court in New York looked at whether federal law preempted claims against a bus manufacturer for failing to include passenger seatbelts. The court, in a huge step towards safety, concluded the claim was not preempted by federal law. The case may be found HERE.

Compare the New York decision to an earlier decision in Tennessee HERE.

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NHTSA stated that both injuries and deaths from trucks increased almost 10% in 2010, a surprise since the economy has kept people, and trucks off the roads. Combine the economy with the fact that cars are (generally speaking) safer every year - and there were the fewest overall deaths on the road in 60 years in 2010 - the increase becomes both surprising and disturbing. You can see all the reports on the NHTSA website here.

In past years the trucking companies have claimed sole credit for any reduction in deaths on the highways, not crediting safer cars, fewer cars on the road with the current economy, or safer and more alert drivers. I wish they then be consistent and take responsibility for the increase in deaths and injuries in 2010 but that is not the case.

The American Trucking Association President and CEO Bill Graves said, while concerned about the increase, that: "Even with this increase, 2010 was the among the safest years on record for the trucking industry thanks in large part to the good faith efforts of America's truck drivers, vehicle manufacturers, truck fleet safety directors, law enforcement officers and true safety advocates." With this spin on the tragic increase in injuries and fatalities from truck wrecks it appears we can count on a future run for congress from Mr. Graves.

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A new rule has eliminated one of the great dangers on the roadway, the use of cell phones by truck drivers. Now I am not stating that car drivers should be allowed to use cell phones, nor am I saying that hands free phones are significantly safer. I am saying that this is a step in the right direction.  Further, since trucks are so much bigger than cars, the use of cell phones by truckers typically leads to greater tragedy than when a wreck simply involves two cars. A wreck between two cars is simply more survivable for the parties involved.

Distracted driving is something I have blogged about extensively and it is nice to see a step in the right direction. The announcement stated: 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced a final rule specifically prohibiting interstate truck and bus drivers from using hand-held cell phones while operating their vehicles. The joint rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is the latest action by the U.S. Department of Transportation to end distracted driving.

You can find out more, HERE

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I have not been able to post recently as I am up to my eyeballs in litigation. I am shocked these days about how hard I have to fight to obtain information, even simple information, from trucking companies. This is information that just a few years ago was routinely provided to me without a fight.

Recently, in a pending case I have against Schneider National Carriers, I actually had to file a motion to compel discovery in order to obtain a user manual for a computer system. This is a computer system that is commercially sold. Everyone that gets the computer gets a manual. The manual is not a secret, and I shouldn't have to fight to get it. Schneider wont even provide me the INDEX of the commercial programs it uses without an order of protection. 

What are they trying to hide? Well, we believe lots, but that's for another day.

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Frivolous Defenses and Frivolous Lawsuits

Legislators have been attacking frivolous lawsuits for clogging the courthouse and unfairly costing our society billions of dollars. As a result almost every state, including the federal government, has passed sever penalties for the filing of frivolous lawsuits. The number of lawsuits has decreased, but the amount of litigation has increased! How can this be? Simple, we now have a proliferation of frivolous defenses. 

Defense lawyers, in order to make up for the loss of the volume of cases, are now litigating everything in sight. It adds huge amounts of time to a case (waste a jury's time) and increases the costs and expenses of an injured party needlessly.

A simple fix would be to require frivolous defenses to be sanctioned in the same way frivolous cases are currently being sanctioned.

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I post frequently on the danger of impaired drivers, and specifically the dangers from impaired truck drivers. Not much surprises me anymore, this one did: 

State police report finding meth labs in truck

The Courier-Journal

A Mississippi truck driver was arrested Thursday morning after Kentucky State Police found two active methamphetamine labs in the sleeper portion of his truck during a traffic stop on Interstate 71 in Carroll County.

Bobby K. Mitchell, of Myrtle, Miss., was charged with speeding, driving under the influence, manufacturing methamphetamine, unlawful possession of methamphetamine precursors, possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, according to a release from Kentucky State Police in Campbellsburg.

Police received erratic driving reports about the northbound truck around 10:30 a.m.

After a trooper pulled the vehicle over at the 43-mile marker, Mitchell was determined to be under the influence and a search of the truck followed. Police said Mitchell was cooking methamphetamine while he was driving.

The truck was hauling furniture, police said.

A state police hazardous materials technician responded to the scene and seized the labs.

Mitchell is being held in the Carroll County Detention Center, police said.

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The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Alliance (CMVSA) held  its Roadcheck 2011 event in June this year. This event asks for all states to inspect trucks on the road. Less than 1% of trucks are inspected. By announcing the inspections 4 months in advance, the CMVSA gives drivers and trucking companies four months to prepare, or if the problems are serious enough, to simply stay off the road for a few days.

Despite the huge publicity of the inspections in the trucking industry, the 3 day inspection in 2011 found almost 20% of the inspected vehicles and drivers failed a Level 1 inspection. The fact that truck drivers are on the road in an unsafe condition, knowing that this special inspection will be run, shows how drivers believe the chances of being inspected are so rare that they believe they won't be caught, or that they are so ill trained that they think they are safe.

Nationwide data show that in 2010, log book violations (logs are designed to keep tired drivers off the road) were the most common reasons for drivers being placed out-of-service at 29.5 percent of driver out-of-service violations. The most frequent out-of-service item for trucks was unsafe brakes comprising 25.5 percent of all vehicle out-of-service violations.

Thus the real danger: tired truckers, driving trucks with bad brakes, who don’t realize they are falling asleep until it is too late and who cant stop when they realize what is going on.

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Knight Transportation has been found guilty of destroying evidence. Destruction of evidence is typical in the trucking industry and a prime reason you need to hire a lawyer ASAP.

In the case at hand the federal judge in Texas stated:

[The Driver's] flight from the accident scene and Knight's hasty replacement of the truck's tires are the epitome of bad faith conduct. [The driver's] flight from the accident scene and Knight's hasty replacement of the truck's tires are the epitome of bad faith conduct. Surely the driver, a professional truck driver, knew that fleeing the accident scene not only violated the law but would necessarily thwart evidence recovery efforts on the truck. Likewise, Knight's replacement of the truck's tires within two days of the fatality accident, after its driver fled the scene and the state, cannot seriously be labeled anything less than intentional conduct.  

Lastly, Knight's failure to preserve key Qualcomm messages, in the face of a request to produce and preserve by a law enforcement agency, also strongly evinces bad faith.

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