Truck Injury Lawyer Blog : Truck Accident Lawyer & Attorney: Morgan Adams : Contingency Fee Truck Accident Lawyer

The proposal was made to increase the Federal truck weight limits (currently 80,000 pounds [by contrast a car typically weighs 3-4,000 pounds]) by the "Coalition for Transportation Productivity." I have discussed this before. This proposal will kill Americans. The severity of impacts, the number of rollovers, and the impact on our aging infrastructure will all go up dramatically. THIS IS A BAD AND DANGEROUS PROPOSAL! However it would make trucking companies more money, so if that is your goal, then lifting truck weight limits makes perfect sense.

Morgan Adams is a trial attorney licensed in Tennessee and Georgia. He is listed as a "2008 Mid-South SuperLawyer" (Limited to the top 5% of the lawyers in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas), is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum (limited to lawyers who have recovered 1 million dollars or more for their clients), and is the Chair-Elect of the American Association of Justice's Interstate Trucking Litigation Group. He has served as chair of the Tennessee Association of Justice's Trucking Litigation seminars since 2004, and is a frequent speaker at national continuing legal education programs on trucking liability cases.

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I was retained in a trucking case recently where my clients were injured when a tractor trailer rear ended them. Liability was strongly fought, the trucker's lawyer blaming a wreck 1/2 mile down the road  for backing up traffic and even my clients, who were fully stopped.  The defendants refused to accept any responsibility for their actions.

The trucker hit my clients because his load shifted. He did not take any steps to secure the load from moving, had told the company before this was dangerous, and was in violation of the FMCSR on cargo securement. We filed a brief requesting the court to find the drivers actions violated the law and the court agreed, granting our motion. The courts memorandum of law is attached: www.truckinjurylawyerblog.com/uploads/file/Neg Per Se on Failing to Secure Load.pdf

This is the first time in TN that the violation of the FMCSR on cargo securement has been found to negligence per se.

Morgan Adams is a trial attorney licensed in Tennessee and Georgia. He is listed as a "2008 Mid-South Super Lawyer" (Limited to the top 5% of the lawyers in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas), is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum (limited to lawyers who have recovered 1 million dollars or more for their clients), and is the Chair-Elect of the American Association of Justice's Interstate Trucking Litigation Group. He has served as chair of the Tennessee Association of Justice's Trucking Litigation seminars since 2004, and is a frequent speaker at national continuing legal education programs on trucking liability cases.

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The FMCSA gets a partial round of applause for instituting a mandatory audit for new trucking companies after 18 months. They don't get a full round of applause because the public should not be left in danger for a year and 1/2 before the FMCSA gets around to looking at a new company. The program will shut down companies that:

1. Use drivers with invalid licenses
2. Fail to have a drug and alcohol policy
3. Have insufficient insurance
4. Use drivers who are medically disqualified
5. Uses unsafe vehicles
6. Fail to inspect its vehicles
7. Fail to keep track of the HOS of its drivers,

Given the above list I would like to think the FMCSA could act faster than 18 months. Given that we have not had a mandatory program in place before now, 18 months is a lot better than nothing.

The FMCSA estimated that the new rule on inspections will save $3.78 Billion dollars by avoiding nearly 40,000 crashes over a 10 year period. Imagine how many more people would be saved from the tragedy of a crash with an 18 Wheeler if the inspection was held between the first 6 to 12 months!

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In a move to keep driver's on the road longer, the FMCSA kept a provision in the Hours of Service Regulations for Drivers that will allow companies to force them to be on the road 11 hours at a time and the 34 hour restart. These rules have been successfully challenged in court in the past, so it is ironic that the FMCSA would reissue the rules without change a second time. While the regulation will favor trucking companies that can keep their driver's on the road longer, it does nothing to protect drivers from a 11 hour workday. Let's face it. The trucking industry runs one of the last "legal" sweatshops in America.

I have previously written about how fatigue at the end of the day makes wrecks more likely. This regulation will only exacerbate the dangers from tired, exhausted, and fatigued truck drivers.

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The American Trucking Association announced driver turnover is the lowest it has been since 1995. Due to the recent downturn in the economy, drivers are worried they may not get another job if they leave so they are willing to stay put, and trucking companies are running fewer trucks which require fewer drivers. This trend highlights the fact that trucking companies can retain the best drivers and will have plenty of quality applications for any job opening if they treat their drivers fairly.

What implications does this have for safety? Simply this. Trucking companies have no business putting dangerous, untrained drivers on the road. The companies that hire dangerous drivers in this economy are clearly putting profits over people. There are safe, well trained, experienced drivers looking for work. Trucking companies that ignore this pool, to save a few dollars to hire ill-trained workers, are risking the lives of their drivers and the public.

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In a snow storm, slabs of ice are formed on the roofs of parked trailers. Unless the ice is removed by the trucking company or the driver, the slabs of ice fall from the tractor trailers onto the highways and passing cars, creating significant danger on our highways. While falling ice has been a known hazard for decades, trucking companies have paid scant attention to the risk it poses. The slabs of ice and snow falling off tractor trailers are often large, and given extra force by the speed of the truck when the ice comes off the trailer, and the speed of the car the ice hits. In fact several deaths have resulted from ice falling from tractor trailers. Legislation has been proposed and passed as a result of these tragedies, now requiring truck drivers to clean the ice off of the trailers in many northern states with long winters. For example:

In New York legislation was proposed in 2005 after the  tragic death of Jessica Smith, who was killed when a 9-foot piece of ice dislodged and flew from the top of an 18-wheel truck into the windshield of a truck traveling in the opposite direction. The driver of the damaged truck consequently lost control of his vehicle and crashed into Jessica’s car, killing her.

In New Jersey in 2008 similar legislation was proposed www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/new_jersey_drivers_could_face.html

blog.nj.com/ledgerarchives/2008/01/windshield_wipeout_ice_still_f.html

Similar legislation exists in Pennsylvania firefightingnews.com/article-us.cfm and in other states.

While there are inventors that have identified the problem, and found a solution (see Patent application No. 925794 for a Net Safety Top for a Trailer, filed on 2001-08-09), the trucking industry has failed to adopt any reliable method of preventing the tragic and needless injuries that result from this type accident.

If you know of someone injured by this type of activity contact a lawyer. The accident was not only foreseeable, it was preventable by the trucking company and the truck driver.

To the truck drivers reading this please tell us the methods you or your company use to solve this problem. I would appreciate your telling us what is done when leaving the terminal as well as while on the road. Do you have a 2x4 you run over the truck? Scrape it off by hand? Use one of the patented systems for sale or do you just ignore it, knowing the danger it poses to other motorists on the highways? I look forward to your response.

 

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