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

Yes, that’s right, GOVERNOR HASLAM AND THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HELP TORT LAWYERS STAY IN BUSINESS! I was too hasty with my earlier post and didn’t think things though. It is the law of unintended consequences. Republican Governor Haslam, the Chamber of Commerce, and the state legislature have insured that people like me, trial lawyers, will thrive under the new law they just passed. That is how bad the new tort law (pushed by the Chamber of Commerce, the Tennessee Legislature, and signed by the Governor) capping non-economic damages is for the citizens of Tennessee. 

You see in the old days in Tennessee when a company was really bad, and had killed and maimed people all across the state, a jury of 12 citizens could kill the bad corporation by compensating a victim with a sum of money that was over and above the defendant's insurance policy. This made sure that the bad company never had the opportunity to kill and maim Tennessean’s again. That might have resulted in one large verdict, but only once, and then the company went out of the business of killing the people of Tennessee.

For people the rules are different. In criminal cases we have a "three strikes" rule. Hurt three people and you go away for a long, long, time. If it is bad enough, a person can get the death penalty and to heck with the three strikes rule. Thanks to the Chamber of Commerce's new tort liability law the bad companies get to stay in business. There is no three strikes rule, heck there isn’t even a twenty strikes rule. There is no death penalty. Bad companies in Tennessee get to live (and hurt and maim) forever.

Under the new law the amount that can be awarded by a jury is limited, or capped, and is so low it is easily covered by a corporation’s insurance. Thus a really bad company gets to stay in business and will continue to kill and maim as long as the business is profitable. It can take risks now that it never could before.

Every bad act of the company that results in another victim will likely result in yet another law suit, a process that can no longer be stopped in Tennessee by killing the company. In fact, thanks to the Chamber of the Commerce we no longer have a way of driving unsafe companies out of our state.  Mind you this is a law I fought against (having spent 22 years in the Marine Corps I have this thing about trying to protect Americans and keep them alive) as it is terrible for Tennessee.

Some corporations, and some people, need to be put somewhere their actions can’t hurt anyone else. Sometimes, if the act is bad enough, that means killing them. In Tennessee corporations can now kill at will without fear of ever being placed out of business by a lawsuit.

The next time you pass a graveyard thank the Governor, your Tennessee legislator, and the Chamber of Commerce. With the new law they passed protecting those companies that habitually maim and kill, the death and injury rate for the common person in Tennessee is going to go up, and our graveyards are going to fill.

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I thought the new Hours of Service (HOS) Regulations made sense, and that there wouldn't be much controversy about the new regulations. After all, the new regulation just put back into place the old rule. The old rule required drivers of 80,000 pound tractor trailers to stop after driving 10 hours.  The law was changed under President Bush to allow truckers to drive 11 hours, an extra hour over the prior regulations. So the proposed regulations just put things back the way they were. No harm, no foul, the government gets a do over because they messed up when they extended the HOS to 11 hours. Not a controversial move I thought when I first read it. WOW was I wrong! The trucking companies hate this proposal.

But why? Studies, such as the Penn State study (“On the Relationship of Crash Risk and Driver Hours of Service”) presented by Dr. Paul Jovanisat the 2005 International Truck & Bus Safety Security Symposium in Alexandria, Va. have shown that " the crash risk is statistically similar for the first six hours of driving and then increases in significant steps thereafter. The 11th hour has a crash risk more than three times the first hour."  The 11th hour of driving is therefore 300 percent more dangerous than the first hour of driving. Of course the longer a truck is in motion the more money the trucking company makes. Should those profits really come at our, the public's, expense? 

Don Schneider was able to make the Forbes 400 list as a Billionaire as the owner of Schneider trucking. Perhaps an industry that creates BILLIONAIRES can think about public safety... at least this once? Most drivers would also appreciate being limited to 10 hours of driving. They know that 11 hours is to long to be on the road. There is a reason they call trucks rolling sweatshops. 

Here is hoping that the industry outcry doesn't overcome common sense on this. The 10 hour rule is far safer and simply puts the industry back where they were before the Bush expansion. It should be the law.

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Governor Haslam has signed a law that states that non-economic damages should be capped in injury (tort) cases In Tennessee at $750,000 in most cases. Now in Tennessee juries are trusted to sentence a man to death, but apparently they are not trusted by the Governor to determine the proper amount of compensation for victims of someone else's wrongdoing in an injury case. There is not even a "three strikes and you're out" rule for really bad people and corporations that are repeat offenders!

Whether you agree or disagree with jury limits doesn't really matter, as the Tennessee Legislature and Governor Haslam can pass whatever legislation they want, and apparently they wanted to limit the amount of non-economic damages that can be received from someone injured by a wrongdoer. The new law is flawed in several aspects in my opinion.

First there is the hypocrisy in allowing "unlimited" damages against those that commit intentional acts. That sounds great but the Governor and legislators know that  NO INSURANCE POLICY IN TENNESSEE WILL PAY FOR AN INTENTIONAL ACT. It is EXCLUDED from the policy. Thus an an injured victim will likely get less money, not more, if you prove the defendant acted intentionally. It sounds good on a stump speech, but in reality this section of the law gives nothing and takes away everything form the injured. The Governor could have easily required insurance companies to cover these acts, but chose not to do so.

The second level of the legislature's and Governor's hypocrisy is that juror's WONT BE TOLD that there are limits in place. They believe that they helped someone, when in reality the government took it away and made them sweat out determining the amount of non-economic damages above $750,000 in the jury room for NO PURPOSE.

The final part of this tragedy is that the Governor will allow some catastrophically injured  Tennesseans to receive more than others. There is a special category for "catastrophic loss," which would raise the cap for non-economic damages in cases involving serious spinal cord injuries, severe burns, some severe multiple amputations, or the death of a parent of minor children. Now this new law excludes parents of adult special needs children, children taking care of the elderly (don't worry, they can go to a state run nursing home), victims with brain injuries, twenty year olds who have to wear diapers, or a bag, to catch excrement and waste fluids, chronic pain, etc...

Shouldn't we let a jury, on a case by case basis, decide if these cases are catastrophic after hearing the all facts? Shouldn't we let a jury decide that if you kill enough Tennesseans, you are going to get put out of business? Do parents taking care of special needs adult children, really deserve less than parents taking care of minor children? The Governor and legislature chose to take away these choices from the jury. Some Tennesseans are now more different than others and none of us are as special as corporations.

Many of my clients are brain injured, and catastrophically so, even if they are able to walk and talk. Their lives, as they knew them prior to the wreck, are over. In many case their personalities have changed. They died, but their life goes on. I find it arbitrary, and frankly an abuse of power, that the Governor has decided who can be catastrophically injured in advance of knowing all the facts. That Nashville knows better than a jury of 12 Tennesseans. I guess I trust the people of Tennessee more than those in office now. Voter's of Tennessee, your governor and your legislature just called you too stupid to do what is right in a jury box. (they also called the Judge, lawyers in the case, the Courts of Appeal and the Tennessee Supreme Court too stupid to get it as well, but hey, they were on a roll.) Voters you need to remember this come November.  

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I have written several articles on what you should look for when you hire a truck accident attorney for your case (See Here and Here). One of the attorneys I have learned from over the years, and who knows his stuff,  is Bob Karns, a phenomenal Rhode Island truck accident attorney . Bob Karns also has a sub concentration in traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries which is a necessary focus of any lawyer handling trucking cases. I had the pleasure of catching up with Bob recently while speaking at the Rhode Island Bar Association.

Bob Karns' knowledge and experience in these areas is immense, and he is well respected by defense lawyers and insurance companies. Since insurance companies routinely lie to victims of trucking accidents (See HERE for an article on how insurance companies trick the victims of truck accidents), hiring a lawyer that is known for making insurance companies pay when they are unfair is critical. There is no question that Rhode Island truck accident victims are better off, and able to focus on healing and getting better, when Bob Karns is handling their case.

So what makes Bob different? He is a nice guy, but there are lots of "nice guys." Bob, however, is one of those nice guys that the bad guys just don't want to cross and get angry. He continues to attend trucking specific legal seminars and stays current on truck accident litigation trends and the trucking industry. He not only stays current on trucking law, he also stays current on the cutting edge medical treatment and needs required by his seriously injured clients. Just like there is special knowledge and materials needed to handle a trucking case not found in every car wreck lawyer's office, there are even more stringent needs and requirements required to handle clients with the special needs that arise from TBI (traumatic brain injuries) and spinal cord injuries.  

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The FMCSA and the trucking industry knows how dangerous sleep apnea is for a truck driver. The FMCSA states HERE that: 

Staying awake means staying alive. Sleep apnea is a major contributor to daytime drowsiness—a condition that could prove deadly for commercial truck drivers and everyone sharing the road with them. It is a condition where, during sleep, a narrowing or closure of the upper airway causes repeated sleep disturbances leading to poor sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness. Since excessive sleepiness can impact a driver’s ability to safely operate the commercial vehicle, it is important that drivers with sleep apnea are aware of the warning signs.

The research arm of the American Trucking Association (ATA), American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), states that sleep apnea exists in almost 1/3 of commercial driver and contributes to wrecks. See the white paper HERE.

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The Texas legislature, in a fit of sheer stupidity (not a word my kids are allowed to say in my house so you know I feel strongly about the issue!) has raised the speed limits at night for tractor trailers in Texas.  (The Texas state senate passed this May 23, 2011 and it is now on its way to the Governor's desk. You can pray the Governor has the common sense to veto this! (See Transportation Topics, May 30, 2011 p25)) Texas already has one of the highest body counts in the nation for tractor trailer wrecks. According to the DOT, on average over the last 4 years, 410 Texans die each year in heavy truck crashes (stats can be found here).

I have to assume the Texas legislature had this pointed out to them. So what do they do with this knowledge? They raise the speed limit at night. Something that the Texas' own Commercial Driver's License Manual makes clear will kill YOU! Specifically the 2008 Texas CDL manual states (and it said this in the 2004 CDL manual as well, the oldest Texas CDL manual I have): 

Driving too fast is a major cause of fatal crashes. You must adjust your speed depending on driving conditions. These include traction, curves, visibility, traffic, and hills. (2008 Texas CDL Manual Chapter 2.6)  

You should always be able to stop within the distance you can see ahead... At night, you can’t see as far with low beams as you can with high beams. When you must use low beams, slowdown. (2008 Texas CDL Manual Chapter 2.6) 

Whenever you double your speed, it takes about four times as much distance to stop and your vehicle will have four times the destructive power if it crashes. High speeds increase stopping distances greatly. By slowing down a little, you can gain a lot in reduced braking distance.  (2008 Texas CDL Manual Chapter 2.6)

Total Stopping Distance.  At 55 mph it will take about six seconds to stop and your vehicle will travel about the distance of a football field. (60 + 60 + 170 = 290 feet). (2008 Texas CDL Manual Chapter 2.6)

At night your headlights will usually be the main source of light for you to see and for others to see you. You can’t see nearly as much with your headlights as you can see in the daytime. With low beams you can see ahead about 250 feet and with high beams about 350-500 feet. You must adjust your speed to keep your stopping distance within your sight distance. This means going slow enough to be able to stop within the range of your headlights. Otherwise, by the time you see a hazard, you will not have time to stop. (2008 Texas CDL Manual Chapter 2.8)

Knowing this, KNOWING THIS, the Texas legislature goes and RAISES the nightime speed limit to 75MPH for tractor trailers! This means even if the truck driver is attentive and has his high beams on he cant stop in time. 

Now I may not be bright compared to folks in the Texas legislature, but if my own book tells me at 55 MPH it takes a tractor trailer 290 feet to stop, and a tractor trailer driver can only see 250 feet at night with his low beams on, we have a problem. By the time a driver can see Something in the road IT IS TOO LATE TO STOP AT 55 MPH, much less 75 MPH. This problem even has a name, it is called "over driving" your headlights. Safety instructors, trucking companies, and truck drivers have known about this for decades. It is so well known it is even in the 2004 Texas CDL Manual!

If you, your children, or your parents have an engine problem or a flat tire at night, and cant get off the road, you are dead in Texas if a truck is behind you.

I have to think the Texas legislature loves truck companies lots more than us little folks in little cars.

Understand that the truck driver's are the fall guys here. If they are properly trained they will drive slower than the speed limit, within the distance they can see at night with their headlights. Truck companies generally don't train truck drivers that way because the faster the loads get delivered the more money a truck company makes. The victims are really you, me, and the truck drivers. I believe most truck drivers would follow the safety rules if they were properly trained.

The vehicle death rate in Texas from heavy trucks, which has been falling in recent years, is about to explode! Keep in mind that NAFTA is about to put Mexican trucks, which I don't believe are nearly as safe (see my prior blogs) as US licensed drivers and trucks, all over Texas as well! The next time you pass a graveyard in Texas make sure you take a moment to thank your Texas Legislators!

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The 2011 Roadcheck is underway. This is the pre-announced "high inspection rate" period for tractor trailers. Over these few days almost 2% of the tractor trailers on the road have a chance of getting inspected. Despite being woefully inadequate, this is almost double the normal rate of daily inspections. This is when the smart unsafe truckers take a vacation. That is why you and I are safer than at other times during the year.

Note I have nothing against the inspectors. These folks are incredibly understaffed and overwhelmed by the task in front of them. I do have a problem with how the trucking industry spins the results. The industry could be shocked that 1 in every 5 trucks is found to have safety violations and do something about it. Instead they crow about how it is only 1 in 5 trucks and it is better than last year. AGAIN, ON AN ANNOUNCED INSPECTION! The one people prepare for!

I am not the only fellow out there that can read between the lines. You can check out Michigan Truck Accident Lawyer Steve Gursten's blog as well HERE. 

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Lets face it, there are good truck drivers ( I represent a lot of them when they get hurt by unsafe truck drivers.) and then there are folks that shouldn't drive a tricycle much less a tractor trailer. The latter category of truck drivers endangers my friends on the road and my family. So what to do? 

Well, if you are a trucking company executive the first thing you can do is hire safe drivers. (The second thing you can do is provide adequate training but lets save that for another day.) In 2008 there were 4.9 million commercial drivers. Despite the large number of drivers, trucking companies have almost 100% turnover of drivers every year - and a driver shortage is anticipated by the industry. That means that a trucking company has to replace each driver in their fleet every year. As drivers get harder to find, some companies simply hire from the bottom of the barrel.

The FMCSA agrees that hiring safe drivers is critically important in avoiding wrecks. It has therefore set up a pre-employment screening program (PSP) to allow trucking companies to check drivers crash and safety records out BEFORE they hire them. So if we consider there are almost 5 Million drivers, and 100% turnover, there should be almost 5 Million driver safety checks right? Wrong!  Only 7.6 of truck drivers, or 380,000,  were checked out before being hired last year! (Transportation Topics, May 30, 2011, p4) The reason I believe they dont check out drivers? Bad drivers work cheaper, keeping wages down across the industry for good safe professional drivers and putting more money into the pockets of trucking companies.

Once again keeping the wheels moving, and making money, wins out over putting safe drivers behind the wheels and paying them fairly.

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Roadcheck gives the US a false sense of security. Every year Roadcheck is announced by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance months before the actual inspection. This year Roadcheck will be June 7-9. It is bad enough that the trucking industry knows when Roadcheck is months in advance, now, according to Transportation Topics (May 30, 2011 p27), they are also announcing the key areas that inspectors will examine. This year "there will be a special focus on examining truckers' logbooks..."

Can the industry make the test any easier? If you know you are an illegal driver, you take a vacation during the 3 days of Roadcheck. If you are a poorly trained driver, who thinks you are within the law, you drive.

ALMOST 20% OF TRUCK DRIVERS, ONE OUT OF FIVE, ARE SO POORLY TRAINED THAT THEY STILL GET TICKETED FOR SAFETY VIOLATIONS DURING THESE ANNOUNCED INSPECTIONS!

See my prior blogs on Roadcheck statistics and what that means for our safety.

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