January 25, 2012

House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee Chairman Mica is expected to release the multi-year surface transportation reauthorization bill (H.R. 7) imminently. Congressman Jimmy Duncan is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit on that Committee and is very influential as such.

Trucking interests are lobbying for increases to federal truck sizes and weights as well as a "state option" of allowing states to control size and weight limits on Interstates.  A "state option" is a de facto increase because some states will immediately increase their limits, economically pressuring neighboring states to increase theirs - until the entire country will have 100,000 lb trucks on our roads. 

TAKE ACTION NOW: 

Please call Chairman Duncan NOW and urge him to oppose ANY truck size or weight increases or "state option" in H.R. 7.

Chairman Jimmy Duncan  (R-2nd TN) 202-225-5435. If you are a constituent of his district - the 2nd district, you can also send an email http://duncan.house.gov/services/zip-auth.shtml  

TALKING POINTS: (You can cut and paste these into an email but please personalize your email as well.)

• I urge you to oppose any increase in truck size and weight-either nationally or as a "state option"- in the surface transportation reauthorization bill.
• In 2010 overall traffic fatalities declined but truck crash fatalities increased by nearly nine percent to 3,675. Increasing truck size and weights would be a significant setback to safety.
• Large trucks are more dangerous and more destructive.  In fatal crashes involving a large truck and a passenger vehicle, 97 percent of the deaths occur to the occupants of the car. 

·         Overweight trucks create a disproportionate level of damage to our roads and bridges. Increasing the weight of a heavy truck by only 10 percent increases bridge damage by 33 percent.

·         A "state option" allowing truck weights to be determined individually by each state is a de facto nationwide increase because states will be forced to allow heavier trucks to stay economically competitive if adjoining states allow them.

·         Overly heavy trucks, particularly 100,000 lbs. trucks, dramatically underpay their fair share of taxes and user fees for the repair of U.S. roads and bridges.  States and Congress are already struggling to find funds to address the backlog of road and bridge needs across the country.

·         More than 26%, or 1 in 4, of our nation's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

·         Poor road conditions cost Americans $67 billion in repairs and operating costs. (ASCE)

·         One third of America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. (ASCE)

Heavier Trucks Mean Bigger Safety Problems 

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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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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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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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Roadcheck was in June and results are starting to be reported. So how did Texas do? On an ANNOUNCED inspection OVER 1 in 4 trucks was deemed to be so unsafe they were told to stop operating until they fixed a safety issue. The reported numbers from KMOO can be found HERE . The article stated in part: 

During the 72-hour Roadcheck 2011 program last week, DPS and other Texas law enforcement agencies inspected 7,993 commercial vehicles. Of the vehicles inspected, 26.5 percent were placed out of service for safety violations. (emphasis added)

Is it any wonder that people are scared of 18 wheelers? Given the recent attempts by the Texas legislature to kill more Texans with trucks (see my prior blog on the impact of higher truck speed limits in Texas HERE) Texans have every reason to be scared.

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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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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 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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Bill ignites war of words over trucking safety

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I am pleased to report that my blog on trucking litigation has been selected as one of the Top 75 Truck Sites on the internet! The selection criteria states: 

Truck Injury Lawyer Blog It’s all fun and games until you or your truck gets hurt, and if that’s the case then this is the guy you want to talk to.

I am pleased that my hard work over the years to inform the public of trucking issues has been recognized. For a full list of the Top 75 Truck Sites see the original posting here.

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Every so often drivers ask me how to report a company that forces them to work over hours, or drive unsafe equipment. The government has set up a toll free hotline to take these complaints and start an investigation. The DOT website to report violations can be found here and states:

The Motor Carrier Safety hotline is a line of communication available to commercial vehicle drivers to submit reports of actual or potential violations of the federal motor carrier safety regulations. The line, 1-888-DOT-SAFT (368-7238), is a toll-free number for drivers nationwide to contact the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The Safety Violation and the Consumer Household Goods Commercial Complaint Website Hotline http://nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov  is available to drivers to report safety violations to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration online using a secure system.

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Every so often I need to revise and update my standard spoliation letter (a letter telling the trucking company to save evidence). In part because of changes in the industry, in part because it can always be made better.

In this latest version I fix some typo's, add in some FMCSR cites, and I added a section about the truck and trailer inspection. For those of you counting, here is version 4!

Do you have a good tractor trailer lawyer? If your lawyer has not sent a spoliation letter within a month I suggest you strongly consider hiring another lawyer unless he can articulate why they didn't send a spoliation letter.

If we know the trucking company and driver involved we typically send our spoliation letter out the same day we are hired, or the next day if the mail has run. In some cases our clients are hospitalized or worse and we have to wait till the police report is available to identify the trucking company and driver so we know to whom we need to send the letter.

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I was happy to learn that a local paper, The Hamilton County Herald  ( www.hamiltoncountyherald.com ), wanted to do an article on my practice, the full article published December 31, 2010 can be found here and is pasted below:

Locally based truck accident lawyer helps nationwide

David Laprad
 

 

Truck wreck lawyer Morgan Adams represents victims of commercial motor vehicle accidents nationwide. He says one of the interesting things about an accident involving a tractor-trailer and a car is that the truck driver can perceive the wreck as a mild bump, while the driver of the car can perceive it as a catastrophic collision. “Both parties are telling the truth,” he says. - Photo provided

If there’s one thing attorney Morgan Adams doesn’t need, it’s more work. As a nationally recognized trucking litigation expert who represents victims of accidents involving large commercial vehicles, he has more than enough cases to keep him busy. So he spends a lot of time trying to prevent accidents from happening.
“People think it’s funny that I give out tips to help them avoid being hit by a tractor trailer, but I don’t need more work. There are enough trucking cases, and there will continue to be plenty of them, even if everyone does everything as close to right as humanly possible,” he says.
Some of the tips Adams doles out might seem unconventional, but make sense, including a tidbit that could save lives in rush hour traffic.
“One of the top causes of truck accidents is fatigued drivers. You might think having your foot on your brakes will tell everyone behind you you’re stopped, but when a truck driver has been on the road too long, a solid light doesn’t register as well as blinking lights, so if you’re going less than the minimum speed on the interstate, turn on your emergency lights until at least five cars behind you have slowed down or stopped. Blinking lights help to alert a fatigued truck driver that there’s a problem up ahead,” he says.
Adams hopes his advice has the same effect on those who hear it.
“I consult on hundreds of cases a year, and none of my clients woke up that morning and said, ‘Hot diggity dang, I’m going to be in a car wreck today!’ They had lives with focus and direction, and a truck wreck decimated their plans,” he says.
Case in point: a young Smith County, Tenn., woman whose life was changed when the van in which she was a passenger collided with a commercial vehicle and she suffered a mild traumatic brain injury. Adams helped her to secure the largest recovery for a living plaintiff to date in the county.
“We had experts from around the country diagnose and explain how she hit her head when the wreck occurred, and that as a result, her future changed dramatically in an instant. So one of the things she’s going to be able to do, since she can’t work full time, is provide medical care for herself for the rest of her life,” he says.
Adams’ work has also impacted how certain laws are interpreted. For example, he argued the first reported case in federal court in Tennessee that found that a violation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations is negligence per se.
“I’m pretty proud of that legal victory and of the fact that it was deemed important enough to report,” he says.
Adams decided to focus on trucking accidents when he was involved in a case in which a cement mixer rolled over a family in a minivan. A baby suffered brain damage from the wreck and was in intensive care for several days.
“The mixer driver, who was a caring man with children of his own, had never been told by his company that a loaded cement mixer could roll over at 12 mph on a turn. Had the company properly trained the driver, I believe he would have followed his training and the wreck never would have happened,” he says, adding that the company now has a training program for new drivers.
Adams has not always fought on behalf of victims. When he started focusing on truck accident litigation ten years ago, he was on the opposite side of the battle. He says his work for major insurance companies cost him a lot of sleep.
“I’d gotten distressed that a great verdict for my clients meant I’d robbed people who deserved recovery, whether that was because they hadn’t dotted all of their I’s and crossed all of their T’s or some other reason. I knew I’d represented my client well, but I didn’t feel good about what I was doing to individuals,” he says.
The turning point for Adams came when he was asked to formalize a settlement and hand a $5,000 check to a father and the sole supporter of a family. Adams asked the man how he was doing, and the man described symptoms that made it clear he had a bulging disc and would likely need surgery. Since Adams was not the man’s representative, he couldn’t tell the man he was settling for much less than his case was worth.
“I knew he was crazy to settle for $5,000, and the insurance company knew it, but didn’t care. I stopped doing insurance defense work shortly thereafter. And I’d never slept better,” he says.
Adams needed the rest, as he would devote thousands of hours to learning the ins and outs of commercial vehicle accident litigation. His work in the area became his passion, and as he represented more and more victims of catastrophic accidents, he developed a national reputation. Today, he has offices in Nashville and Chattanooga, and is known across the country as “The Truck Accident Lawyer.”
In addition to representing his own clients, Adams helps attorneys across the U.S. understand the liability and damage issues in their trucking cases. His current workload includes cases in California, Nebraska and other states, many of which he handles in person due to their complex nature. Adams also lectures across the country on how to properly handle tractor-trailer cases. Over the next four months, he’s slated to teach CLE courses in New York, Rhode Island, Louisiana and Idaho.
In addition to his lecture work, Adams has written a chapter titled “Trucking Accident Litigation” for the 2010-2011 edition of “Handling Motor Vehicle Accident Cases.” For lawyers who wish to digest similar material in smaller chunks, Adams publishes a blog, accessible at www.truckinjurylawyerblog.com.
While Adams is happy to share his expertise, keeping up with the latest developments in his field requires a significant investment of time.
“It’s an incredibly technical field. To be equipped to handle a trucking case, you have to be constantly involved in the changing safety regulations and dealing with the physics and dynamics and experts involved. It requires a lot of time and effort to stay on top of what’s happening,” he says.
Adams became a lawyer while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. Following Desert Storm in the early ’90s, he returned to the private sector and took a job with Luther Anderson in Chattanooga. Two years later, he moved over to what was then Hatfield, VanCleave & Akers.
When Akers left to become Hamilton County’s clerk and master, Adams struck out on his own. For a time, he concentrated on family law, and specifically father’s custody. Adams was the first lawyer to convince a Hamilton County judge to allow a father to have his child on Christmas morning.
There’s a touch of irony in Adams’ history with family law, because if there’s one thing he needs more of, it’s time with his wife and three sons. He says he tries to “get home as many nights a year” as he can, but that his work is demanding.
“My wife would not be shy in saying I work too much. But I’m passionate about representing the people who have entrusted this once-in-a-lifetime event to my care,” he says, adding that his wife is “not the better half, but the better nine-tenths,” and that his boys are “smarter than he is, even if they’re not old enough to read [this article] in print.”
When discussing his life and career, Adams seems honest and forthright. But he’s concerned people have the wrong idea about his work: He’s not anti-trucking, he says, but anti-negligence.
“There are a lot of good truck drivers out there, and a lot of good trucking companies. But some trucking companies abuse their drivers, and some truck drivers choose to skirt safety regulations. When they do that, I tend to get involved and try to hold the companies and the drivers accountable.”
That’s bad news for negligent truck drivers and trucking companies, because if there’s one thing they need, besides a willingness to follow the rules, it’s less of Morgan Adams.

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I am happy to announce that my book chapter "Trucking Accident Litigation" has been published by West Publishing, the nations largest and most respected legal publisher. The chapter is published in the multi-volume set Handling Motor Vehicle Accident Cases, 2d.

West allows one author per topic and I was chosen to write the chapter on commercial truck and bus litigation.

Interested in hiring a truck accident lawyer? While there are thousands of lawyers advertising for truck and bus accident victims, consider how much of that lawyer's practice is actually devoted to handling commercial motor vehicle accident cases before hiring them. For more information on this subject I previously posted on how to hire a great truck and bus accident lawyer here, here, here, and here.  

A picture of the four volume treatise, with CD, is below, and you can order a copy here.

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Truck driver Roumen Todorov Velkov, of Globe Carrier Co., killed five (5) people when he hit a line of stopped cars on Interstate 26 Sunday night, October 24, 2010. It does not appear the truck driver ever braked.

There is an excellent article about the problems in the trucking industry that may have lead to the crash (here) with information about the crash itself, but it ignores some of the likely causes which experienced counsel would consider. What are these causes?

1. Fatigue
2. Controlled Substances (Drugs and Alcohol)
3. Overdriving of Headlights (By the time you see something in the road at night, with your headlights, you cant stop in time because you are driving too fast) 
4. Improper training.
5. Negligent Hiring of an unqualified driver
6. Distracted driving - Cell Phones and Texting
7. Faulty Maintenance (bad brakes)

These families will all need help and certainly have our prayers. Unfortunately minimum insurance coverage has not increased for tractor trailers since the 1980's (See Here) so there will likely only be $750K to go around in the primary policy, clearly not enough for a loss of this magnitude. The key is to hire an experienced trucking lawyer early in the process to see if other companies contributed to the wreck. This could involve, at a minimum, the shipper, the broker, or even a prior employer of the driver. These lawyers would, at a minimum, send spoliation letters such as the one found here.

I am sure the insurance agents are already promising to "take care of things" for these families. This is part of the formal "Apology" system designed to keep money out of the hands of the victims and their survivors. See my blogs here and here for more on this.

Trucking cases are complicated and intense, even if just properly prepared for mediation. I work with a number of great lawyers in North Carolina and would be happy to make referrals for any family member or answer any questions.

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Driver distraction, to include cell phone use, is a major cause of wrecks. This is a huge issue in the trucking industry as truck drivers are required to frequently update their company and are on the road weeks at a time, leaving the cell phone their only means of communication with vendors, friends, and family.

Proving that a truck or bus driver was actually texting while driving, or on a cell phone, is difficult and generally requires a lawyer. Records must be subpoened from the service provider. These records are often destroyed after a few months, thus having a lawyer fighting for you in a serious truck or bus accident case is critical.

Paralegal superstar Janabeth Fleming Taylor recently sent me the link to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's list of cell phone laws in the US. The list can be seen here and is pasted below for your convenience.

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Spoliation letters require trucking companies to preserve evidence that shouldn't be, but often is, destroyed after a wreck. While the trucking companies know they should put a litigation hold on documents that will show whether they caused a wreck, they generally destroy this evidence if they know they are negligent. I have blogged repeatedly on this subject in past posts.

Why do trucking companies allow this evidence to be destroyed? Trucking companies have found that juries will often believe them when they say the damaging documents were "destroyed accidentally" or destroyed or purged in keeping with "DOT Regulations." Spoliation letters help the jury see that the trucking company knew not to destroy evidence but chose to do so anyway. 

What if the documents prove a trucking company's innocence you ask? Well, those they always seem to be able to find when they need them and they never get destroyed.

You, or your lawyer, should make sure a spoliation letter is sent as soon as possible after a wreck. You can use mine, downloadable here, as a form for what should be sent. As no case is identical to another, this form letter is modified for every case we handle. It may not be exactly what is needed in your case but should be a great starting point.

Do you have an experienced trucking lawyer as your attorney? You should ask for a copy of the spoliation letter sent in your case.Remember, you can send this letter to a trucking company even if you don't have a lawyer, but if you need to send this letter, you need to hire a lawyer ASAP!

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Congratulations to Robert Morali who recently completed 5.2 Million Miles of tractor trailer driving for UPS without an accident!

Was he lucky? Not according to Mr. Morali. He credits his training (which is similar to the Smith System training) by UPS on the "Five Seeing Habits" which are: 

1. Aim High In Steering - This means look down the road at least 12-15 seconds instead of right in front of your vehicle. This lets you plan an out for any hazard that might be in front of you.
2. Get the Big Picture - Maintain the proper following distance (at least one car length for every 10MPH) and scan to the front, sides, and rear constantly. Mr Morali stated he checked his mirrors every 2 seconds.
3. Keep Your Eyes Moving - Scan don't stare. Don't keep your eyes focused on an object for more than 2 seconds. Eliminate eye holding patterns.
4. Leave Yourself An Out - Surround yourself with space and always leave yourself an escape route in case the unexpected happens.
5. Make Sure They See You - Communicate in traffic with your horn, turn signals, and brake lights. Watch traffic to make sure they see you. Use you signals and tap your brakes to make sure those drivers following you know what you are doing. 

These are common sense tips, widely taught as safe driving techniques in the trucking industry. When followed, a safe professional truck driver, like Mr. Morali, can have an entire driving career without a wreck.

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Ken Shigley recently posted an entry on his trucking blog entitled  "Five common sense ideas for reducing the risk of truck driver fatigue." Ken has a lot of things right with this post but one thing I  believe is wrong is not asking for a 6th common sense reform, and that is simply to have drivers paid by the hour instead of by the mile.

Driving by the mile encourages drivers to push to make a few more dollars. Drivers are encouraged to push to exceed the hours of service requirements and push past the limits of safety. In fact trucking companies know this, government studies prove this, but companies still pay by the mile so that it is the driver that takes the risk of any slow down in on the highway due to construction or rush hour congestion. If the truck breaks down, the driver isn't paid until the problem is fixed. 

Perhaps because courts have held drivers who are paid hourly are entitled to overtime (Bostain v. Food Express, Inc.---P3d---, 2007 WL 611259 (Wash March 1, 2007), the Washington Supreme Court held that interstate truck drivers are entitled to overtime compensation for any hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week) trucking companies don't want to pay by the hour. Do you know that truck drivers have been exempted from the federal law that protects almost every other American worker from being overworked without fair pay, the Fair Labor Standards Act?

Paying by the mile also encourages speeding. After all, if you just go a bit faster you can travel more hours in your allotted number of driving hours and earn more money. Drivers also speed to make up the miles that were missed due to traffic, mechanical problems, or other delays.

If truck drivers were paid by the hour then the trucking company would assume the risk of any delay. The driver will get paid the same regardless so he is not given an incentive to speed or drive over his hours of service. Until the trucking industry faces this fact drivers will both continue to speed and drive past their hours of service. The wrecks due to speed and fatigue that could easily be prevented will continue, leading to more tragedies on our roads.  

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There are several myths about Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI's), all of which can be explained when you understand the science and medicine involved in the causation and treatment of TBI's. One of the most popular myths is "You can't have a TBI if you don't lose consciousness." 

The Center for Disease Control, an arm of the federal government, dispels this myth on its web site.  The CDC defines what constitutes a mild TBI and states: That a mild traumatic brain injury is "caused by a blow or jolt to the head that disrupts the function of the brain. This disruption of the brain function is typically associated with NORMAL structural neuroimaging findings (i.e. CAT scan, MRI) ... and may or MAY NOT involve a loss of consciousness." (emphasis added) See here for the full definition. This definition is accepted in the medical and scientific community. Thus you can have changes in personality, temperament, and memory with a mild TBI, and all the other consequences, even though the imaging tests are normal and the victim cant identify a loss of consciousness.

There is nothing worse than a brain injury. It robs us of our souls and sense of self. In fact it kills the old you, and you become someone else. If you know someone who has one you know what I mean.

I see lots of TBI's as a result of handling truck wreck cases across the country. This week I spent several days in Chicago with members of the Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer Network, including program chair Gordon Johnson, keeping up on the latest medical advances in diagnosing, treating, and litigating TBI cases. I was fortunate to have dinner with some great trial lawyers, Ken Levinson from Chicago and Steve Gursten from Detroit. It is always great to discuss and work on significant complicated cases with phenomenal lawyers like Ken and Steve.

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The United States Supreme Court recently held that the principle place of business for a corporation, for purposes of determining whether a federal court has diversity jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1332(c)(1), is that place where:

a corporation’s officers direct, control, and coordinate the corporation’s activities. It is the place that Courts of Appeals have called the corporation’s “nerve center.” And in practice it should normally be the place where the corporation maintains its headquarters—provided that the headquarters is the actual center of direction, control, and coordination, i.e., the “nerve center,” and not simply an office where the corporation holds its board meetings (for example, attended by directors and officers who have traveled there for the occasion).

Determining the proper "principle place of business" for a trucking company is critical because it tells an experienced truck accident lawyer where the proper place to file a truck injury lawsuit.

Read the full opinion in Hertz v. Friend,  No. 08-1107  (USSC 2/23/10) here.

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I was speaking to my friend Leigh May in Atlanta, a great products liability lawyer who has handled a number of defective tire cases with major results, and she was kind enough to review my blog on old and defective tires. She made an excellent point that the spare tire is often overlooked when people change their tires. I have always looked at tire issues from the standpoint of a truck accident attorney and how the tire defect contributed to truck rollovers and loss of control by drivers. However, from my own experience, I can tell you I used to change out all my tires - except the spare - as routine practice! The fact is that by the time the spare is actually used, it is often way beyond its safe shelf life.

The lesson to be learned is that, for safety, when you change out your tires make sure you include the spare! The few extra dollars it costs you to replace a spare tire are worth it to prevent some of the horrible tragedies that Leigh and I have seen over the years.

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One of the most common errors in the depositions of truck drivers is failing to determine how they stopped their tractor trailer. Unlike a car, there is more than one way to brake a tractor trailer. Inexperienced lawyers fail to realize this and allow a tractor trailer driver to say "I braked the truck" prior to impact. Consider that a tractor trailer driver can brake his rig by:

1. Jake Brake (engine retarder)
2. Parking Brakes
3. Trailer Brakes
4. Tractor Brakes
5. Tractor and Trailer brakes
6. Emergency Brakes (disconnect)
7. Hitting a car

Depending on what brake, or brakes, that was used by the driver you will get different stopping distances, a critical factor in determining cause in any truck accident case.

The Truck Accident Lawyers at the Law Offices of Morgan Adams concentrate in protecting the rights of those who were seriously injured or lost a loved one in an accident with a commercial truck or bus. Our lawyers are based in Tennessee, but serve clients throughout the nation. If you or someone you love has been seriously hurt by a careless driver, don’t sign anything the trucking company gives you -- contact us as soon as possible at 800-580-4878 or by email to learn more at a free, confidential consultation.

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Some of the best trucking lawyers in the country recently got together in Atlanta and spent a week teaching other lawyers the tricks and traps of handling a truck, bus or other commercial motor vehicle case. I have not been posting for the last month as my time has been consumed by getting this program together. Robert Collins, from Texas, was the co-moderator and as much time as I put into this program, he put in more. All the TEACHERS were pleased with how much they learned, the students were ecstatic!

The AAJ Advanced Trucking Litigation College is exactly the type of program you want a lawyer handling your trucking case to attend. Hiring a competent lawyer to handle your case is the most critical thing you can do to get a good result in your case. The facts won't change, but gathering those facts, and making sure they are presented to a judge or jury, is critical. Not everyone knows which rocks to look under at a trucking company headquarters.

Before you hire a lawyer for any type of case make sure they are educated on the subject and not a "one size fits all" lawyer. If you have a good case you can hire the best lawyer, from in state or out of state, to handle it and it won't cost you any more money. If the lawyer you want to hire can't take your case he or she can frequently get you to someone in your area that focus' on the specific area involved in your case.

My firm has referral lawyers for trucking cases in every state. In addition to the cases I have handled in Tennessee and Georgia, I recently resolved a case in Nebraska and just finished consulting in trucking cases in California and New York city. If my firm can't get involved in a case (we don't take every case), we always try to get the case to a lawyer with trucking experience in the appropriate state.

The Truck Accident Lawyers at the Law Offices of Morgan Adams concentrate in protecting the rights of those who were seriously injured or lost a loved one in an accident with a commercial truck or bus. Our lawyers are based in Tennessee, but serve clients throughout the nation. If you or someone you love has been seriously hurt by a careless driver, don’t sign anything the trucking company gives you -- contact us as soon as possible at 800-580-4878 or by email to learn more at a free, confidential consultation.

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I just returned from the American Association for Justice's 2008 Trucking Litigation Seminar where, with hundred's of lawyers from around the country, we gathered together to talk about the complicated world of tractor trailer litigation. The program was designed to teach lawyers new to the area of trucking litigation how to handle cases and to give experienced lawyers new tips and insights to take their practices to a new level. It was a great seminar and I would like to thank all the staff at AAJ who made it possible as well as this year's chair of AAJ's Interstate Trucking Litigation Group Steven Gursten from Michigan. So what did we discuss?

I presented a program on the Direct Examination of the Accident Reconstructionist, a critical witness in a trucking case that can make sense of conflicting witness statements and the physical evidence left at a crash scene. Other speakers and their topics included:

1. Michael Leizerman - How to Discover Service Violations and What to do With Them
2. Edward Hershewe - Convincing Arguments fro Damages in Trucking Cases
3. Steven Friedman - Spoliation of Evidence
4. Stephen Gorney - Technology Update in Trucking Cases (GPS, Black Boxes, and On    Board Computer Operating Systems)
5. Emily Hawk Raley - Truck Driver Training and Standards
6. Sylvester James - Themes in Trucking Cases
7. Eddie Davidson - Jury Selection in a Trucking Case
8. James Sloan - Investigating the Crash and Accident Reconstruction
9. Kenneth Shigley - Understanding NHTSA
10. Robert Bailey - Crafting the Trial Story for Trucking Cases
11. Richard Holmes - Common Pitfalls in Handling Trucking Cases - The Defense Perspective

Specialized programs like this make a huge difference in a lawyer's ability to handle trucking cases. It puts the sharpest legal minds together in one room talking about one thing, how to handle those tragic cases where someone was injured or killed from a crash with a tractor trailer. The faculty did an outstanding job and are to be commended for all their hard work. I was honored to be asked to speak and  be a part of such a highly respected group.

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The federal government has listed the reasons that truck drivers are involved in collisions. According to the FMCSA 2007 report on the 2005 crash results, the top 10 causes of truck accidents, where the truck driver is a fault, are:

1. Failure to keep in proper lane
2. Driving too fast for Conditions
3. Fatigue
4. Failure to yield right of way
5. Overcorrecting
6. Erratic or reckless driving
7. Illegal Drug use (By experience this would also include prescription and over the counter drug use)
8. Illegal maneuver, improper turn
9. Failure to obey Traffic signs
10. Cell phones

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The American Trucking Association estimated in 2005 that by 2014 there would be a shortage of 111,000 drivers. This shortage of drivers frequently causes trucking companies to hire drivers that are unqualified rather than having to turn down lucrative trucking contracts.

It is critical in a trucking case to have the Driver's Qualification File reviewed by an experienced lawyer to see if the trucking company knowingly hired an unqualified driver.

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