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

Andrew Wolfson wrote an excellent article for the Louisville, Kentucky Currier-Journal on the dangerous trucking company that was responsible for putting truck on the road that killed eleven people in Kentucky. The company, identified as Hester, Inc. DOT number 1222388,  had horrible safety scores, putting it in the bottom percentages of all trucking companies its size in America. In short, from a safety standpoint, the company put the lives of its drivers and members of the public at risk on a daily basis.

Previously I blogged on possible causes for this collision, now the NTSB is investigating and we will see which of my possible explanations is right. Mr Wolfson made a good choice in speaking to qualified experts and a fine trucking attorney, who I am happy to call a friend, Tim Lange.

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Landra Reid, 69, underwent surgery Friday at a Virginia hospital to stabilize injuries from a broken neck she suffered in the traffic accident. Virginia State Police say Landra and her 49-year-old daughter were traveling northbound on I-95 near Washington Thursday when their minivan was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer loaded with rolls of plastic. The Reid's minivan was pushed into the cars in front of them, resulting in a multiple car pile up and multiple injuries.

The truck driver has since been charged with reckless driving.

What happened? Typically rear end collisions like this occur for the following, preventable, reasons:

1. Driver Fatigue - The fatigue can be caused by violating the hours of service regulations or by obstructive sleep apnea. Both of these issues I have blogged on extensively before. They are chronic issues in the trucking industry. Currently the industry is trying to keep the regulations allowing them to drive longer hours and thus earn more money.
2. Driver Distraction - cell phones, texting, unauthorized passengers in the cab are all frequent causes of driver distraction. Texting while driving has been determined in studies to be as bad as drunk driving, which is why almost 20 States have banned it and FMCSA recently passed a regulation forbidding truck drivers from texting.
3. Poor Training - Drivers frequently receive poor training and are not given additional testing by the company that would identify weak drivers. Often the only test required of a driver is to determine his ability to wave a CDL license at an employer.
4. Maintenance - It is always possible that bald tires and bad brakes contributed to the wreck. The driver may not have been able to stop in time. Admittedly tires and brakes on a tractor trailer are a moderate expense, but I have seen drivers and companies push pass the safe limits in order to save a dollar. Since the driver is required to inspect the truck and trailer before driving, and every so often after that, his failure to properly inspect (either poor training or a deliberate choice) the tires and brakes could have been a factor.
5. Oversized Load - A tractor trailer that is oversized has a much harder time stopping as the brakes are designed for lighter loads. Drivers, who are inexperienced at driving an oversized load, don't allow sufficient space to stop the tractor trailer.
6. Cargo Securement - There are specific regulations requiring loads to be secured so they don't shift during transportation. If the company failed to supply the driver with appropriate gear to secure the load, or the driver chose not to use it to save time, then the load might have shifted causing the drivers foot to slip off the brake. Liability for a load shift can move from the trucking company to the shipping company depending on several factors.

One thing seems clear, there is likely not enough insurance to deal with all the people hurt in the wreck if the trucking company purchased the minimum insurance limits of $750,000. Given the serious, life threatening, injuries of Landra Reid, and the massive life changes she will endure recovering from and dealing with the consequences of this collision, the $750,000 minimum limits are not enough to cover her claims, much less that of her her daughters. Then we have the other injured victims in the cars that were hit subsequently as Mrs. Reid's minivan was slammed into the cars in front of her by the force of the impact by the tractor trailer. In cases with smaller truck companies (More About Pam Transportation Below), all of these victims would have to divide the single policy, frequently limiting them to recovering less than their medical bills.

The trucking company involved in this case appears (The company was identified by a local news report and photograph) to bePAM TRANSPORT INC (DOT number 179752 and MC number MC-150496) with 1769 trucks, 2,168 drivers who travel over 200 million miles a year on the roads and highways of America. Pam Transportation is a middle of the road company in regards to safety, with approximately 52% of the trucking companies in America having better driver safety histories on average. The FMCSA has not performed a safety audit (Compliance Review) since 2007 of Pam Transportation so really there is no way of telling about the company's actual safety record. Less than 2% of trucking companies a year have compliance audits. The new CSA 2010 regulations will help identify safety problems with a trucking company, but clearly to late for these victims.

Our firm handles cases like this every year. We have posted many blogs on the above topics. It is a tragedy every time this happens, no matter when it happens or who is involved. One can only hope that the silver lining will be the enactment of some of the reasonable safety reforms I, and groups like Parents Against Tired Truckers, Crash, and the Truck Safety Coalition,  have been advocating for to make the roads safer.

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A recent case will have significant impact on truck accident attorneys and lawyers litigating insurance coverage in trucking cases. In Carolina Casualty v. Yeates, 584 F.3d 868 (10th Cir. 2009) (en banc), the court held that the MCS-90 Endorsement applies as surety coverage when the underlying insurance policy to which it is attached provides no coverage for the loss and the motor carrier’s insurance coverage is not sufficient, IN AGGREGATE, to satisfy the federally prescribed minimum levels of financial responsibility.

As a result of Yeates, Defendant trucking companies and insurers will argue that an insurer’s MCS-90 coverage does not come into play when a plaintiff has already received a payment, from all sources, equal to the minimum statutory insurance coverage amount. See Also: Casper v. American Intl S. Ins. Co., 2009 WL 4984797 (Wis. App.)

 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 866-580-4878 or by email to learn more at a free, confidential consultation.

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I have a client that was hit by a Swift Transportation Truck in mid-May 2009. Some weeks later, after my client left the hospital, I was hired. I sent a spoliation letter to Swift on June 5, 2009 by fax, mail, and certified mail alerting them to the fact my client was injured and they needed to keep documents that might help figure out who was responsible for the wreck. A spoliation letter is a letter that asks a company to preserve evidence that would show why the wreck happened. Often the major cause of a wreck is not the driver, but the trucking company. The trucking company is typically found at fault for failing to train its drivers, refusing to fire dangerous drivers or hiring them in the first place, failing to properly maintain trucks and not giving drivers the tools they need to drive safely, and for not supervising the drivers while they are on the road. Click her to see a sample spoliation letter.

Swift responded to this letter by stating they refused to save all the documents requested but only to "preserve information [Swift] believe is relevant..." If that isn't putting the fox in charge of the hen house I don't know what is! They went on to say "we will not preserve each and every item enumerated on your list. ...If you believe this response to your request is inadequate, you may wish to file a lawsuit..." They say they will only preserve documents "as required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration..." which allows documents, relevant to determining fault in a wreck, to be destroyed in 30 days. (Specifically, post trip inspection documents are only required to be saved for 30 days according to  FMCSR 396.11(c)(2). ) Electronic material is frequently only kept for days and can be critical in a case. Many of the most important liability documents are destroyed in 6 months while a minority of documents are required to be kept for 3 years.

The ironic thing is that Swift will have insurance adjusters actively discouraging surviving family members from hiring a lawyer, even though the company itself is destroying documents which are critical to proving Swift was responsible for the wreck. Families typically are told to "wait and see what we offer before hiring a lawyer," even though the proof a lawyer needs to prove your case is actively disappearing." This is the worst sort of corporate abuse.

PLEASE DON'T THINK SWIFT, OR ITS INSURANCE AGENTS, IS ON YOUR SIDE. For more on problems caused by insurance adjusters see my prior post  "Insurance Companies Trick Victims in Trucking Cases"

The Law Offices of Morgan Adams concentrates in protecting the rights of those who were seriously injured or lost a loved one in a serious accident with a commercial truck. 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 truck 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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Evidence in a trucking case vanishes quickly. There are several computers on-board a tractor trailer these days and all have critical information which helps determine the extent of liability and what happened in a truck wreck.  One of the computers is called an event data recorder (EDR). This computer records the speed, time of braking, time of impact from time of braking, and much more information can be wiped clean by a trucking company in a few hours. (Some companies don't even have them turned on, fearing an impartial scientific witness to key facts in a collision). On-board computer records of the trucks location, and emails to and from the company, are often held for only 14 days. Many of the paper records a trucking company is required to keep by federal regulations, to show how long a driver was on the road and if he was speeding, is held only for six months. This despite the fact that most states allow a lawsuit to be filed one to three years after the date of the collision. What do you do?

You must send a spoliation letter. Spoliation is the destruction of evidence. A spoliation letter informs the trucking company of the documents and things it must keep and preserve prior to litigation being filed. It is CRITICAL that this letter be sent as soon as possible whenever a tractor trailer is involved in a collision. Once the letter is sent, failure to save the evidence can result in an inference that the trucking company had something to hide, sanctions, or even in some states a direct cause of action against the trucking company for the destruction of evidence.

It is our practice to send our spoliation letters by fax, regular mail, certified mail, and FedEx  to the president of the company, the safety director, and/or the risk manager.

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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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