One of the areas lawyers, who don’t handle a lot of truck wreck cases, have problems with in a trucking case are those cases that involve fire and explosion. Now don’t flood me with emails, the lawyers can certainly say "my client burned to death." What I am talking about is the failure to consider a product liability claim against the manufacturer of the tractor. 

First consider that gas tanks in a car have been placed within the frame of the car for decades. Why? Because failure to do so causes fire and explosions in a wreck. Where are fuel tanks located on a truck? Outside of the frame, sitting there like a napalm bombs on a fighter jet. Manufacturers have know for years that this is dangerous situation and have refused to make changes. In fact they lobby congress to make sure rules that apply to make cars safer don’t apply them.

These cases need to be brought to convince manufacturers to make safer tractors. Until they start making safer tractors drivers, whether car or truck, will unnecessarily be at risk. These cases should be considered even in single vehicle rollovers.

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.