Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

A serious truck accident happened in our St. Louis semi truck accident attorneys’ own backyard Feb. 1. According to an article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a truck ran off the road and overturned around 9:15 a.m. that day. No other vehicles were involved in the one-truck accident, but a fuel tank ruptured, causing an explosion visible that the East St. Louis Fire Department safely put out. Emergency workers spent an hour getting the truck’s driver, 35-year-old Ladon A. Trigg of St. Louis, out of his truck’s cab. He was hospitalized at St. Louis University Hospital, with injuries described as serious when emergency workers helped him away from the scene.

According to the Illinois State Police, Trigg was driving a Freightliner Truck Tractor laden with trash when he crashed his truck just east of where I-64 meets Interstates 55 and 70. They said he took the curve too fast, causing him to run off the side of the road, hit a guardrail and overturn. Illinois law enforcement may charge him with a traffic infraction or a crime. Although the injuries were not extensive, the crash shut down the eastbound side of the highway until about 3:30 and the eastbound I-64 ramp until at least 6 p.m. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency came to the scene to help Illinois officials dispose of the spilled diesel and hydraulic equipment. A witness told the newspaper that he saw a smoke ball to into the air and that the cab was caved in.

As a southern Illinois tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I’m glad that no more injuries were reported, and wish Trigg the best luck in his recovery. Given that the crash happened at 9:15 a.m., around the end of morning rush hour, it could easily have hurt random innocent southern Illinois commuters -- or even killed them. In fact, the fact that no other motorists were involved is also a bit of luck for Trigg and the trucking company that employs him. The article doesn’t give a final ruling on the cause of the crash, but it does say the Illinois state police believe Trigg crashed because he took the curve too fast. If this is the case, he, and possibly his employer, would have been legally responsible for any injuries or deaths that could have resulted.

Continue reading "Tractor Trailer Explosion Shuts Down Interstate 64 in Southern Illinois" »

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I was delighted to read that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has banned truck drivers from texting and driving. According to a Jan. 27 article in the Springfield News-Leader, the ban is effective immediately and applies to all commercial drivers. That means drivers of any size truck that requires a commercial license, as well as bus drivers. It’s the first federal ban on texting and driving that does not apply exclusively to federal employees, and part of LaHood’s focus on reducing distracted driving. The federal ban penalizes truck and bus drivers up to $2,750 per violation. Both houses of Congress are considering unrelated legislation that would make federal transportation funding conditional on passing state laws banning texting while driving for all drivers.

Distracted driving emerged as an issue in 2009 after research showed that truckers who text behind the wheel raise their crash risk by 23 times and take their eyes off the road for nearly five seconds at a time. At highway speeds, that’s enough time for a semi truck to travel more than the length of a football field. For at least one Missouri trucking company, the News-Leader reported, the ban won’t make a difference because it already prohibits its truckers from texting on the job. A spokesman for Prime Inc., a central Missouri trucking company, said the company strongly supported the ban as a safety measure for everyone on the road. However, KMOX in St. Louis reported Jan. 27 that it might be hard for state troopers to enforce the law, because it’s hard to see into truck cabins. A law enforcement spokesman in that article said citations were most likely to occur after an accident, when police can go through phone records and find proof that the ban was violated.

Unfortunately, this is probably true. Nevertheless, as a St. Louis 18-wheeler accident lawyer, I believe this ban will help keep drivers of all vehicles safe for a few different reasons. First and foremost, a legal ban on texting for commercial drivers ties those drivers’ jobs and livelihoods to compliance. If truckers are caught doing anything that violates federal safety rules, they can be penalized by the government, and that can lead to losing their jobs, their licenses or their careers. Furthermore, truck drivers who violate a federal rule are more likely to be found liable in any trucking accident lawsuit that grows out of an accident caused by texting while driving. When the federal government has already said that a behavior is unsafe, it’s much harder to argue in court that it is not. And for both reasons, employers are likely to make compliance an important in-house safety rule as well, reinforcing the importance of following the law.

Continue reading "Federal Department of Transportation Bans Texting While Driving by Truckers" »

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I was disappointed to see that Kansas City suffered a major multi-vehicle pileup on Interstate 35 last weekend. A three-year-old died and at least six other people were seriously injured in a crash involving 30 vehicles, the Kansas City Star reported Jan. 16. The crash took place at around 7:40 a.m. near Wellsville, Kansas, and stretched disabled vehicles for a mile down the highway. The vehicles involved included multiple semi trucks, including some that hit other semis as well as trucks that hit passenger cars. More than 17 people altogether went to at least four hospitals in the region.

At least some blamed the crash on thick fog that settled over the highway. Cathy Jankovich said visibility was almost nil past the headlights of the vehicle her son-in-law was driving, even though other drivers were passing him. The exact cause of the pileup wasn’t known, but authorities said the chain reaction began with an accident involving a tow truck. Of the thirty vehicles involved, nineteen were involved in the largest crash, including six tractor-trailers. Another crash involved six vehicles. Crash survivor Mike McRoberts told the newspaper that he and his brother raced to get out of their pickup truck after it hit two vehicles. That’s when they saw an out-of-control 18-wheeler approaching and ran for their lives. They dodged the truck, but it hit another semi “and just bent in half.”

As a St. Louis trucking accident lawyer, I wonder how much effect the weather had on this terrible accident. The newspaper’s description suggests that conditions may not have been safe for any driver -- but that may be particularly true for the truckers. Under federal law, commercial truck drivers have a special duty to use “extreme caution” in hazardous weather conditions, including heavy fog, snow or ice that limits visibility and traction. This is above and beyond the ordinary standard of care that applies to all drivers. Federal safety laws like these are made in part because large trucks can do severe damage to smaller vehicles in a crash, beyond what another car might do. Unfortunately, they’re also necessary because trucking companies and their drivers have a financial incentive to disregard safety and drive through bad weather.

Continue reading "Thirty-Vehicle Pileup Outside Kansas City Leads to Multiple Truck Crashes" »

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I was pleased to see a Jan. 13 blog post from FleetOwner.com addressing the dangers of texting while driving. The Trucks at Work blog made the case that truckers and the trucking industry generally should pay attention to this issue, in part because it’s a growing concern for safety advocates throughout the United States. The federal Department of Transportation and the private National Safety Council have made cell phone use behind the wheel a focus of their campaigns against distracted driving. In fact, the NSC this week launched a MADD-like organization advocating against texting while driving, named FocusDriven.

According to the blog, the NSC estimates that drivers using a cell phone in some way cause 28% of crashes. The majority are drivers talking on the phone, according to the NSC, but 200,000 of those crashes, or 3% of crashes overall, were caused by drivers involved in texting. Using other research, the blogger suggested that the true number of texting-involved crashes could be as high as 1 million. While the author didn’t seem to think truckers were likely to be guilty of texting-- despite some research to the contrary -- he suggested that truck drivers should care because people in smaller vehicles were likely to cause crashes. According to research from the Auto Club Foundation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, truckers did nothing unsafe in 73% of all crashes.

As a southern Illinois trucking accident attorney, I won’t argue with those numbers. Research consistently shows that drivers of heavy trucks crash less often than non-commercial drivers. However, when trucks do crash into passenger vehicles, they can cause deaths and devastating injuries, even if the same accident wouldn’t have been serious if the truck had been another car. Or, to put it another way, trucks’ much greater size and weight gives them the potential to kill and permanently disable the motorists around them, regardless of fault. That makes it essential for truck drivers to drive carefully and avoid anything that could impair their driving or judgment. And that means truckers have at least as much responsibility as other drivers, if not more, to avoid texting on the road.

Continue reading "Trucking Industry Blog Highlights Dangers of Texting on the Road" »

As a Missouri semi truck accident lawyer, I was pleased to see that federal regulators are considering tighter rules limiting truck drivers’ hours on the road. According to a Jan. 4 article from business publication Logistics Management, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced four public “listening sessions” to get input for new rules on truckers’ hours of service. Topics could include requirements for rest and on-duty time, use of sleeper berths and loading and unloading times. The agency emphasized that this its rules are intended to promote safety and prevent devastating accidents with commercial trucks.

The meetings are set as a result of the FMCSA’s settlement of a lengthy lawsuit brought by safety groups including the Truck Safety Coalition, the Teamsters and Public Citizen. The terms of the settlement require new rules to be submitted for review nine months after the settlement was reached, which will be in mid-summer. Trucking companies oppose new rules, arguing that the current rules, which were formed in 1935 and updated in 2000, are working fine. Currently, drivers of tractor-trailers may drive up to 11 hours at a time, after a 10-hour off-duty period. They also face a weekly limit of 60 hours of driving in seven days or 70 hours in eight days, after which they must take a “weekend” of at least 34 straight hours. The safety groups contend that the on-duty periods are too long and can leave drivers impaired.

As a southern Illinois tractor-trailer accident attorney, I’m glad these groups are considering our safety. Driving while fatigued is an issue for drivers of all kinds of vehicles. Past studies have suggested that a sleep-deprived driver may be just as dangerous as a drunk driver. This is too big a risk to take when it comes to large commercial trucks, which can have up to 100 times the weight of a Honda Civic. In a crash, that weight difference can translate to severe damage for the smaller vehicle, and grave injuries or death for the people inside. Statistically, commercial drivers are involved in far fewer accidents than drivers of passenger vehicles -- but one mistake by a commercial driver can have far graver consequences. For the sake of the people who share the highways and roads with truckers, revising the rules to conform with science makes sense.

Continue reading "Federal Regulators Hear Comments on Stricter Trucker Hours of Service Rules " »

An unusual article in the Alton Telegraph caught my eye as a southern Illinois trucking accident attorney. According to the Dec. 18 article, a witness to a fatal crash between a car and a tractor-trailer called the newspaper to dispute the official law enforcement account, which put the blame on the driver of the car. Joshua Headrick, 19, was killed Dec. 17 when he proceeded straight through an intersection and into a semi truck turning left into a quarry. The resulting crash caused an explosion that killed Headrick. The truck jackknifed, but its unidentified driver was not injured.

Walters is a member of the Madison County Board, executive director of the Southern Illinois Industrial Association and a former insurance claims adjuster. He said he was waiting to make a left turn when Headrick drove by in his side of the road, then hit the left-turning truck. Both men had green lights, said Walters, but he was waiting to make sure traffic was clear before turning. Walters said Headrick was driving five to ten mph above the speed limit, but that this was not unusual for the area. And two other trucks in line to turn didn’t move, Walters said, suggesting that they didn’t have a green arrow. Under those circumstances, he told the Telegraph, “It was completely the truck’s fault[.]” However, the Alton Police Department initially assigned the blame to Headrick based on other witness accounts. The police department declined to comment.

As a St. Louis big rig accident lawyer, I think this is powerful evidence that things are more complicated than they may initially have seemed to the police. I would be interested to know who the other witnesses are who implicated Headrick for the crash, and what their angles of vision might have been. The issue of who was at fault for the accident is important, because if police decide the truck driver was at fault after all, there will be important financial consequences for both parties. Not only could the truck driver face professional consequences, but Headrick’s family could have a strong claim in any lawsuit they choose to pursue. Depending on the circumstances, the truck driver, his or her trucking company and even the quarry could all be held legally and financially responsible for this terrible crash.

Continue reading "Witness to Fatal Semi Accident Disputes Official Account That Blames Car's Driver" »

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote here about a potentially quite serious accident in Kansas City, involving a tanker truck that overturned and spilled hydrochloric acid all over a bridge. As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I was surprised to see that another truck has overturned in the same spot -- the Paseo Bridge over the Missouri River. According to a Dec. 14 article from the Kansas City Star, the truck was carrying soybean meal that spilled across the highway, causing the road to be closed between 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 14 and 1:30 a.m. the next morning. No injuries were reported, but the driver of the truck was cited for driving too fast. Initial reports that the semi was leaking gasoline were not substantiated.

Television station KCTV followed up Dec. 15 with a report looking for reasons for the two crashes. Missouri Department of Transportation officials blamed excessive speed for both crashes. They reiterated that warning in an interview with the station, saying the bridge is easy to navigate if drivers stick to posted speed limits. However, the bridge is also currently under construction, which means drivers also have to contend with workers, equipment, detours and lane closures. Drivers interviewed for the piece said the construction was sometimes confusing; one driver added that the downhill slope at the end of the bridge didn’t seem safe. Some said they prefer to avoid the bridge altogether, which means detouring to bridges to the north and south, some far out of the way and none attached to an interstate highway.

As a St. Louis big rig accident lawyer, I suspect that both MoDOT and the drivers are right. Speeding isn’t a factor in truck accidents as often as it is in accidents involving passenger cars. But when truckers do speed, they can do far more damage, simply because their vehicles weigh up to 100 times more than the average import economy car. That weight matters not only in a collision, but also in a curve, because it makes it easier for trucks to turn over like these two did. And because there is construction on the bridge right now, drivers must slow down even more than usual. They must also be extra careful about their route and lanes, which may have changed because of the construction, and keep an eye out for people and equipment. Drivers who use the bridge regularly, and professional truck drivers, may be lulled into a false sense of a security by their experience -- but failure to take extra care under these conditions can easily cause a crash.

Continue reading "Second Semi in Three Weeks Overturns on KC Bridge, Prompting Speed Concerns" »

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident attorney, I noted with interest a recent article about financial penalties for the state in a fatal trucking crash. According to a Nov. 24 article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a three-person arbitration panel ruled that the Missouri Department of Transportation should have warned motorists about the traffic pileup that led to the death of 28-year-old Jemma Dant of St. Louis. Dant was stopped on Interstate 44 for traffic when she was rear-ended by a semi truck, pushing her vehicle into another stopped vehicle. Traffic was backed up from the Vandeventer exit on I-44, past the designated exit lane and into the right lane.

Dant’s family argued that MoDOT should have done more to warn drivers about the backup problem. In fact, the exit in question has been re-striped since the 2005 accident, their attorney said, and warning signs have been added. Cases against MoDOT may be heard by an out-of-court arbitration panel instead of a state court. A panel in this case ruled in mid-November that Dant’s father, sister, brother, nieces and nephews should receive $1.3 million in compensation. But because Dant’s family had already received $950,000 in a claim against the trucker and trucking company, the state may subtract that amount from the judgment, leaving a payment of only $350,000. This is just under the maximum of $378,814 that state agencies may be compelled to pay, a cap set by sovereign immunity laws.

As a Missouri semi truck accident lawyer, I am pleased that Dant’s family received fair compensation despite those laws. Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine dating back to Britain, which says that governments are immune from lawsuits. Incredibly, this doctrine allows states to decide whether they and their employees are liable at all for wrongdoing, even clear and undisputed wrongdoing. As a rule, Missouri and Illinois citizens may sue their states for negligence, but they have special rules to follow -- such as the damages cap -- and often must overcome special obstacles like shorter deadlines and administrative petitions. Failure to follow these rules can disqualify a claim entirely, no matter how strong it might be. That’s why it’s important for people with a claim against a government agency to speak with an experienced attorney as early as possible in the process.

Continue reading "Arbitration Board Rules MoDOT Must Pay Family of Woman Who Died in Semi Crash" »

Our Missouri tractor-trailer accident lawyers noted a particularly dangerous accident that happened in Kansas City just after the Thanksgiving long weekend. The Kansas City Star reported Nov. 30 that a tanker truck crashed on Interstate 35 at 7 a.m. that day, causing a rollover and a spill of its contents -- hydrochloric acid. The newspaper said the crash spilled up to 400 gallons of acid across the highway’s Paseo Bridge construction site, causing a toxic hazard that closed the road in both directions and put a nearby business on lockdown. At least 11 people reportedly went to the hospital, although no serious injuries were reported.

According to the Star, police said the driver of the truck was probably going too fast for the stretch of highway, which is part of a construction zone. The truck hit a concrete barrier and overturned, spilling acid from its tank. Hydrochloric acid has many uses in industrial processing, but corrodes human tissue and can produce toxic gas when mixed with common substances like bleach. To control this danger, the city threw down sand and dirt to stop the spreading puddle, following up with a special truck to siphon it away. It also had to call in a special road crew to repair holes the acid had eaten into the highway. The nearly Isle of Capri casino closed down its climate-control system and went on lockdown to minimize the risk of injury to staff and customers. Nonetheless, eleven people went to hospitals complaining of eye, nose and throat irritation, including the truck’s driver, two police officers and a construction worker.

As a St. Louis tanker truck accident attorney, I’m grateful that the damage was not worse. The federal government considers hydrochloric acid a toxic substance. Direct contact with human skin causes chemical burns that can lead to permanent damage if the exposure is strong enough. Contact with the fumes is even more dangerous, leading to death, circulation problems or permanent organ damage in high concentrations; or burning eyes, nose and throat in lesser concentrations. If the spill had gone differently, or the city had not been able to respond so quickly, everyone in the area would have been at risk for these serious injuries. And because law enforcement suspects that speed was the cause of the crash, the trucker -- and probably his trucking company -- would have been held responsible for those injuries.

Continue reading "Kansas City Police Blame Speed for Trucking Accident That Spilled Acid on Highway" »

As a St. Louis tanker truck accident lawyer, I was disappointed to read about a recent federal ruling that takes away local municipalities’ ability to control how trucks use their roads. According to a Nov. 16 article from the Boston Globe, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the City of Boston was not legally entitled to order trucks carrying hazardous materials to use a route well outside of the city during daytime. That prompted a lawsuit from the American Trucking Associations, which led the Massachusetts Highway Department to ask the federal agency for clarification. In its ruling, the NTSB said only it can approve hazardous materials routes, in cooperation with state agencies.

The new trucking rules arose from Boston’s Big Dig project. Trucks couldn’t use the project’s tunnels, so they ended up using major thoroughfares within the city itself. This prompted safety worries, especially after a fuel tanker overturned in a traffic circle in 2007, spilling flaming gasoline down the street. To address those concerns, the city revoked all permits allowing trucks carrying hazardous materials to use city roads during the daytime, except to make local deliveries. Semi trucks were still allowed to drive city roads at night, the Globe said, but were limited to specified interstate and local routes during the day. For trucks carrying fuel from a north Boston fuel depot to the South Coast, this route meant a 40-mile detour that cost extra time and fuel. The city argued that highways are better suited for pass-through traffic, but critics said it was merely exporting the risk to the suburbs.

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I am disappointed by this decision. Cities may still develop rules on transporting hazardous materials through their streets, but this decision means they have to go through a state agency like MODoT, and ultimately submit their plans to the NTSB for approval. This puts extra layers of bureaucracy in the way of safety. Naturally, local governments that deal with transportation and infrastructure issues every day are better positioned to make these decisions than federal regulators. I also believe convenience to truck drivers -- the reason for the route through Boston -- should not trump safety concerns. In a high-density urban area with narrow streets, the potential for serious damage in any trucking accident is very high. That’s especially true when the truck is carrying a hazardous material like asphalt, gasoline or fuels, which can cause an explosion or a major fire in the blink of an eye.

Continue reading "Federal Safety Board Says Cities May Not Make Rules About Hazmat Trucking Routes" »

As a Missouri trucking accident attorney, I was disappointed to read about an accident last week that took the lives of two members of Missouri’s Amish community. The St. Joseph News-Press reported Nov. 12 that three people died and four others were injured in a crash caused by a grain truck that lost a wheel outside of the northwestern Missouri town of Jamesport. The grain truck’s driver, David Leeper, 51, managed to steer the truck to the edge of the road, but a minivan following it hit the wheel lying in the road. The minivan skidded, rolled over and hit the grain truck.

The accident killed driver Maria Hostetler, 40; passenger Chester Gingerich, 48; and his son Perry Gingerich, 16. The elder Gingerich’s wife, Wilma Gingerirch, 46, was hospitalized in critical condition in Kansas City. Also hospitalized were their son, Steven Gingerich, 20, and son-in-law, Calvin Beechy, 25, as well as Leeper. Everyone involved but Leeper and Hostetler was part of the Amish community in Jamesport. The article does not mention a police report or investigation, but neighbor Bryan Carmenati speculated for the newspaper about whether the grain truck was roadworthy. Noting that the truck was 40 years old, he suggested that the crash could have been avoided if it had been retired or better maintained.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I suspect that he’s right. Long-haul commercial trucks tend to be newer models because they get a lot of use. Grain trucks used for short hauls may spend more time parked, but four decades is old even for a passenger vehicle. To continue safely driving such a vehicle, owners must give it thorough routine maintenance and check for problems. Failure to do so can have catastrophic consequences like the ones described in the article. Just like long-haul trucks, farm trucks are much larger and heavier than ordinary passenger vehicles, which means they bring many times the force to any crash between the two vehicle types. And that means that even a slow-speed crash, grain trucks and other short-distance trucks have the power to kill or catastrophically injure people in the smaller vehicles.

Continue reading "Defect on Grain Truck Kills Three and Sends Four to Hospital Near St. Joseph" »

As a St. Louis semi truck accident attorney, I was disappointed to see that a young man died over this past weekend in a crash with a large truck. According to a Nov. 10 article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Suburban Journals, 20-year-old Kyle Lauders of O’Fallon died around 3:40 a.m. Saturday, after he crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer. Authorities suspect Lauders was drinking before he drove east in the westbound lanes of Highway 40. His vehicle hit the driver’s side of the truck before scraping down the side of the truck, puncturing the gas tank and causing an explosion. The truck’s driver, 48-year-old Danny Lanier of Kansas City, Kan., was not injured. However, the tractor unit and one of the trailers were demolished in the fire.

From the description provided in the article, it seems likely that this crash was not the fault of the truck’s driver, and I’m glad that he escaped injury. My sympathies go out to Lauders’ family and friends. But as a Missouri big rig accident lawyer, I am interested in whether equipment problems may have contributed to the ensuing fire. Large commercial trucks log thousands of miles on the road every year, and accidents are so common that trucking companies build them into their cost of doing business. That means trucks’ gas tanks should be well-reinforced in order to avoid an explosion like this one. If the truck’s manufacturer failed to sufficiently reinforce the tank, or its maintainers failed to ensure that those reinforcements were still working, they could be liable for any injuries or deaths that could have resulted.

Human error and bad decisions cause traffic accidents far more often than problems with defective or poorly maintained equipment. But truck defect accidents do happen. One federal study found that malfunctioning or failing brakes were blamed for 25 to 60 percent of all crashes, by crash investigators and safety inspectors. Other studies and real-life accidents have exposed problems with improperly inflated tires, missing or defective lights and other serious safety defects. Despite safety regulations requiring regular maintenance, some trucking companies still cut corners on maintenance in order to save money, gambling that nothing bad will happen. When they lose that bet, their own drivers and all of the drivers and passengers around them are exposed to an unreasonable, unnecessary risk of death and catastrophic injury.

Continue reading "Trucking Accident Causes Explosion on Highway 40 and Death of Young Man" »