Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

Around 5 a.m. on June 6, a trucking accident occurred on Highway 32 in Ocilla, Georgia involving a semi and an ambulance. The patient and two medics in the ambulance were killed. The ambulance was eastbound, moving with its siren and lights on to alert drivers to clear the way for the vehicle. A westbound semi jack-knifed and crossed the center line, blocking the path of the ambulance, which struck the left side of the truck.

According to the Georgia State Patrol, Teresa Ann Davis, 44, and Randall Whiddon, 56, were the two medics killed in the accident. Charles Arvin Smith, 65, was the patient killed in the accident. The condition of the semi-truck driver, Rockwell Lott, is unknown.

Whiddon’s son stated that Randall Whiddon had served as the Turner County fire chief and EMS director until he retired in April 2012. Since then, the 35-year veteran had been working part time in Irwin and Coffee counties as an EMT. Theresa Ann Davis had worked at Coffee Regional Medical Center as an EMT for over a decade, according to George Heck, the hospital’s CEO.

According to police, the truck jack-knifed when another car traveling westbound ahead of the truck began to pull to the side of the road to make way for the ambulance. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the accident is being investigated by the Georgia State Patrol’s Specialized Crash Reconstruction Team. Witness statements and other evidence have been collected in order to determine if any citations will be issued or charges will be filed for the crash.

It is critical for highway safety that drivers yield to emergency vehicles when their lights and sirens are activated. There were 250 accidents involving ambulances in 2010, the majority of which were intersection accidents resulting from vehicles that failed to stop. Drivers should always be alert and aware of their surroundings so that they can identify an emergency vehicle’s lights and sirens within enough time to safely stop.

Insurance coverage is very important to my job as a Missouri tractor-trailer accident lawyer. Unfortunately, the injuries from an accident between an ordinary vehicle and a commercial truck tend to be very serious, and that usually means expensive to treat—or to compensate adequately, if the victim has died. Trucking companies are required to carry liability insurance to cover this kind of payout, just like ordinary drivers are—and most of the time, that’s where accident victims’ payments come from. So I was interested to see an article saying a trucking industry group has a new report calling for larger minimum insurance coverage requirements for trucking companies.

The report comes from the Trucking Alliance, a group of seven trucking companies that lobby for more safety legislation. According to Heavy Duty Trucking magazine, the group looked at actual dollar settlement amounts in trucking accident lawsuits or insurance claims. Though high settlements were relatively rare, they represented a serious risk for trucking companies that carry only the federally required minimum policy, which covers payments up to $750,000. The report, calculated by an actuarial firm, showed that a company carrying the federal minimum insurance would risk being uninsured for 42 percent of the claim. At the top end of the firm’s calculations, a trucking company carrying $4 million in insurance would risk being uninsured for only 17.7 percent of a claim.

Other trucking industry groups criticized the study, noting that the actuaries called it an informal analysis and that the minimum insurance coverage is more than adequate in most cases. But the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is also studying the issue of whether to increase minimum insurance requirements, at the request of a Congress that recently considered raising the minimum to $1 million. The last time insurance minimums were raised was 1986, the story said; an FMCSA official who spoke anonymously said Congress intended to study the issue more often. The FMCSA study is expected to echo the Trucking Alliance study’s finding that the number of high-cost settlements is increasing, even though overall accident rates are going down. The Alliance notes that inflation alone will increase the potential exposure from uninsured high-dollar settlements.

As a St. Louis trucking accident attorney, I hope the FMCSA and Congress raise the minimum insurance requirement. Trucking companies don’t like anything that increases their operating costs, of course, but it’s in everyone’s best interests if they carry adequate insurance. Without it, a trucking accident victim who wins a legal claim against the underinsured carrier won’t be able to collect the full amount, and he or she could attempt to collect from the company itself. This could easily drive the company into bankruptcy, an outcome the company surely does not want. Just like it’s bad for society when ordinary drivers don’t carry insurance—because the cost of their bad behavior is pushed onto the people they injure—it’s bad for commercial drivers to carry inadequate insurance. But as a southern Illinois big rig accident lawyer, I know firsthand that trucking accident injuries can be much more serious.

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Residents of Truxton, New York and Emergency Responders are reeling after a horrific trucking accident that occurred on May 29. A Newton Salvage truck hauling a trailer loaded with around 20 crushed cars was traveling south on a rural two-lane road when the trailer broke free and collided with a minivan traveling north. Seven people were killed including four children between the ages of 4 and 7.

According to reports, the trailer came unhitched from the truck, crossed a two-lane rural road and struck a minivan carrying two families, despite the driver’s attempt to avoid the trailer. First Assistant Chief of the Truxton Fire Department, Ken Stone, stated: “They tried to miss it, but he ran out of time. All of a sudden, a trailer is coming at you and there’s no truck on it.”

Teresa Bush, 26, her daughters Alexis (4) and Jasmine (5), Lena Beckwith, 21, Carino Vanorden, 24, Tyler Mead, 4, and Alyssa Mead, 7, were all killed. The sole survivor of the van and father of Tyler and Alyssa Mead, Shawn Mead, was transported to a Syracuse hospital where he was reported to be in good condition. The truck’s driver, Ryan Dorward, and his passenger, Duane Newton, were not injured.

According to the Department of Transportation, a roadside inspection of a Newton Salvage truck was conducted in March by troopers. Several minor violations were found including a lack of reflective tape, no fire extinguisher, and the truck was 4 percent overweight. None of the violations required the truck to be taken out of service.

No official cause has been given for why the trailer disconnected from the truck, but authorities say that the hail and storms in the area are not believed to have been a contributing factor. Two of the victims were reported to be under the trailer after the van was ripped apart by the collision and responders had to jack up the trailer to get them out. Ken Stone stated that it was likely that all seven of the victims died on impact.

The accident is still under investigation and Sherriff’s Captain Mark Helms stated that everything will be looked at by authorities, including driver actions and mechanical failure. Any trucking accident that results in a loss of life is a tragedy, but this incident was particularly horrifying, with one Truxton resident stating, “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

As a Missouri semi truck accident lawyer, I was interested to see a lawsuit arising out of a relatively rare accident involving two large commercial trucks. In Bradshaw v. FFE Transportation Services, David Booker, while working for FFE, crashed his tractor-trailer into a tractor-trailer driven by James Bradshaw. Bradshaw’s lawsuit claimed he was permanently impaired by the resulting damage to his neck and shoulder, and a jury awarded him $1 million in damages twice—the second time after the judge agreed to a retrial. FFE and Booker argued that the district court made a variety of potentially dispositive decisions wrongly, but the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment.

In January of 2006, Booker’s truck crashed into Bradshaw’s truck outside Hope, Ark. Details of the accident were not provided, but Bradshaw’s doctors later testified that he suffered permanent neck and shoulder injuries, particularly instability at the C-5 vertebrae. FFE and Booker admitted liability before trial, leaving only the issue of damages to be tried. Before trial, FFE and Booker opposed all of Bradshaw’s witnesses, but not to his primary treating doctor and chiropractor. They ultimately stipulated to the use of the chiropractor’s testimony via video deposition. The jury awarded $1 million to Bradshaw. However, the court ultimately agreed with FFE and Booker that a new trial should be held 11 months later. The defendants disclosed new witnesses one month before retrial, and the district court sustained Bradshaw’s objection. It also denied the defense’s objection to the same video deposition testimony, and permitted Bradshaw’s doctor to use new illustrations in his testimony. The jury again awarded $1 million to Bradshaw.

The defendants made several arguments on appeal, none of which swayed the Eighth Circuit. They first argued that Bradshaw didn’t properly disclose the content of his experts’ testimony during the first trial, and thus should not have been permitted to use them in the second trial. The district court ruled that they waived their objections by failing to make them in time, and the Eighth agreed. Nor did the district court abuse its discretion by not admitting the defendants’ new experts, the Eighth said; the court simply closed discovery altogether. The defendants also argued that the illustrations used in expert testimony at the second trial should not have been permitted, but the Eighth Circuit found that they were within the trial court’s discretion; they were accurate and the jury was properly instructed on them. Nor is it a problem that they were not timely disclosed, the court said; there was no need to disclose them, and anyway the issue was not raised at trial. Thus, the Eighth Circuit upheld the trial court.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident attorney, I think this kind of case illustrates how far a trucking company will go to avoid having a legal judgment entered against it. Two courts found the issues raised in this appeal to be without merit, but FFE and Booker pressed on with their appeals, spending more time as well as money on attorney fees. Losing a lawsuit costs money to a trucking company, of course, and likely drives up its insurance rates. It also could make the trucking company look unsafe to journalists, other trucking accident plaintiffs and federal regulators—which ultimately costs money or even threatens the company’s existence. Victims usually can’t match all of the money and legal resources they pour into these appeals, which is why it’s vital for victims to have an experienced southern Illinois big rig accident lawyer by their side.

Continue reading "Eighth Circuit Upholds Decisions in Semi-on-Semi Accident That Injured Trucker – Bradshaw v. FFE Transportation Services" »

On Thursday, May 23, at around 7:00 p.m., cars and people fell into the Skagit River when the Interstate 5 Bridge in Washington State collapsed. The ongoing investigation into what caused the collapse may indicate that it was the result of a trucking accident.

When the bridge fell into the river, a travel trailer and two vehicles fell into the river and the occupants had to be pulled from the water by rescue teams. Fortunately, no one was killed, but three individuals sustained injuries and were taken to hospitals. Dan and Sally Sligh were treated at Skagit Valley Hospital for a separated shoulder, cuts and bruises. The couple was hauling a travel trailer on their way to their camping destination. The man in the other vehicle was taken to United General Hospital and his condition was reported as stable.

Reportedly, the trucker, who was hauling an oversized load, bumped the bridge’s steel framework just before the collapse. He was interviewed by National Transportation Safety Board investigators on May 25. Chief of the Washington State Patrol, John Batiste, stated that the semi was in the right lane of the bridge when they believe it struck a girder. The driver remained on the scene and has, according to authorities, been cooperative.

Every day, over 77,000 vehicles crossed the Skagit River Bridge, making the bridge collapse a major inconvenience for commuters and travelers. The bridge was built in 1955 and was listed as “functionally obsolete,” which indicates the design was outdated but not structurally deficient. Federal records indicate the bridge’s sufficiency rating was 57.4/100 which is below the statewide average but better than 759 of the state’s other bridges. Though lawmakers have been focusing on some bridges in the state, the Skagit River Interstate 5 Bridge was not one of them.

Washington Governor, Jay Inslee, announced plans for a possible temporary replacement in June, followed by a permanent fix by the end of September. Reportedly, the estimated total cost of fixing the bridge is $15 million. The temporary replacement would be narrower and would not allow oversized loads.

According to Debbie Hersman, the National Transportation Safety Board Chairman, this particular bridge has a “history” of being struck by semis with oversized loads, with the most recent incident prior to the bridge collapse occurring in October, 2012. Furthermore, according to Hersman, “If this vehicle had been traveling in the left lane, we likely would not have seen the bridge strikes that we saw, but we need to take measurements all the way through.”

Pilot cars play a crucial role in maintaining highway safety and preventing trucking accidents when semis are hauling oversize loads. This truck had a pilot car that carried a measuring device that should have alerted the truck if it was approaching a space that couldn’t accommodate the oversized load. Some witnesses have claimed they saw the measuring pole of the pilot car hit the bridge but investigators are yet to make a judgment.

Following a tragic trucking accident, driver Lei Sun has been charged with two counts of first degree involuntary manslaughter. In March, Sun crashed into three vehicles that were stopped at a traffic light. Two cars were smashed between two semis and the drivers of the two smaller vehicles, Corey Gresham and Lawrence “Mike” Coan, were killed. The accident occurred near Republic, MO, on U.S. 60.

A Missouri Highway Patrol investigator revealed during the hearing that Sun’s truck, which was owned by Daniel Orchard Transportation, had issues with both its tires and brakes. Trooper E.J. Walker stated that Sun was issued citations for those problems after the crash.

A wrongful-death lawsuit has been filed against Sun and Daniel Orchard Transportation by Gresham’s family. The Coans attended the criminal hearing. For the charge of involuntary manslaughter in the first degree, attorneys must prove the defendant acted with “reckless disregard." Allegations against Sun state that he violated the law for the number of hours driven, failed to apply the truck’s brakes, and was driving in excess of the posted speed limit.

According to the testimony of two Missouri Highway Patrol investigators, Sun was driving between 50 and 59 mph in a 40 mph zone. The analysis of the truck’s on-board computer showed that Sun did not apply the brakes prior to the impact. In addition, Sun’s logbook, fuel receipts, and toll booth receipts indicate that the logbook was falsified by Sun and in just seven consecutive days, he had driven over 70 hours.

Another investigator stated that Sun said he believed the first semi was going to go through the intersection, despite the fact that it had just turned red. He didn’t, however, mention the two cars which were behind that trailer and in front of him. The defendant’s attorney argued that the crash was not the result of “reckless disregard” but was simply an accident.

Trucking regulations are designed to help prevent accidents such as these but cannot do so if truckers disregard laws and regulations and falsify log books. In light of the testimony, the Judge ruled that the first-degree charges could remain intact as the case goes to trial court. Arraignment was scheduled for May 24.

As a Missouri trucking accident lawyer, I’m a big fan of federal enforcement of safety regulations. Often, when a fatal trucking accident is ruled the fault of the truck driver, there’s a violation of a federal safety regulation behind the crash. Stepped-up enforcement, therefore, is a powerful tool regulators have to prevent avoidable deaths and catastrophic injuries of people who share the roads with truckers. Commercial Carrier Journal, a trucking industry publication, published an article this month that is part of an ongoing look at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability enforcement program. The article notes that during the first two years of the CSA program (2010-2012), the FMCSA has sharply increased the number of drivers and carriers it took out of service, and has started to investigate carriers more thoroughly.

FMCSA statistics show that 48 carriers were ordered out of service as an imminent hazard in fiscal year 2012, which was up sharply from 10 carriers in fiscal 2011. The official statistics showed no substantial change between the two years in carriers ordered out of service as unfit, but CCJ interviewed a consultant who felt there was a spike in out-of-service orders for carriers that had been asked to correct a safety problem and not taken action. Carrier officials and safety compliance consultants told the publication that drivers are increasingly held accountable by federal regulators for violations of the rules. One case cited by a consultant involved a $4,000 fine for a driver found to have a pattern of hours-of-service reporting violations. The carrier itself received a rating of Satisfactory, after it scrambled to quickly review six months’ worth of logs that had gone untouched.

The article also cites “mission creep” by FMCSA regulators from a focused investigation of some particular safety issue, toward full compliance reviews. For example, a consultant said, an investigator from the federal government, or a state-government partner to the FMCSA, might come to the carrier’s offices to review hours of service compliance. But once an experienced investigator understands the system the carrier is using, the consultant said, he or she can quickly understand the state of the carrier’s overall compliance efforts. Regulators are focusing on vehicle maintenance issues and hours of service violations, the article said; not surprisingly, these were the top two reasons for violations found in the first two years of the CSA program.

This “mission creep” by regulators strikes me, as a St. Louis semi truck accident attorney, as a good thing. In fact, I find the news in this article encouraging, because it largely shows that the CSA program means stepped-up safety enforcement. Regulations exist to make sure that only safe trucks are on the roads and only safe drivers are driving them. If regulators are taking the time to investigate trucking companies’ safety compliance practices thoroughly, they may be able to keep more motorists safe. The FMCSA is practicing what it preaches, in fact; this week, it ordered three commercial drivers off the road as imminent hazards, all three after intoxicated-driving crashes. As a southern Illinois tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I welcome news like this.

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As a Missouri semi truck accident attorney, I was interested to see a trucking accident case that involved multiple defendants, including some with allegedly defective auto products. Lake v. The Memphis Landsmen et al. grew out of a collision between a concrete truck and an airport shuttle bus on which Clifton Lake was riding after arriving at the Memphis airport. Lake, a Chicago attorney, suffered brain damage after being thrown from the bus. He and his wife, Charleen Lake, settled with the owner of the concrete truck but proceeded to trial against the bus owner, bus manufacturer, window manufacturer and rental car company, alleging the seating and glass in the bus were defectively unsafe. The Tennessee Court of Appeals threw out the defect claims as preempted by federal law, but the state high court reversed and remanded.

The crash took place in 1998, when a concrete truck collided with the shuttle bus, knocking it into a pole and ultimately ejecting Lake through a window. The Memphis Landsmen was the owner of the bus and the Budget rental car franchise to which Lake was going. The next year, the Lakes filed a lawsuit against Landsmen, Budget, the concrete truck company, the manufacturer of the windows and the bus manufacturer. After settling relatively early with the concrete truck company, they alleged that it was negligent to offer for sale, and to use, a bus without seatbelts, which were available and inexpensive. They also alleged that the window glass should have been laminated, not tempered, and that the perimeter seating arrangement in the bus was unsafe.

The case proceeded to trial, and the jury attributed 100 percent of the fault to the concrete truck, leaving the Lakes with no recovery other than their earlier settlement. On appeal, the Court of Appeals held that the trial court should have dismissed the defect claims as preempted by federal motor vehicle safety standards. But in 2011, a U.S. Supreme Court case laid down rules for when federal standards preempt auto product defect cases, and the Tennessee Supreme Court remanded the case to the Court of Appeals for reconsideration. That court found no reason to disturb its earlier decision, and the Lakes again appealed.

The Tennessee Supreme Court ultimately found that the regulatory history of the federal standards doesn’t support a finding of implied preemption on the seatbelt claim, particularly given the cautions laid down in the 2011 U.S. Supreme Court case. A brief from the Department of Transportation in that case further bolstered the court’s findings, by calling previous decisions in the instant case “erroneous.” On the glass issue, the high court said, other courts are evenly split, but it ultimately found no indication of a regulatory intent that would create preemption. Finally, the high court reversed a directed verdict for the defense on the Lakes’ claim that perimeter seating in buses is unsafe. The Court of Appeals found no evidence that Lake was seated, making the issue moot, but the Supreme Court found the expert’s testimony sufficient to avoid a directed verdict.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I’m sorry that the Lakes had to spend well over a decade litigating this issue in order to win compensation. Brain injuries are very serious, life-changing events. Though the case doesn’t detail Lake’s injury, it notes testimony from former colleagues of his, suggesting that his injury was so serious that he needed to stop working. This has profound implications for his happiness and basic abilities, as well as for his family’s income. Accidents with large commercial trucks often create this type of catastrophic injury, because the force a semi truck brings to a crash is so much greater than the opposing force of the smaller vehicle. (It’s especially dangerous when the passenger is not adequately restrained, as Lake was not.) That’s why it’s vital that victims of trucking accidents caused by someone else’s negligence be able to claim fair compensation. Our southern Illinois tanker truck accident attorneys are proud of our success helping injured people and their families make their claims.

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When most people hear the words “trucking accident,” images of fiery collisions involving an 18 wheeler and a crumpled passenger vehicle immediately spring to mind. However, there are other ways people can be harmed as a result of a trucking accident.

For example, on April 2, 2008 in Montana, a tanker truck carrying gasoline overturned on Highway 35, spilling 6,380 gallons of gasoline. Reportedly, the driver stated that he saw the passenger side rear wheels of his second tanker drift off the highway. The tractor and first tanker did not fall, but the rear tanker overturned. The top of the tanker was torn off in the accident resulting in the massive fuel spill. For over a year, five families were forced to leave their homes as a result of the accident. The effort to clean up is still ongoing and, reportedly, the spill’s associated cleanup costs have already reached $5 million.

Because of the fumes, five homes had to be evacuated and air abatement systems had to be installed. In addition, contaminated soil needed to be removed, contaminated groundwater had to be collected via the construction of a trench, and the groundwater still requires treatment with a permanent water treatment system. Recent test wells indicate high levels of contamination remain in the pathway of the main spill.

After five years, Keller Transport, the trucking company responsible for the truck, has agreed to settle Clean Water Act claims. According to the settlement, Keller Transport will pay a total of $83,500 in penalties. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Denver enforcement director, Mike Gaydosh, “Truck accidents can have a significant impact on the environment and in this case caused a threat to public health. This penalty serves as a strong reminder that every effort must be taken to avoid accidents and spills when hauling hazardous materials.”

According to the EPA, excessive cornering speed on the narrow highway was determined to be the cause of the accident. This accident, along with several others, motivated some residents to attempt to increase highway safety by requesting a ban on commercial truck traffic which would then be re-routed to the wider Highway 93. Truckers, however, opposed the ban because they can save time and money by using the flatter Highway 35.

Last fall, I wrote here several times about a serious trucking accident near Litchfield, Ill. that killed an Illinois state trooper. In that case, the truck driver’s license was quickly taken away after federal authorities determined that he shouldn’t have been driving in the first place. So as a southern Illinois tractor-trailer accident attorney, I was not surprised to see formal criminal charges for the driver, Johnny Felton, Jr. of Georgia. Felton was charged with reckless homicide and driving in violations of restrictions on his license, which said he could only drive in Georgia. Felton told investigators that he lost consciousness before his truck drifted into the breakdown lane and hit Deatherage, 32, who was on foot because he had just pulled another motorist over. Deatherage left behind a wife, a four-year-old daughter and a ten-month-old son.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Deatherage had recently switched to motorcycle duty because it took place during the day, allowing him to spend more time with his family. He was speaking to a motorist by the side of Interstate 55 when Felton’s truck hit him. According to the charging documents produced by a Montgomery County grand jury, Felton was speeding and did not slow down or change lanes—as required by the Illinois “move over law”—as he approached Deatherage and the stopped driver. The federal Department of Transportation took Felton off the road shortly after the crash, finding that he was an unsafe driver and shouldn’t have been allowed on the road because of a medical condition that causes lapses in consciousness.

Deatherage’s wife, Sarah Deatherage of St. Jacob, has sued Felton, his trucking company, Dot Transportation and its parent company, Dot Foods. Her lawsuit alleges that the company knew or should have known Felton was not a safe driver. Dot Foods issued a statement saying officials simply didn’t notice the change in Felton’s license type when he handed in his renewal papers in July of 2012. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration faulted Dot Transportation for knowingly permitting a driver who was not qualified to operate a commercial vehicle. The Administration said Dot Transportation had had 20 crashes resulting in injuries over the past two years. Until his arrest, Felton continued working with the company, but in a warehouse position involving no driving.

As a St. Louis semi truck accident lawyer, I wish the Deatherage family good luck in their efforts get financial compensation and recover from their loss. In a case like this, where the family’s breadwinner was the one killed, financial compensation is more than just a symbolic penalty for the trucking company. If Sarah Deatherage was staying home with her two young children, this loss may have pushed her back into the workforce out of necessity. Even if she did find reliable childcare and a job, earnings are typically lower for women with gaps in their resumes. Her lawsuit against the trucking company and the truck driver could help her make up for that lost income. And as a Missouri big rig accident attorney, I also believe a lawsuit helps shine a light on negligent behavior by trucking companies that can lead to the deaths of the innocent people around them.

Continue reading "Trucker Criminally Charged in November Roadside Death of Illinois State Trooper" »

As Missouri drivers are elated with the onset of spring, their desire to get out more means that traffic substantially increases and so does the risk of trucking accidents. Though truck traffic is not substantially affected by this change in seasons, already busy highways become more congested with smaller vehicles and motorcycles.

Because of a semi’s greater size and weight, trucking accidents tend to be more catastrophic to motorists in smaller vehicles. The risk of personal injury and death is even higher for motorcycle riders who have less protection in an accident than drivers in enclosed vehicles.

Motorist responsibility for highway safety is shared between all drivers. Some steps motorcycle drivers can take to avoid a devastating trucking accident are:

• The use of turn signals and headlights at all times, even during daylight hours, to make yourself more visible to semi drivers and to communicate your intentions.
• When passing a semi, lengthen the distance between you and the semi before changing lanes to allow enough distance for the semi to stop if necessary.
• Do not linger in a semi’s blind spots. Motorcycles are more difficult to see than larger vehicles so it is important to be as visible as possible. Be aware that because a motorcycle is much smaller, the semi driver will not be able to see you in places they would normally be able to see a car. Avoid these areas.
• Always wear a DOT certified helmet and bright, reflective clothing to increase visibility and protect you in an accident.

No matter how cautious or experienced motorcyclists are, accidents can still occur, many of which are the fault of the semi driver or trucking company. Unfortunately, because of the extreme difference in mass between a motorcycle and a semi, many highway accidents involving these two vehicles result in devastating injuries and death. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a trucking accident, contact an attorney immediately to determine if you have a valid claim for compensation or damages.

As a Missouri semi truck accident attorney, I was not surprised to read that the driver in a trucking crash that killed two is headed for trial. Lei Sun, the truck driver accused of plowing into two stopped cars at an intersection in Republic, Miss., is charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter in the March 27 deaths of Lawrence “Mike” Coan and Corey Gresham. Sun is accused of going over his hours of service for the week, speeding and failing to brake in the moments before he hit the two men’s separate cars, pushing them into a stopped 18-wheeler in front of them. Gresham’s wife has already filed a lawsuit against Sun, of California, and his trucking company, alleging their negligence caused her husband’s death. Sun’s attorney argued at a recent hearing that the crash was a tragic accident, not a crime.

Investigators with the Missouri State Highway Patrol believe Sun was violating several trucking and traffic regulations on the day of the crash. The written logbook all truck drivers must keep says Sun was within the limit of number of hours drivers can drive in a week, but the Highway Patrol said toll and fuel receipts show that Sun was lying in his logbook and had exceeded his 70 hours of work that week. Investigators also believe he was driving 10 to 20 mph above the posted speed limit. Perhaps most damningly, the truck’s on-board computer shows that Sun didn’t hit the brakes before running into the three stopped vehicles at the intersection. Indeed, the Springfield News-Leader reported, Sun told an investigator at the scene that he didn’t stop because he thought the semi in front of him was about to go through the intersection—suggesting that Sun failed to notice the victims’ vehicles.

At the hearing, a defense attorney for Sun argued that the charges should be dropped or at least downgraded to second-degree involuntary manslaughter. That charge requires prosecutors to meet a lower legal standard to prove the crime: “criminal negligence,” rather than “reckless disregard.” The charge also carries substantially less maximum time in prison: eight years, rather than 14. The judge ultimately agreed with prosecutors that first-degree involuntary manslaughter better fit the circumstances. Because there are two charges, Sun could serve up to 28 years if convicted of both. The criminal case is also likely to damage Sun’s immigration case, which he is appealing through the separate immigration courts.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I’d like to add that the role of the trucking company in this crash should not be overlooked. According to the lawsuit filed by Mary “Meg” Gresham, truck owner Daniel Orchard Transportation has a history of regulatory problems. Its 13 drivers have been cited in the past two years for having defective trucking equipment, speeding, driving over their daily limit of hours and keeping a false logbook, as Sun did. The trucking company itself was cited for failing to maintain records of driver qualification. In addition, the truck Sun was driving was found at the scene to have inadequate brakes and tires. All of this means that the trucking company may be directly liable for negligence, in addition to its liability for negligently hiring Sun. Our southern Illinois big rig accident attorneys help families make this kind of claim, which can provide them with the money they need to replace a lost income, pay medical bills and more.

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