Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

An important part of my job as a southern Illinois semi truck accident lawyer is to protect my clients from overreaching and malfeasance by trucking companies with a great deal more money and resources than the clients have. In egregious cases, this can lead to company representatives pressuring accident victims or their families to sign a waiver they don’t understand or take money that forecloses their right to sue right after a crash. But later, if the case goes to trial or pretrial proceedings, the power imbalance s often visible in full force, as lawyers for trucking companies and their insurers use the court system to their full advantage. Powell et al. v. Dean Foods Co. et al put an interesting twist on the practice when the same trucking company moved for a substitution of a judge twice under different names. The Illinois Supreme Court ultimately decided no new trial was necessary, preserving a verdict for the plaintiffs.

Adam McDonald, Diana Kakidas and Christina Chakonis were killed in 2002 when their car was hit by a tractor-trailer driven by Jamie Reeves. Reeves was employed as a trucker by Alco of Wisconsin, Inc. The three families filed lawsuits, which were eventually consolidated, against companies including Alco of Wisconsin and Alco, Inc. They alleged that Reeves was speeding, had gone over his hours of service and didn’t brake until four seconds after the crash; the corporate defendants were held vicariously liable for Reeves’s actions as an employee. On the day trial was to start, four defendants including Alco of Wisconsin and Alco, Inc. moved for and received a change of judge. Defendants objected, pointing out that Alco, Inc. was nothing more than the former name of Alco of Wisconsin and thus they were the same entity and not entitled to two changes. Alder Group, Inc. then requested a new judge, but the judge ultimately denied it because she had already ruled on a substantive issue. The case went to trial and more than $20 million was ultimately awarded to the three families.

Alder Group appealed, arguing that it should have been permitted to request a new judge, and thus all further orders in the case were void. The Illinois appeals court agreed, finding that the trial judge’s ruling on the motion to reconsider the previous substitution of judge was not a substantial issue under Illinois law. It also held that all parties had standing to challenge the ruling because all orders after that ruling were void, and remanded the case for new trial under another judge. Plaintiffs appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.

That court reversed again, but on the grounds that no plaintiff but Alder Group had standing to appeal. The judgment against Alder Group had been vacated, and plaintiffs moved successfully to dismiss the company as a defendant, with prejudice. Once that company was dismissed, the Illinois high court said, no defendant left had standing to appeal. In so ruling, it sided with an earlier appeals court ruling finding that each litigant is a separate party; each has standing to challenge decisions on only its own motions. It found arguments that the other defendants were prejudiced by the outcome unpersuasive, noting that this would mean any defendant in any case has standing to seek a reversal of any error against any party. Because Alder Group is now dismissed, the court said, there’s no need for a new trial. Thus, it let the ruling stand.

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I’d like to note that part of the confusion in this case stems from Alco’s attempt to get two substitutions of judge. This was rightly not permitted, but the attempt shows how the deck can be stacked against plaintiffs in cases pitting them against much richer and more powerful corporations. After all, the average person cannot legally appear twice in court under the same name, thus getting twice as many chances to influence the case. Nor would the average person be able to pay for two attorneys. In general, when our St. Louis big rig accident lawyers handle these cases, we prefer to step in as early as possible to prevent any attempts at exploitation by the trucking company or its attorneys. Injured people aren’t necessarily experienced in the law, and just after a catastrophic accident, they may be in no position to realize their rights are threatened.

Continue reading "Illinois Supreme Court Denies New Trial in Lawsuit Over Trucking Accident That Killed Three – Powell v. Dean Foods" »

One driver is dead and two others are in the hospital following an devastating car and semi-truck crash in the town of Lake Wales, Florida.

According to Polk County Sheriff's Deputies, the tractor-trailer first crashed into a Toyota Corolla on Highway 27. Both vehicles then drove into a building, demolishing it almost entirely in the ensuing wreckage. It seems that the Toyota crossed into southbound lanes and came directly into the path of the sand-hauling semi-truck. The resulting collision led to the truck driving the Toyota into the building.

The Toyota's driver was pronounced dead at the scene, presumably killed instantly in the collision. The driver of the semi-truck had minor injuries, and the adult male passenger of the Toyota was critically injured in the collision. Both were taken by on-scene personnel to different nearby medical centers for treatment.

Local news video footage shows that the car was crushed almost beyond recognition by the massive semi, and even the truck has incredible structural damage visible in the video. It is likely there would have been no way for the Toyota to break free or turn away from the impact once the semi struck the rear of the vehicle.

According to reports, the building is essentially a total loss. However, in something of a lucky break, no one was in the business at the time of the crash, which is why the injury report was not higher.

It cannot be stressed enough to drivers of smaller vehicles -- semi trucks have the capacity to do great damage to cars, and can even demolish entire buildings with their impact. Drivers are urged to use the utmost caution when using a road that has semi access. Semi-truck drivers operate large, cumbersome vehicles under very difficult conditions and they are not always in compliance with safety or rest requirements. Be cautious and be safe.

As a southern Illinois semi truck accident lawyer, I was interested to read about a new proposal to charge a toll on Interstate 70 through Missouri. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Missouri Department of Transportation is considering charging tolls to cover the cost of expanding to accommodate expected increases in traffic on the highway. The tolls would apply to every driver, but MoDOT plans to charge truckers two to three times the expected toll for drivers in private passenger cars, which is expected to be 10 to 15 cents a mile. The proposal was not well received by the trucking industry and its allies in the state government — including Gov. Jay Nixon — who expressed concern that smaller carriers would be priced out of their ability to drive through Missouri.

According to Kevin Keith, head of MoDOT, Interstate 70 is near the limits of its capacity on a normal day, and often slows if there happens to be road construction or an accident. The pavement is also worn, he noted, and rural stretches near Wentzville and Kansas City need to be updated. To fix this, the agency would like to partner with a private company on one of three proposed projects, ranging in cost from $2 billion to $4 billion. The simplest would replace the pavement, add a lane in each direction and divide the highway. A second plan would, in addition, add a median and replace all the interchanges. The third and most expensive plan would add two lanes in each direction for a total of four, reserving two lanes exclusively for trucks and another two exclusively for cars. MoDOT has already secured permission from the federal government to convert the interstate to a toll road to pay for the work.

The trucking industry has publicly criticized the proposal because of the cost to trucks moving through Missouri. A big rig driving the entire length of Interstate 70 with a toll could pay as much as $90, Land Line magazine reported. However, as a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident attorney, I see some merit in the proposal. Though the most expensive plan may not be the most popular with Missourians, it does offer an attractive chance to separate heavy truck traffic from ordinary drivers traveling shorter distances. This would allow drivers to avoid terrible, catastrophic accidents with negligent truckers. Truckers who are too drunk, sleepy or distracted to drive would likely still be out there, but they could only endanger other truckers if they were in dedicated lanes, and a truck-truck accident is a much fairer match. Even the smaller projects contain much-needed highway dividers, which would prevent deadly head-on crossover crashes with large trucks.

Crashes between ordinary passenger cars or trucks and semi trucks are almost always serious crashes, because the sheer size and weight of an 18-wheeler guarantees serious damage to the smaller vehicle and the people inside. If your family was seriously hurt in a crash with a semi that you believe was caused by someone else’s negligence, you should call Carey, Danis & Lowe right away. Our Missouri tanker truck accident lawyers focus our practice on these cases because we understand how devastating they can be to victims, personally and financially. In addition to the sudden injuries or deaths in the family, victims sometimes also find themselves pressured by the trucking company and its insurer to accept money or sign papers without time to fully understand what they’re agreeing to. We protect our clients from this type of overreaching and help them get all the compensation they’re legally entitled to from the at-fault truckers and trucking companies.

Continue reading "Trucking Industry Lines Up to Oppose Plan to Charge Tolls on Interstate 70 in Missouri" »

When we think of semi truck accidents, the usual images that come to mind are crash victims, mangled vehicles, massive roadblocks and other such events. Sometimes there are other consequences such as fuel or waste spills, or the odd cases of interesting cargo such as milk, beer, bees, chickens or alligators spilled across the highway. And sometimes there are consequences that someone could never foresee.

Such was the case recently in the town of Girard, OH.

On Sunday, December 18, a semi truck tried to turn itself around in the parking lot of a medical center. The truck snagged on a guy wire, pulling down a series of power and phone lines in the process. No one was hurt in the accident, but the accident caused the town's local 911 emergency services center to be put out of commission for several days. Girard residents were directed to call several alternate numbers while services to the 911 center were restored.

Semi trucks are enough of a hazard for drivers to have to negotiate on the highways. Having one cause emergency services to go down is an unusual event, but it highlights the difficulties presented by maneuvering such a large truck in small spaces.

This is why there are designated safe travel routes for semi trucks -- particularly those carrying hazardous materials -- through residential areas. Such routes keep these vehicles away from dense residential centers and school areas as much as possible, but there are only so many routes available, and in smaller cities such as Girard, things can get a bit crowded, and the results can be potentially very dangerous.

Fortunately, it seems that the story has a happy enough ending. No one was hurt, and the necessity for emergency services during the few days of the outage seemed not to have been high. Still, once again, the unusual accident serves as an illustration and warning for those dealing with and operating semi trucks – everyone involved needs to exercise additional observation and caution.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident attorney, I know that the sheer size and weight of semi trucks can make them serious threats even when they aren’t directly responsible for causing a crash. For example, in a chain-reaction crash that recently took the life of a Wildwood woman, the likely cause was a rear-end crash by another driver, but the rear-end accident alone may have been less important than what happened next. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Laura Dunn, 48, was killed after a rear-end accident pushed her car into the path of a big rig, which sent it into another vehicle and into a ditch. In all, four vehicles were involved, but no other serious injuries were reported. News reports mentioned no investigation.

Dunn was east of Clarkson road in Chesterfield at about 3:30 p.m. when she was rear-ended by a 2011 Volkswagen driven by Jeffrey Dobner, 25, of Foristell. Reports did not describe the circumstances of the crash, except to say that Dobner’s car was totaled in the accident. That crash pushed Dunn’s Hyundai into the path of a Freightliner semi truck driven by 57-year-old James Saale of Chillicothe. The impact with the semi drove the Hyundai into a Toyota minivan driven by Courtney Birkel of Chesterfield, 41, and then off the side of the road. Emergency personnel from the Monarch Fire Protection District pronounced Dunn dead at the scene. All four of the drivers were wearing seat belts. No other injuries were reported, but the crash shut down all westbound lanes of the highway but one for two hours, and traffic continued into the evening as police worked at the scene.

The articles did not announce charges against any driver, and it’s possible that the death will ultimately be deemed accidental. But as a Missouri semi truck accident lawyer, I know that if charges are filed, they are most likely to be filed against Dobner, the driver of the car that originally rear-ended Dunn’s. In almost all rear-end accidents, police and auto insurance companies start by assuming that the person in the rearmost car is at fault, and their minds may only be changed in very specific circumstances (and with well-documented evidence). The rear-end accident was likely less harmful than the impact with the 18-wheeler, because large trucks like Freightliners are so much larger than the typical sedan that they can do far more damage in a crash. But the trucker, and by extension, his trucking company, may be legally at fault only if their safety choices made it unreasonably difficult to get out of the way.

At Carey, Danis & Lowe, we focus our practice on accidents involving large commercial trucks, because we know how devastating they can be. As this crash shows, a crash between a tractor-trailer and an ordinary-sized passenger car is not a fair contest; the greater size and weight of the large truck means it can do substantially more damage than another car, even at the same speed. For the people inside the smaller car, this means serious injuries, sometimes leading to permanent disability or death. Our southern Illinois big rig accident attorneys help victims of these types of crashes and their families hold the people at fault for the accident legally and financially accountable for the harm they caused. That includes all financial damages, such as lost income and medical bills, as well as compensation for their pain, suffering and losses.

Continue reading "One Killed After Chain Reaction Crash on Highway 40 Pushes Driver Into Semi’s Path" »

Passenger cars do not fare well against semi trucks. In a collision between the two, the truck is nearly always going to come out ahead, and the driver of the passenger car, if not killed, will more often than not be injured -- often severely. It isn't just that semi trucks are bigger, they're an entire order of magnitude bigger, weighing tons more, and hauling tons of freight besides.

When a semi truck traveling northbound on Michigan's US-23 crashed into the passenger car of a 22 year old man from Ann Arbor, Michigan, the man was killed -- probably instantly. According to Ann Arbor township Fire Officials, the truck struck the side of the car while heading northbound on the highway, smashing the smaller vehicle off the road. The driver of the car was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash by rescue workers.

According to investigators, the driver of the truck was wearing a seat belt, and was not injured in the crash. They have not been able to determine if the driver of the car was wearing his belt at the time, due to the extreme damage to the car. Alcohol does not appear to have played a role in the collision regarding either party. Road conditions are suspected to have been involved, but investigators had not confirmed whether that was the case at the time of the accident.

The accident took place around 2:45 am local time on Friday, December 23rd, and caused multiple northbound lanes to be shut down. Due to the severity of the accident, these lanes remained closed until nearly 8 am that same day, causing extended and multiple traffic backups until wrecking crews were able to come through and clear the scene.

Accidents involving semi trucks can be quite serious. The disruptions to traffic after a semi truck accident can last many hours, and semi truck accidents can easily kill or maim the driver or passengers of a smaller automobile.

As a St. Louis semi truck accident attorney, I wrote last month about the issue of truckers using cell phones on the road. Truck drivers’ phoning and driving came into public scrutiny after several serious accidents blamed on inattention by drivers who were using their phones rather than watching the road. As a result, the federal government has announced a ban on most forms of phoning and driving by commercial truck drivers, as well as recommended that states outlaw the practice by ordinary drivers. As Fox 4 News of Kansas City reported Jan. 4, the ban on truckers using their cell phones as they drive took effect at the beginning of 2012, and Missouri law enforcement is paying attention. The Highway Patrol has been issuing warnings to truckers caught with their phones so far, but on Jan. 12, drivers and their trucking companies will face a $2,750 fine each time.

The new regulations prohibit conventional dialing of phones and holding a phone up to the ear while driving, except in emergencies. Drivers are permitted to use a hands-free headset to talk while driving, but they must be able to answer, disconnect or dial the call with a single touch of a button, without taking their eyes off the road. Drivers are also banned from reaching for a phone in “an unacceptable and unsafe manner”; phones must be in “close proximity” to the driver. (As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I strongly suspect this language will be the subject of lawsuits in the future.) The regulations make employers liable for the actions of drivers working on their behalf, which means they can be held responsible for the tickets. Consequences include the fine to drivers; a maximum penalty to trucking companies of $11,000; and driver’s license suspensions of 60 to 120 days for second and third offenses.

I am very pleased to see this rule, and I’m also pleased to see that the Missouri Highway Patrol is already putting drivers on notice about it. Drivers who violate the law aren’t just risking a ticket — although the size of this fine should make drivers think twice about that risk. As a southern Illinois 18-wheeler accident attorney, I know many stories about cell phone use behind the wheel leading to preventable tragedies. As I mentioned earlier, the Missouri crash that led to the federal government’s request to states was triggered by cell phone use; a young man in a pickup truck was texting shortly before he set off a chain-reaction crash that killed him and a teenaged girl, and injured 38 others. Here in St. Louis, a 2008 crash was caused by a trucker who plowed into slowing traffic while allegedly reaching for his phone, killing three and injuring 15. Lives are at stake, particularly when the negligent driver is behind the wheel of a truck that can literally crush smaller vehicles with its greater weight.

At Carey, Danis & Lowe, we represent clients who suffered serious injuries or a death in the family because of a trucker or trucking company’s bad decision. Semi truck accidents are not like accidents between two cars; the physics behind this kind of collision make a death or catastrophic injury much more likely. They are also different because of the great power imbalance between an injured driver and a trucking company. A trucker in a crash is backed (at first) by his or her trucking company, which is used to dealing with crashes as part of its business and knows the legal and financial mechanisms at play. By contrast, accident victims and their families are often upset, anxious and completely unprepared to negotiate or protect their rights. We help level the playing field with experienced legal representation that can protect your rights.

Continue reading "Missouri Highway Patrol to Begin Issuing Tickets to Truckers Driving on the Phone Next Week" »

Around 7:30 pm on January 2nd near Indianapolis, Indiana, 55 year old Carrine Scott, Jr. was driving southbound on I-65. According to police reports, he apparently struck a guard rail on the right hand side of the highway, spun his vehicle and struck the lefthand guardrail as well. At this point, his vehicle crossed the median and slid into northbound traffic. It was then that a northbound semi truck hit Scott's vehicle. Scott died at the scene of the accident from his injuries.

According to Chief deputy Mike Nielson of the Boone County Sheriff's office, "It was a pretty hefty impact, and he was struck on the passenger's side. The semi pushed him about another 150 feet north of the impact area and forced him into the guard rail at that point."

The driver of the semi truck was not injured in the crash. However, deputies did take him to a nearby hospital for a routine alcohol screening. At this time, it does not appear alcohol was involved in any way in this accident. There is also no way to tell whether the inclement weather had anything to do with the collision.

It had been snowing extensively, and road conditions were poor at best. The police and local papers described it as a day filled with accidents and minor collisions, and it was apparently only a matter of time before someone was killed.

The chief thing this accident illustrates is that semi trucks are risky to be around even when their driver is clearly not at fault. Inclement weather and difficulty controlling an already ponderous and overweight vehicle meant that there was probably no way to save Scott's life, and another collision ended in needless tragedy. Again, we urge all drivers to be extra cautious when driving on an interstate and sharing traffic with semi trucks, especially during adverse weather conditions.

As a Missouri semi truck accident attorney, I was very interested to read a decision out of Connecticut that restored the full amount of a jury verdict that was reduced by the court. In Saleh v. Ribiero Trucking, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that a Hartford-area trial court had abused its discretion when it ordered a remittitur that reduced a trucking victim’s award by more than $500,000. Ghassan Saleh sued Ribiero Trucking after its truck driver caused a chain-reaction crash that ended in a rear impact to Saleh’s sedan. In post-trial motions, the trial judge set aside most of the non-economic portion of the damages awarded to Saleh as excessive. The Connecticut appellate court reversed this, finding the decision was an abuse of discretion, and the state’s high court agreed.

At trial, a jury awarded Saleh $12,132 in economic damages and $687,838 in noneconomic damages, for a total of $700,000. Ribiero made post-trial motions to set aside the verdict, order a new trial and order a remittitur for the noneconomic damages. The trial court ordered a remittitur of $508,608 after a hearing, reasoning that the jury could reasonably have awarded $191,392 for economic damages, permanent injury and pain and suffering until Saleh’s injuries were rated for permanency. Saleh was given the choice of remitting the $508,608 or having a new trial ordered, and he declined to remit the money. Instead, he appealed to the Connecticut appeals court, which reversed. The appeals court found that the trial court improperly attempted to apply a formula to the award, and improperly ignored life expectancy and pain and suffering after the permanency rating. Ribiero appealed, arguing that the appeals court should have shown more deference to the trial court’s finding that these were exceptional circumstances.

The Connecticut Supreme Court disagreed, siding with Saleh. In its decision, it said the case balances two basic legal principles: the broad authority of the trial court and the right to trial by a jury. Under Connecticut caselaw, remittitur should be ordered only in exceptional circumstances, such as when the jury was prejudiced or corrupt, or ordered a result contrary to the facts, law or its own instructions. In fact, one case expressly says trial courts should not set aside judgments merely because they would have awarded less. The high court took the opportunity to rule expressly what it said was previously implicit: Trial courts ordering a remittitur should set forth “clear, definite and satisfactory reasons” for their decisions, in a memorandum of decision, to aid reviewing courts in their work. In this case’s memorandum, the court found the jury’s award so excessive as to shock the conscience. But when reviewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the existing verdict, the high court disagreed. The jury’s award did not fall outside the limits of reasonable given the evidence presented, it said. Thus, it upheld the appellate court.

This decision is interesting to me as a Missouri tractor-trailer accident lawyer because it’s very common for trucking accidents to create serious injuries. Commercial trucks are many times the size and weight of a Nissan Altima like Saleh’s, which means they can do substantial damage just by virtue of size, even in an indirect rear-end crash like this one. The opinion notes that Saleh’s car was badly deformed by the crash and that he continues to take pain medication throughout his day in order to function, yet cannot do many of the things he previously enjoyed. This kind of soft tissue pain is unfortunately common among people who have suffered serious rear-end accidents, but may not be appreciated because there’s no objective way to measure it like there is with a motion disability. That’s why, as a southern Illinois big rig accident attorney, I’m pleased the high court laid down clear standards for revoking jury decisions.

Continue reading "Connecticut Supreme Court Restores Original Jury Verdict After Reduction by Judge – Saleh v. Ribiero Trucking" »

While many trucking accidents do take people's lives, the fact is that a number of these are ruled accidents for various reasons, and they do not always see those most responsible put in prison. However, in the case of a man from Wallingford, Connecticut, this is not the case.

On December 19, 2010, Angel Alvarado was driving a dump truck while high on PCP, commonly and ironically referred to as Angel Dust. A powerful drug known for altering perceptions, it is absolutely not safe to take while operating any vehicle, let alone one of the heaviest classes of semi truck.

Alvarado plowed into a vehicle containing Sharon and Dale Wilson. Amazingly, the accident did not kill them -- it did however severely change their lives.

Once a happy and engaged young woman, and her daughter's best friend, Sharon does not remember a single thing about her life before the accident. She struggles with forming new memories, and her entire life up to the current point is a blur that she cannot sort through. She has had to rebuild her relationships with her daughter, husband, and son.

Dale did not have it quite that badly, but he has suffered all the same. He suffered extensive body and head trauma as a result of the accident. Once an outgoing and active superintendent of schools in his area, he is now undergoing extensive physical and mental rehabilitation, and is in bed every evening by 7 pm according to his son.

The judge in the case, saying that society has enough problems without adding in people who drug themselves up so much as to not be able to control their own actions, sentenced Alvarado to 5 years in prison, with the sentence to be suspended after two and a half years have been served. Sharon and Dale's children agreed to the reduced sentence as part of a plea bargain so they could spare their parents the ordeal of a full trial.

Semi trucks carry all sorts of cargo on their journeys across the highways and byways of the world. Meaning that sometimes an accident leads to a spill of some rather unusual supplies. Previously we reported about several tons of Coors Light being distributed all over an offramp, for example. This time, Lexington Kentuky's I-64 was the site of a crash that involved 85 large hogs.

While there is a certain humor in the situation, there is the tragic fact that some of the hogs, the exact number is yet to be determined, were killed. However, no one else on the highway was injured, not even the driver of the semi truck.

It appears that around 3am near the exit for the towns of Waddy and Peytona, the driver lost control of his vehicle and overturned it, leading to the porcine spillover.

The crash was so extensive that, despite no one being hurt, police had to set up a detour to route people around the scene of the accident. As of 8:15 am, when the story was first reported on local news, road crews had still not managed to get the accident completely cleaned up, and traffic was still being held up by the detour process.

This kind of accident illustrates just how disruptive even an accident with no human fatalities can be. Semi trucks are very heavy vehicles, and can be difficult to move once they turn over. It isn't always as simple as righting the truck and driving it off - oftentimes the wheels, driving mechanism, and frame are so warped and damaged by the collision that the truck instead has to be towed away, or in the worst of cases, broken up and pulled away bit by bit.

In any case, the accident will certainly join the spillover of Coors Light as another tale of strange lost cargo on America's highways.

As a Missouri semi truck accident attorney, I remember a very serious crash that took place in our state last year. In this accident, a young man in a pickup rear-ended a tractor-trailer, likely because he was texting instead of paying attention to the road. This set of a chain reaction that ultimately killed that driver, Daniel Schatz, and 15-year-old Jessica Brinker, who was on one of the two school buses involved in the crash. This was a highly preventable tragedy, so I wasn’t surprised to see it cited by federal safety regulators when they announced a controversial new recommendation. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Dec. 14, the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that states uniformly adopt laws against any cell phone use by drivers.

The NTSB made its announcement after announcing the outcome of its investigation into the St. Louis-area crash, which happened outside Grays Summit. Schatz had sent or received 11 text messages in the 11 minutes before the crash, which started when he rear-ended a semi cab with no trailer. The truck had slowed for construction, but Schatz didn’t notice. A school bus taking students to the Six Flags in Eureka then rear-ended Schatz, and another bus rear-ended the first bus. The crash crushed Schatz’s pickup between the two larger vehicles and left the first bus on top of the truck’s flatbed and the pickup. In addition to Schatz and Brinker’s deaths, 38 people were injured. The NTSB recommendation singled out phoning and driving as an area of special concern in all types of transportation. It also found problems with the maintenance of the lead school bus, the bus drivers’ driving and the small amount of sleep Schatz had gotten.

As the Associated Press noted, the NHTSA reported 408 accidents caused by cell phone use in 2010, and 3,092 blamed on any kind of distraction. Nine states ban hand-held cell phone use by drivers and 35 and the District of Columbia ban texting while driving. Others have prohibitions just for younger drivers. Because the NTSB’s recommendation extends even to the use of hands-free devices, it goes further than any current law. The AP reported that the recommendation will be a hard sell in many states, in part because lawmakers are skeptical that cell phones are more distracting than other common behind-the-wheel distractions. They are also concerned that enforcement won’t be practical. Their constituents are not eager to give up the convenience of talking on the phone while driving, and the article noted that many people believe they can police themselves — they believe other people are the problem. Here in Missouri, an attempt to broaden the ban on texting after the Grays Summit crash was filibustered.

I am disappointed that states are so far from adopting the NTSB’s recommendations. As a St. Louis big rig accident lawyer, I’ve seen research showing that at least in those particular studies, talking on the phone is indeed more distracting than talking to someone physically in the car. That research concluded that a passenger is more likely to understand and forgive pauses in conversation or attention — but driving challenges can’t be detected over the phone. None of this is intuitively obvious, however, so it’s not hard to see why lawmakers and ordinary people might believe it’s wrong to single out cell phones for a ban. It’s also important to realize that the wireless industry actively lobbies against cell phone bans, though it now supports texting bans. As a southern Illinois tractor-trailer accident attorney, I wish the loved ones of people killed in this kind of crash had the same influence.

Continue reading "NTSB Cites Missouri Semi Truck Crash As Reason to Ban Cell Phone Use Behind the Wheel" »