Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

A federal rule proposed on Dec. 26 would force new interstate truck drivers to complete classroom and behind-the-wheel training before they’re allowed to receive a commercial license.

The proposal would require truck drivers to receive 120 hours of training, including 44 hours behind the wheel, from an accredited program before they would receive a license. The comment period ends on March 5.

Even though almost 5,000 people were killed in truck accidents in 2006 and 106,000 were injured, the American Trucking Association, the trucking industry’s lobbying group, opposes the rule, Bloomberg News reports.

However, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association not only supports the rule, the organization believes it should be even more rigorous. Todd Spencer, the executive vice president of the organization told Bloomberg News that under the current standards: “There is no training required whatsoever to drive a 40-ton vehicle.”

That concern is echoed by safety groups. Gerald Donaldson, senior research director for the nonprofit, Washington, D.C.-based Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, remarked in an interview with Bloomberg News:

“They get cousin Jake to show them how to operate the rig. Then they learn by doing.”

The push for more training is supported by the 1995 “Adequacy Report” that concluded truck drivers weren’t trained properly. In fact, only 9 percent of motor carriers offered sufficient training, the report indicated.

Because crashes involving tractor trailers are often deadly, and no motorist should have to share the road with an inexperienced driver trying to control an 18,000-pound vehicle, this rule should be viewed as the bare minimum for highway safety.

Truck accidents are frequently caused by speeding trucks. Forcing trucks to slow down, especially in Kansas City, St. Louis and rural highways in Missouri is the aim of one bill currently pending before the Missouri General Assembly.

Introduced by House Minority Leader Paul LeVota, D-Independence, the bill would require tractor trailers to drive ten miles below the posted speed limit on rural interstates, highways, in construction zones and on freeways passing through downtown Kansas City and St. Louis.

In an interview with Land Line Magazine, LeVota’s legislative director Josh Carroll explained that the bill “is an attempt to increase safety on our roads.”

In addition to putting the brakes on speeding trucks, House Bill 1563 also proposes to limit the amount of consecutive time any motorist can be behind the wheel of a vehicle to nine hours.

Speeding, tired truck drivers are dangerous. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis, a fourth of the truck drivers involved in fatal collisions had been convicted of speeding and almost 17 percent had been involved in earlier collisions. In 2006, accidents involving large trucks claimed 130 lives in Missouri and 157 in Illinois. Even though this bill would make Missouri’s roads safer, I expect that trucking industry lobbyists will fight it.

The truck driver, who tested positive for marijuana and cocaine. According to his log books, the truck driver had not taken off enough time from driving before the accident occurred. The truck driver who struck and injured the state trooper during a traffic stop was sentenced by a Minnesota judge to nine months in jail last week, the St. Cloud Times reports.

At last week’s sentencing, the state trooper who was seriously and permanently injured as a result of the truck drivers gross negligence, urged the District Court to sentence the truck driver to the maximum time allowed for a felony charge of vehicular injury and driving under the influence -- a year and a day. “He was driving a loaded gun down the highway, an 80,000-pound gun that he had loaded,” the prosecutor told the court. The court sentenced the truck driver to nine months -- the amount of time the trooper was out of work because of his injuries plus an extra 90 days.

The crash occurred on June 5, 2007. when made a traffic stop on Interstate 94 for a possible illegal window tint. He heard the semi trailer barreling toward him as he inspected the vehicle. Unable to get out of the way, he was struck by the truck. The state tropper spent three days in the hospital and had a steel support rod inserted into his leg.

Accident reconstruction revealed that the trooper would have been visible to the truck driver about a half mile before the crash. The road conditions and driver visibility that day were also good. After the accident the truck driver admitted he had fallen asleep. The driver pleaded guilty to the charges.

As this case shows, sleepy drivers using illegal drugs continue to be hazard for the driving public. The trooper who nearly lost his life got it right when he called the 80,000 pound truck a “loaded gun.” This case also underscores the importance of reconstructing the accident very soon after the crash in order to accurately assess responsibility.

An accident in Missouri involving a semi truck closed a portion of Interstate 70 to traffic Sunday night according to Missouri State Highway Patrol. Interstate 70 was closed for about two hours while officials worked to clear the roadway.

The accident occurred when a 2007 Mazda was blocking both westbound lanes of the interstate. The truck swerved to avoid another vehicle, striking the front of the Mazda and skidded off the left side of the road, slamming through the bridge rail. The truck came to rest in a creek bed, but was still resting on its wheels. The truck was driver from Nashville, Tenn, had moderate injuries and was taken by ambulance to Truman Medical Center. The driver of the car from was not injured.

Tractor trailer accidents involve complex issues and require knowledge of Federal Regulations applicable to trucking companies. In order to win you need to prove that the truck driver or trucking company was negligent. Negligence is defined as the truck driver's failure to use reasonable care that a careful and prudent truck driver would use in the same or similar circumstances.

Trucks that carry goods between states are regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration which promulgates regulations that truck drivers and trucking companies are required to follow. You can make a convincing case of negligence to a jury if you can prove not only that the truck driver was negligent in the manner her drove his the truck, but also if he violated one of the many federal regulations governing the conduct of truck drivers.

One of the most common violations what is known as the hours of service regulations. The hours of service regulations only apply to property carriers and drivers. Under the current hours of service regulations:

* Drivers may drive up to 11 hours instead of 10 hours, but are limited to 14 hours in a duty period.

* The 14-hour duty period may not be extended with off-duty time for meal and fuel stops, etc. Only the use of a sleeper berth can extend the 14-hour on-duty period.

* Each duty period must begin with at least ten hours off-duty, rather than eight.

* The 60 hours on-duty in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours on-duty in 8 consecutive days, remains the same, but drivers can “restart” the 7/8- day period by taking at least 34 consecutive hours off-duty.

Sleeper Berth Exception: Drivers may split on-duty time by using sleeper berth periods, but must comply with the new hours-of-service rules. These drivers may accumulate the equivalent of 10 consecutive hours off-duty by taking a combination of at least 10 consecutive hours off-duty and sleeper berth time; or by taking 2 periods of rest in the sleeper berth, provided:

* Neither period is less than 2 hour;

* Driving time in the period immediately before and after each rest period when added together does not exceed 11 hours; and

* The driver does not drive after the 14th hour after coming on duty following 10 hours off-duty, where the 14th hour is calculated by: (A) Excluding any sleeper berth period of at least 2 hours which, when added to a subsequent sleeper berth period, totals at least 10 hours; and (B) Including all on-duty time, all off-duty time not spent in the sleeper berth, all sleeper berth periods of less than 2 hours, and any sleeper berth period not described in paragraph 3(A).

When a truck accident occurs the first thing an experienced truck accident attorney will do is have an investigator go to the scene to make sure physical evidence such as skid marks, locations of debris is preserved and inspect and photograph the vehicles invalid so the cause of the accident can be reconstructed by an accident reconstructionist. Once that is done a letter should be sent to the trucking company requesting that any black box data be preserved, as well as GPS data and the truck drivers logs be preserved along with any electronic logs maintained by the trucking company. With this information you once a law suit is filed you will have the information necessary to prove whether the truck driver violated the hours of service regulations, whether the driver falsified his logs but putting done times he rested when the electronic data proves he was actually driving and whether the trucking company was purposely ignoring these false entries.

One of the key to winning any case tried to a jury is to get the jury to side with your client. If you can show not only that the truck driver was negligent in the operation of his truck but also that he falsified his log book and his employer knew it, the jury is more likely to award a large verdict, or the insurance company will pay more to settle the case. That is why you are involved in a trucking accident, you should hire an experienced trucking accident lawyer like Jeff Lowe of the Lowe Law Firm. We work on a contingency basis and only charge you a fee if we recover for you. We also advance all expenses and only recover them if we win for you.

In Jefferson City Missouri, crews worked night and day for five weeks, even through an ice storm, to reopen a bridge that was destroyed in a fiery tanker truck crash, the Associated Press reports.

The bridge had to be torn down, redesigned and then rebuilt after the Nov. 27 accident on U.S. 54 that killed the driver of a Western Oil tanker truck that overturned and exploded.

The bridge plays a vital role in Jefferson City. It links motorists to several schools and churches and is part of an important route for emergency vehicles. Therefore, the Missouri Department of Transportation opted to award an emergency contract and build in the winter. That meant costs jumped from $800,000 to $1.3 million.

When a tanker truck hauls flammables, safety is paramount. This crash destroyed a bridge. If another car had been involved, it doubtful the motorists would have emerged from the accident uninjured.

The safety records of both the owner and the operator of a bus that overturned earlier this month in Texas, killing one and injuring 45 passengers, have come under close scrutiny.

A story in the Houston Chronicle reports that Capricorn Bus Lines, the owner of a bus that rolled over on Jan. 2 in Victoria, Texas while heading back to Houston from Monterrey, had settled a lawsuit for $3.3 million with the victims of a 2002 crash. The victims in the earlier crash claimed the inattentiveness of the driver caused the bus to roll over.

The newspaper also reports that the operator of the bus, International Charter Services, has been cited 19 times in three years by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

A complex business arrangement allows Capricorn, which does not have legal permission to drive to Mexico, to sell tickets for the Houston to Monterrey route. Capricorn then leases its buses to ICS, which does have legal authority to operate the route.

On Jan. 2, Roberto Garcia Cruz, who was hired by Capricorn, was driving the bus that overturned. According to the Houston Chronicle, authorities investigating the accident believe Cruz may have fallen asleep while driving. The accident killed a 55-year-old man, resulted in the arm amputation of a female passenger, and sent dozens of others to the hospital.

Texas state troopers and investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are reviewing the crash.

The woman who lost her arm in the accident has already filed suit. It is likely that her lawyers will be sifting through the bus companies’ safety records and reviewing the history of the driver. Bus companies are common carriers and therefore must act in a highly responsible way to ensure the safety of their passengers.

A tractor trailer demolished a patrol car stopped on highway on New Year’s Eve, the only damage to the semi was a flat tire and a bent rim, the Quad-City Times reports. The squad car was empty at the time of the collision and, fortunately, there were no injuries.

According to the news report, the Rock Island County Sheriff’s deputy had pulled over to the side of Interstate 80 to help a motorist stuck in the median during a snow storm. The deputy left his emergency lights flashing and was standing about ten feet away from the vehicle when he saw the truck coming. The semi’s front left tire and fender clipped the squad car, blowing out several windows and pushing it several feet down the highway.

The Illinois State Police cited the truck driver for driving too fast for the conditions and with failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. The driver could face fines of up to $10,000 and a lengthy license suspension.

This accident highlights the mismatch between cars and tractor trailers. In a collision, the occupants inside the car suffer the most. If you need an experienced trucking accident lawyer, contact Jeff Lowe at the Lowe Law Firm, 877-678-3400.

A farm truck failed to stop at an intersection and struck the Jeep killing a fifteen year old passenger in the jeep resulted in the teen's family being awarded $10 million by an Illinois judge, the Southern Illinoisan reports.

Saline County Circuit Judge Ron Eckiss handed down the award late last month to compensate for the “significant loss of society” sustained by the survivors.

On June 14, 2001, Herrin was a passenger in a 1998 Jeep Cherokee. A 1981 Ford F-100 farm truck driven by Brian Bramlet was traveling eastbound on Lone Oak Road. Bramlet failed to stop at the Illinois 34 intersection. He struck the right passenger side of the Jeep Cherokee. Herrin was thrown from the car and died from his injuries.

Herrin’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the truck’s driver who admitted he was at fault and that his negligence caused Herrin’s death. In addition to the $10 millions, the driver was also ordered to pay the boy’s medical expenses and the funeral expenses.

It is likely that the family will collect from the driver’s insurance company instead of the driver personally.

A semitrailer truck that failed to slow down for an Illinois construction zone triggered a chain-reaction crash that killed at least three people in rural Illinois, the Rockford Register Star reports.

The accident occurred two days after Christmas on southbound Interstate Hwy. 39 in Lasalle County, Illinois. According to the Illinois State Police, an 18-wheeler approached a construction zone where cars were merging from two lanes into one. The semi didn’t slow down. According the news report, the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel.

The big rig rammed into the back of one car, sending it into the median before rolling over. Unable to stop, the semitrailer then plowed into the back of a car driven by a retired Minnesota couple, Donald W. Rautio, 67, and his wife, Faye C. Rautio, 65. Their car slammed into a fourth car, driven by Caryn J. Casey, 21, which burst into flames. The 18-wheeler then caught fire. Three more vehicles, including a second truck, were swept up into the chain-reaction crash. The Rautios and Casey were killed.

Driver fatigue is a deadly problem. In the weeks to come, investigators will examine whether this tragedy could have been avoided. The Department of Transportation imposes strict regulations on the trucking industries. Truck drivers may not work more than 14 hours in a 24-hour period and then must have ten hours of rest before returning to the road. Both driving and sleep time must be recorded in the driver’s log box. If the log is falsified, a truck’s “black box” or GPS tracking systems may reveal the truth. These are all key pieces of evidence that will be reviewed to determine whether the driver violated DOT regulations when he got behind the wheel on December 27.

Big trucks will be banned from using the far left lane of Interstate 70 through St. Charles County, starting January 1, 2008.

The prohibition covers a six-mile stretch that begins at Mid Rivers Mall Drive in St. Peters and ends at Zumbehl Road in St. Charles. It prevents 18-wheeler trucks weighing more than 24,000 pounds from using the far left lane except in emergency conditions or if other lanes are closed for construction.

In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Rep. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, said, “Most people feel trucks are a menace and a danger to them on the highways. Anything we can do to curb the trucks and provide more rules and regulations for them, the better off we are.”

I agree. As someone who has represented the victims of reckless truck drivers, I have witnessed the lifetime of devastation, pain and suffering an 18-wheeler can inflict in just fractions of a second. This is Missouri’s first big truck ban. I hope the General Assembly will broaden the ban during the upcoming 2008 legislative session.