Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

In what may be the first legal verdict to come out of the horrific Highway 40 tractor-trailer accident in 2008, a judge has awarded $18 million to a couple affected by the crash. According to an Aug. 25 article by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mark and Cheryl Tiburzi sued truck driver Jeffrey Knight and his former trucking company, Holmes Transport Inc., for causing the accident that left Mark Tiburzi severely brain-damaged and unable to walk, talk or care for himself. He lives full-time in a nursing home. At least two other lawsuits related to the crash, as well as a criminal case against Knight, are pending.

In the July 2008 crash, Knight’s semi truck plowed into a line of stopped cars on Highway 40 near Interstate 270, killing three people: Lydia Miller of Canton, Mo; Alvin Mast of Kahoka, Mo.; and Charles “Keith” Cason of Caseyville, Mo. The crash also injured 14 people, including Mark Tiburzi. Officials say Knight was distracted by his cell phone when he failed to stop for the traffic. The judge in the Tiburzis’ case ruled that it was more likely than not that Knight was negligent -- a legal term for extremely careless. Of the verdict, $13.8 million will go to Mark Tiburzi, a former sales manager for Famous Footwear, and $4.2 million will go to Cheryl Tiburzi of St. Peters.

That might seem like a lot of money to people who are not familiar with the cost of dealing with a severe brain injury. Unfortunately, as a St. Louis big rig accident lawyer, I can tell you that lifetime head injury treatment costs can easily reach into tens of millions. The initial hospital visit alone can be expensive -- but after a brain injury patient is stabilized, he or she will probably need years of therapy to help regain speech, movement or life skills lost to the injury. In severe cases like Mark Tiburzi’s, patients may need daily care for the rest of their lives. That means this money is likely to be earmarked for Mark Tiburzi’s past and future care. It may also include compensation for Cheryl Tiburzi’s loss -- although I don’t doubt that she would trade it all back if it could make her husband healthy again.

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More than 1,000 trucking companies have avoided a federal regulator’s order to shut down and pay fines for safety violations by simply changing their names, the Associated Press reported July 30. The revelation comes from a study by the Government Accountability Office of “motor carriers” -- trucking and bus companies -- regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The agency orders hundreds to shut down every year for safety violations including failure to drug- and alcohol-test drivers, lack of licenses and using unsafe equipment. But according to the report, hundreds of companies stayed in business by simply changing their names and reapplying for a federal license using the same owners’ names, addresses, contact information, employees and equipment.

The report found at least 20 out of 220 bus companies and 1,073 out of an unknown number of trucking companies believed to be “reincarnated” under new names after discipline in 2007 and 2008. In fact, more than 500 were still operating as of late July. The GAO suggested that the number of reincarnations may be even higher because its study only looked at exact matches of addresses and other information, not at close matches or similar information. The situation poses a serious safety threat, a GAO official said, because these carriers were ordered out of business for potentially deadly safety violations. As an example, the article cited a 2008 bus crash in which 17 people died after a tire blew, forcing the bus off the road. The blown tire was a retreaded tire mounted on a steering axle, in violation of federal law. The bus company in that case was reincarnated under a new name after being taken off the road two months earlier by federal regulators.

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I am less shocked at this report than other readers may have been. Because I work every day with accident victims, I’m sorry to say that I know how far some trucking companies are willing to compromise safety in order to save a few dollars. Truck drivers are required to keep logs of when they drive and rest so they don’t drive when over-tired; trucking companies almost routinely encourage them to lie on those logs if necessary to make deliveries on time and avoid losing money. I have also seen cases of trucking companies sending their drivers out without inspections of brakes and other essential equipment; and knowingly hiring drivers without a valid commercial license. These safety violations break the law and raise the risk of a deadly big rig accident, endangering the innocent drivers and passengers who happen to be sharing the road with the trucks.

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A police report says the driver in a catastrophic big rig accident was not paying attention, the Oklahoman reported Aug. 4. The June 26 crash took place just over the border from Joplin, MO, in northeastern Oklahoma. The report by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol says truck driver Donald Creed, 76, did not appear to slow down or swerve before he ran into stopped traffic at around 70 mph, setting off a chain-reaction crash. The crash killed ten people traveling from Oklahoma City, Texas and Arizona and injured at least three others, including a 12-year-old girl. Witnesses said it took three to five hours to rescue survivors and bodies from the wreckage.

Investigators have ruled out intoxication, mechanical problems or visual obstructions as causes of the crash. In this report, officers said a GPS device inside the truck showed Creed was traveling at consistent speeds before the crash, suggesting that cruise control was on. Creed declined to be interviewed about the crash, but officers said he was able to walk and respond to questions and showed no signs of visual impairment. However, at the scene, he asked officers if he had hit someone. He also said vehicles had driven underneath his truck while it was parked. Oklahoma law enforcement is waiting for the results of a criminal investigation before deciding whether to charge Creed criminally. If they do, he could face ten counts of negligent homicide and other charges.

As a Missouri semi truck accident attorney, I rarely find a case in which authorities can find no discernable reason for a crash other than simple inattention. Distraction by itself may be a realistic explanation -- a study by the Virginia Tech Traffic Institute showed that 80% of crashes of passenger cars were preceded by some type of driver distraction. But given Creed’s evident confusion at the scene and his age, 76, I wonder whether investigators are also looking into the possibility that he was mentally confused. Driving is an important part of independence for older people here in Missouri and throughout the Midwest, and driving privileges shouldn’t be revoked lightly. But as a Missouri tractor-trailer crash lawyer, I would strongly support mandatory testing for older drivers of commercial vehicles, which have the power to kill and maim the innocent people around them if the operator makes even a brief mistake.

Continue reading "Report on Oklahoma Trucking Accident Finds Driver Inattention Responsible for Tragedy" »

A new study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute confirms what many Missouri truck accident attorneys have known for ages: Text messaging substantially raises a semi truck driver’s chance of a serious accident. According to an article published by the New York Times July 27, the VTTI found that text messaging by truckers raised the chances of a crash or a near-crash by 23 times. The director of the study told the Times that even compared to other driver distractions, texting “is in its own universe of risk.” Tom Dingus, who heads the institute, said he believed the study showed that texting while driving should be illegal.

To gather its data, the institute placed cameras in the cabs of tractor-trailers for 18-month periods, then watched to see what drivers were doing right before a crash or near-miss. They found that when drivers sent or received a text message, they took their eyes off the road for an average of five seconds. According to the Times, that’s enough time for a truck traveling at highway speeds to drive across an entire football field. The study did not look at texting among drivers of passenger vehicles, but the authors said the results can be generalized to all drivers because truckers’ driving behaviors aren’t substantially different. Preliminary results from another VTTI study on texting, this one focusing on teenaged drivers, show similar results, as do studies from other laboratories, notably the University of Utah.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I am disturbed by these results. A big rig crash at highway speeds can do severe damage to any smaller vehicle that happens to be in the way. For the driver and passengers in that vehicle, that means wrongful death or catastrophic injuries, including severe burns and brain damage. With the risks so high, I believe it’s unacceptable for truck drivers to have their eyes off the road long enough to travel the length of a football field -- or any longer than necessary to do their jobs. Dingus may be right that nobody should text and drive, but given the havoc a trucking accident can wreak on innocent bystanders’ lives, it’s especially important for drivers of large trucks.

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