Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

As a Missouri semi truck accident attorney, I was happy to read that no one was seriously injured in an early-morning crash between a school bus and a commercial truck. According to a Sept. 21 article from TV station KMBC in Kansas City, it was just 6 a.m. when the crash took place on the junction from Interstate 670 west to Interstate 35 south. The truck apparently overbalanced on the ramp, the article said, causing it to fall and slide into the bus. No children were on the school bus, and the drivers of both vehicles escaped with only minor injuries. However, the crash snarled traffic through the city’s downtown loop.

The accident also spilled the truck’s load of crushed cars intended as scrap metal. The Kansas City Fire Department’s hazardous materials team was called, but no toxic material was reported. However, as a St. Louis tanker truck accident attorney, I’m glad this crash took place so early, and the load spill is part of the reason why. A load of crushed cars may not cause a toxic spill, but it’s still a heavy load with the potential to do serious damage to anything it may land on. Furthermore, the slowdown from the crash can easily cause secondary accidents, as drivers are forced to slow and stop unexpectedly and sometimes very rapidly. And of course, school buses tend to be full of children later in the morning.

The load spill also invites the question of how the truck was originally loaded. Most trucking accidents are caused by bad choices by one or more of the drivers involved, but improper loading absolutely can play a part in crashes. In fact, an improper load can even cause accidents by causing trailers to go out of control, tipping over a truck or spilling goods into the traffic around the truck. When loads spill, experienced southern Illinois 18-wheeler accident lawyers should always check whether overloading, improper placement or improper securing of the load by the trucking company played a part. In many cases, both the trucker and his or her trucking company are ultimately found responsible for this type of accident.

Continue reading "No Serious Injuries After Tractor-Trailer Overturns Onto School Bus on Kansas City Highway" »

As a Missouri semi truck accident attorney, I was not surprised to see that the Oklahoma authorities have charged Donald Creed with ten counts of misdemeanor negligent homicide in June’s Interstate 40 tragedy. As I have written here before, Creed was driving a truck for Associated Wholesale Grocers of Kansas City when he failed to stop for traffic ahead, plowing into six stopped cars near the Okalahoma-Missouri border. Now, the Oklahoman reported Sept. 22, prosecutors have charged Creed, 76, with ten counts of misdemeanor negligent homicide, one for each of the victims. Each charge carries a maximum of a year in jail. The newspaper said Creed planned to turn himself in Sept. 23.

A prosecutor for Ottawa County, Oklahoma, told the newspaper that his office would have considered felony charges for Creed if there had been evidence that Creed was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. However, investigators have not turned up any reason for the accident other than inattention, such as intoxication, distraction by a cell phone or equipment malfunctions. The Oklahoman reported that Creed was driving at 71 mph and had cruise control on at the time of the crash. Witnesses and physical evidence suggested that Creed never braked before he hit the stopped traffic. However, he told an officer at the scene that he had brought his big rig to a full stop, and that the cars he hit must have driven underneath the truck.

Barring any discovery by authorities that Creed was confused by a health problem, I can only assume he never braked because he was distracted by something. That’s why, as a Missouri tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I hope that this terrible tragedy can do some good by teaching other drivers about the dangers of driving while distracted. Using cell phones and other mobile devices has become one of the most recognized driver distractions -- but anything from eating a sandwich to rubbernecking can take a driver’s eyes off the road. And, as noted in a recent study, trucks on the highway can travel the length of a football field when drivers take their eyes off the road for just five seconds. Given that a truck can literally crush a smaller vehicle at high speeds, that’s far too long.

Continue reading "Missouri Truck Driver Faces 10 Counts of Negligent Homicide in Oklahoma Highway Crash" »

Authorities in Lawrence County, Missouri, are still searching for a truck whose driver allegedly pushed another car into traffic, news station KY3 in Springfield reported Sept. 3. The station said the incident may have been caused by “road rage” on the part of the truck’s driver. According to the article, the victim’s car was stopped at the intersection of Missouri 39 and Missouri 96, waiting for traffic to clear, with the truck behind it. Allegedly, the truck driver intentionally hit the car’s bumper several times, then pushed the car into oncoming traffic on the road and drove away. Fortunately, the car was not hit, and its driver and all four child passengers were not hurt.

KY3.com has more in a video report:

Witness Tracy Daugherty said she hopes authorities can find the driver and take away his or her commercial driver’s license, because “If he’s going to do this to one person, he’s going to continue to do this.” In fact, authorities are actively searching for the truck and its driver and are asking the public for help. The truck has a black or dark blue tractor unit with “C&L Trucking” on its door. It was pulling a white colored grain huller bed. Authorities were originally given license plate number 1255CL, but now believe that number is incorrect; the plate is likely to have a similar number. Anyone with information should call Detective Chris Berry at the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department at (417) 466-2131 or send email to cberry@lawrencecosheriff.com.

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I agree with Daugherty that this truck driver displayed extremely poor judgment. If the article is correct that the trucker hit the car intentionally, everyone involved is lucky that the accident wasn’t more serious. Because of their size and weight, trucks can crush cars in a collision. And because their bumpers tend to be much higher than the bumpers on cars, trucks tend to exert that strong force at the head and torso levels of the people sitting inside the car. That means even a slow-speed accident between a car and a truck can cause deaths and serious injuries. Causing this type of accident on purpose is an incredibly bad idea, at best; running away afterward makes the incident a crime. As a St. Louis big rig accident attorney, I would not be sorry to see this driver’s commercial license taken away if all the facts reported here are true.

Continue reading "Lawrence County Missouri Police Searching for Semi Truck That Hit Car and Ran" »

The federal government has approved a plan to build truck-only lanes on Interstate 70 throughout the entire state of Missouri, the Kansas City Star reported Sept. 9. The Federal Highway Administration gave its approval to the plan by the Missouri Department of Transportation, which means the project is now eligible for federal funding. That’s an important consideration, the newspaper said, because the state highway agency currently has no money to start building. It hopes to secure $200 million from the federal stimulus package to begin building the truck-only lanes on a 30-mile section of highway in Saline and Cooper Counties. Once this section is in place, MoDOT hopes motorists’ initial experience with it leads to further funding from other sources.

The Missouri lanes are part of an ambitious and potentially groundbreaking project to build truck-only lanes on 800 miles of Interstate 70 across four states -- from Kansas City in the west to the Ohio-West Virginia border to the east. Other states have limited truck-only lanes, but according to the Star, nothing so large exists anywhere in the U.S. Perhaps as a result, the project is controversial. MoDOT and many in the trucking industry say truck-only lanes would reduce serious trucking accidents in Missouri, by separating large, heavy trucks from passenger cars. A grassy median would lie between the lanes, and dedicated exit lanes for trucks in areas where they are deemed safe. However, the Sierra Club of Missouri argued that the lanes could actually increase accidents because trucks would have to cross lanes of traffic to exit the highway, and cars would be in their blind spots during that time.

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I cannot help but notice that cars are already in trucks’ blind spots. Under the current setup, drivers run that risk during the entire time they are on the highway, rather than just during the moments when the truck exits. For that reason, and because the Sierra Club is an environmental organization, I suspect the Sierra Club’s concerns actually lie more with the environmental impact of the project. There is a place for environmental concerns, but as a St. Louis semi truck accident lawyer, I am more concerned about the hundreds of Missourians and nearly 5,000 Americans who die in fatal trucking accidents each year on average. According to the federal Department of Transportation, another 101,000 were injured in big rig accidents in 2007 -- including people who were left disabled for life by brain damage or paralysis. If our state has a chance to reduce these tragic accidents with truck-only lanes, I believe it’s worth at least exploring.

Continue reading "Federal Government Approves Truck-Only Lanes Plan for Interstate 70 Through Missouri" »

Illinois governor Pat Quinn quietly signed legislation allowing tractor-trailers to drive at the same speeds as cars in most areas of the state, the Southtown (Ill.) Star reported Aug. 25. The bill, which takes effect next Jan. 1, makes Illinois the 41st U.S. state with a “uniform” speed limit -- the same speed limit for all types of traffic. The uniform speed limit has been hotly debated in Illinois over the past several years, with both sides claiming their preferred arrangements would reduce the number of serious trucking accidents in Illinois. Disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich rejected similar bills three times.

Truckers backed the change, saying higher speed limits would reduce accidents by reducing the difference between their speeds and the speed of passenger car traffic around them. They believe a lower speed limit for trucks encourages drivers to pass them, leading to unsafe traffic moves that cause accidents -- such as cutting off a truck that can’t stop quickly. However, highway safety advocates say increased speed limits for trucks will increase accidents because it takes longer for a heavy truck traveling at high speeds to stop. The Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois State Police both opposed the law, and the Automobile Club predicts that it will lead to an additional 115 traffic deaths per year. Earlier research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that only 3% of trucks in Illinois traveled faster than 70 mph under the dual speed limit, while that number was 9% in Iowa, which had a uniform 65 mph speed limit.

As the article notes, it already takes a long time for a big rig to come to a complete stop. To produce the same force as a rear-end accident involving a truck traveling 55 mph, a passenger car would have to rear-end the same vehicle at 246 mph. As any southern Illinois trucking accident attorney can tell you, those are deadly amounts of force. In semi truck accidents, that force can crush a smaller vehicle, causing deaths and very serious injuries for anyone in that vehicle. As a result, statistics show that the vast majority of deaths in trucking accidents (83% in 2007) are the deaths of people outside the truck -- regardless of who actually caused the crash. As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident attorney, I hope the Illinois legislature would be willing to reconsider if it becomes clear that fatalities are going up.

Continue reading "Illinois Raises Highway Speed Limits for Big Rig Trucks in All Areas Outside Chicago" »