Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

As a St. Louis tanker truck accident lawyer, I was disappointed to read about a recent federal ruling that takes away local municipalities’ ability to control how trucks use their roads. According to a Nov. 16 article from the Boston Globe, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the City of Boston was not legally entitled to order trucks carrying hazardous materials to use a route well outside of the city during daytime. That prompted a lawsuit from the American Trucking Associations, which led the Massachusetts Highway Department to ask the federal agency for clarification. In its ruling, the NTSB said only it can approve hazardous materials routes, in cooperation with state agencies.

The new trucking rules arose from Boston’s Big Dig project. Trucks couldn’t use the project’s tunnels, so they ended up using major thoroughfares within the city itself. This prompted safety worries, especially after a fuel tanker overturned in a traffic circle in 2007, spilling flaming gasoline down the street. To address those concerns, the city revoked all permits allowing trucks carrying hazardous materials to use city roads during the daytime, except to make local deliveries. Semi trucks were still allowed to drive city roads at night, the Globe said, but were limited to specified interstate and local routes during the day. For trucks carrying fuel from a north Boston fuel depot to the South Coast, this route meant a 40-mile detour that cost extra time and fuel. The city argued that highways are better suited for pass-through traffic, but critics said it was merely exporting the risk to the suburbs.

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident attorney, I am disappointed by this decision. Cities may still develop rules on transporting hazardous materials through their streets, but this decision means they have to go through a state agency like MODoT, and ultimately submit their plans to the NTSB for approval. This puts extra layers of bureaucracy in the way of safety. Naturally, local governments that deal with transportation and infrastructure issues every day are better positioned to make these decisions than federal regulators. I also believe convenience to truck drivers -- the reason for the route through Boston -- should not trump safety concerns. In a high-density urban area with narrow streets, the potential for serious damage in any trucking accident is very high. That’s especially true when the truck is carrying a hazardous material like asphalt, gasoline or fuels, which can cause an explosion or a major fire in the blink of an eye.

Continue reading "Federal Safety Board Says Cities May Not Make Rules About Hazmat Trucking Routes" »

As a Missouri trucking accident attorney, I was disappointed to read about an accident last week that took the lives of two members of Missouri’s Amish community. The St. Joseph News-Press reported Nov. 12 that three people died and four others were injured in a crash caused by a grain truck that lost a wheel outside of the northwestern Missouri town of Jamesport. The grain truck’s driver, David Leeper, 51, managed to steer the truck to the edge of the road, but a minivan following it hit the wheel lying in the road. The minivan skidded, rolled over and hit the grain truck.

The accident killed driver Maria Hostetler, 40; passenger Chester Gingerich, 48; and his son Perry Gingerich, 16. The elder Gingerich’s wife, Wilma Gingerirch, 46, was hospitalized in critical condition in Kansas City. Also hospitalized were their son, Steven Gingerich, 20, and son-in-law, Calvin Beechy, 25, as well as Leeper. Everyone involved but Leeper and Hostetler was part of the Amish community in Jamesport. The article does not mention a police report or investigation, but neighbor Bryan Carmenati speculated for the newspaper about whether the grain truck was roadworthy. Noting that the truck was 40 years old, he suggested that the crash could have been avoided if it had been retired or better maintained.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I suspect that he’s right. Long-haul commercial trucks tend to be newer models because they get a lot of use. Grain trucks used for short hauls may spend more time parked, but four decades is old even for a passenger vehicle. To continue safely driving such a vehicle, owners must give it thorough routine maintenance and check for problems. Failure to do so can have catastrophic consequences like the ones described in the article. Just like long-haul trucks, farm trucks are much larger and heavier than ordinary passenger vehicles, which means they bring many times the force to any crash between the two vehicle types. And that means that even a slow-speed crash, grain trucks and other short-distance trucks have the power to kill or catastrophically injure people in the smaller vehicles.

Continue reading "Defect on Grain Truck Kills Three and Sends Four to Hospital Near St. Joseph" »

As a St. Louis semi truck accident attorney, I was disappointed to see that a young man died over this past weekend in a crash with a large truck. According to a Nov. 10 article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Suburban Journals, 20-year-old Kyle Lauders of O’Fallon died around 3:40 a.m. Saturday, after he crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer. Authorities suspect Lauders was drinking before he drove east in the westbound lanes of Highway 40. His vehicle hit the driver’s side of the truck before scraping down the side of the truck, puncturing the gas tank and causing an explosion. The truck’s driver, 48-year-old Danny Lanier of Kansas City, Kan., was not injured. However, the tractor unit and one of the trailers were demolished in the fire.

From the description provided in the article, it seems likely that this crash was not the fault of the truck’s driver, and I’m glad that he escaped injury. My sympathies go out to Lauders’ family and friends. But as a Missouri big rig accident lawyer, I am interested in whether equipment problems may have contributed to the ensuing fire. Large commercial trucks log thousands of miles on the road every year, and accidents are so common that trucking companies build them into their cost of doing business. That means trucks’ gas tanks should be well-reinforced in order to avoid an explosion like this one. If the truck’s manufacturer failed to sufficiently reinforce the tank, or its maintainers failed to ensure that those reinforcements were still working, they could be liable for any injuries or deaths that could have resulted.

Human error and bad decisions cause traffic accidents far more often than problems with defective or poorly maintained equipment. But truck defect accidents do happen. One federal study found that malfunctioning or failing brakes were blamed for 25 to 60 percent of all crashes, by crash investigators and safety inspectors. Other studies and real-life accidents have exposed problems with improperly inflated tires, missing or defective lights and other serious safety defects. Despite safety regulations requiring regular maintenance, some trucking companies still cut corners on maintenance in order to save money, gambling that nothing bad will happen. When they lose that bet, their own drivers and all of the drivers and passengers around them are exposed to an unreasonable, unnecessary risk of death and catastrophic injury.

Continue reading "Trucking Accident Causes Explosion on Highway 40 and Death of Young Man" »

The length of truckers’ on-the-road shifts is an important issue for Missouri big rig accident attorneys like me. Research and common sense show that driving for very long hours leaves drivers tired, and very tired drivers can get into serious accidents -- or resort to unsafe stimulants to stay awake. So I was pleased to see an Oct. 27 article from the Associated Press reporting that safety officials under the Obama administration has abandoned an effort by the Bush administration to extend the hours of service allowable for truckers. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has not promised to return to the previous rule, but signed an agreement to revise it.

The AP says that for 60 years, truckers could drive for no more than 10 hours per day. The rules also required at least 50 hours off-duty at the end of a week before truckers could return to work. Under the Bush administration, however, new rules were proposed that would allow up to 11 hours of driving at once, with off-duty rest periods of at least 34 hours. The move pleased the trucking industry, but not safety advocates, who include Public Citizen, Parents Against Tired Truckers and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. A federal appeals court struck down the new rules twice, but officials under the Bush administration simply reinstated it each time. The FMCSA says it will propose a new rule in the next nine months.

As a southern Illinois semi truck crash lawyer, I am extremely pleased to see that the FMCSA is willing to reconsider this decision. Allowing that extra hour of driving may help trucking companies generate a little more profit, but it can lead to very fatigued drivers. And tired drivers, unfortunately, have been shown to be involved in crashes more often, putting everyone traveling around them at serious risk. (It also endangers the truckers and shortens their time off, which was probably not lost on the Teamsters.) According to Public Citizen, fatigue is a direct cause of 15% of fatal tractor-trailer accidents and a factor in up to 40% of crashes involving heavy trucks. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told the AP that his agency believes “starting over and developing a rule that can help save lives” is the best path -- an indication that its priorities are straight.

Continue reading "Obama Administration Agrees to Reverse Increase in Truckers Allowable Hours of Driving" »