Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

When a semi trailer and a train collide, it's not a pretty picture — especially for the truck. Earlier this month in Kansas, near the border between Butler and Harvey counties, a truck driver died when his big rig, loaded with corn, entered a railroad crossing and was struck by a southbound Union Pacific train. It is believed that the truck driver, Herbert Entz, 80, of Whitewater, Kan., was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident and was killed instantly as the train smashed into the cab section of the truck. Although the force of the impact spilled diesel fuel and the contents of the trailer on the highway and the tracks and carried the truck down the tracks for a short distance, the train did not derail, and no one on the train was injured.

One of the peculiar things about this accident was that witnesses reported that the crossing arms were down and flashing at the time of this mid-day accident. They reported that the driver of the truck appeared to be attempting to drive around the crossing arms. The driver of the train said he saw the truck on the tracks from about a quarter of a mile away, and that he applied his brakes attempting to stop, but was unable to do so in time. After hitting the truck, the train continued forward almost 10 train-car lengths before coming to a stop.

Kansas Highway 196 and the railroad line were closed for the remainder of the afternoon until early that evening while the police conducted their investigation, including a reconstruction of the accident, and crews worked to clean up the diesel spill, the wreckage of the truck and trailer, and all the corn that spilled from it.

While it appears that the truck driver was at fault, the accident remains under investigation, and no charges have been filed.

As a Missouri 18-wheeler collision attorney, I have seen many families devastated by horrific accidents caused by careless semi truck drivers. The vast majority of these accidents could have been prevented if truckers had not been too exhausted or distracted to drive safely, or had not made poor judgments about their speed or following distance. Having seen so many of these cases, I was glad to see an article aimed at truck drivers that points out the benefits of driving safely and obeying the law for them and their careers. I hope that this article will be widely read and heeded.

Jim C. Klepper, the author of the article, says truck drivers need to take responsibility for educating themselves about all trucking laws and regulations, which may differ from state to state. They also must be aware of all of their company's rules, policies, and procedures, and should keep copies of all of the laws, regulations, and company policies with them in their trucks so that they can keep on top of them. Obeying the law by avoiding speeding and tailgating helps truckers avoid accidents and hold onto their commercial driver’s licenses and their jobs. All trucking companies and their insurers want accident-free truck drivers, and under the new Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 program that I discussed recently, even the smallest infraction will show up on truck drivers' records. Maintaining a scrupulously clean, law-abiding record, Klepper advises, is the surest way to move ahead as a truck driver.

Klepper is the president of a law firm that defends truckers, so he has truckers' interests in mind. As a St. Louis semi trailer crash lawyer, my mind is always on the rights of victims of negligent truck drivers, so I'm pleased to see that Klepper and I agree that preventing accidents with safe driving and obeying the law benefits both groups. From the truckers' perspective, complying with laws, regulations, and company policies helps them to be team players with their employer and helps them avoid getting in trouble with the Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or law enforcement. But it's also vital that truckers drive safely and lawfully for the sake of drivers who share the roads with truckers, and who are vulnerable in crashes with trucks due to the sheer size and weight of large trucks.

As the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Large Truck Crash Causation Study showed, many of the fatal crashes in which truck drivers were at fault resulted from exactly the kinds of illegal behaviors that Klepper cautions against. For example, 23% of truck drivers in the crashes under study were speeding, 9% were making illegal maneuvers, 7% were driving aggressively, 5% were following too closely, and 1% had used alcohol. Most of the other accidents in the study could be attributed to the drivers' failures to obey trucking laws and regulations on things like the number of hours they could drive before taking a required rest period, or maintenance of their rigs.

Klepper doesn't mention this in his advice to truck drivers, but as a southern Illinois semi truck accident attorney, I can tell them that there’s one more extremely important reason to know and obey trucking laws, regulations and policies: the law. If a truck driver is negligent and hurts someone, that driver may be required to pay large sums of money as compensation to that victim; will probably lose his or her job; and might even go to jail. Victims or their survivors can sue truckers and trucking companies for financial compensation, requiring those who caused the harm to pay for it. The compensation victims are entitled to may include medical costs, funeral costs, replacement of destroyed property such as the family car, lost past and future wages, and pain and suffering. This can, and often does, add up to six figures or more.

Continue reading "Sound Career Advice for Truck Drivers Could Help Prevent Accidents as Well" »

In a recent blog, we told you about Massachusetts setting up surprise truck inspection stations in an effort to cut down on truckers with violations who manage to bypass or otherwise avoid highway weigh stations. Massachusetts' huge success with its program now has led to a crackdown in the neighboring state of Connecticut. In Massachusetts, these portable inspection stations have cut fatal trucking accidents by 20 percent, giving Massachusetts the lowest commercial vehicle fatality rate in the country.

Back on August 2nd, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell ordered increased enforcement in her state to curtail unsafe trucking practices after several high profile crashes involving large commercial vehicles caused traffic jams, injuries and fatalities on the state's roadways. More than 500 Connecticut state troopers and the Department of Motor Vehicles’ truck squad are involved in the enforcement efforts.

“People in Connecticut are simply fed up with dangerous driving,” Gov. Rell said. “This truck safety crackdown sends a strong message that Connecticut laws will be enforced and so that we can keep Connecticut highways safe for all.”

In less than one month, the patrols by the DMV truck squad and the state police have resulted in some pretty impressive numbers: nearly $650,000 in fines; more than 3,600 violations (including more than 1,000 tire, brake and light violations); more than 500 oversize or overweight vehicle violations; more than 400 license, registration and logbook violations; and at least 150 tickets for tailgating, reckless driving or speeding.

“The vast majority of truck drivers are safe and courteous professionals who take their job seriously and drive in a sensible way,” Gov. Rell said. “Those who do not will pay for it — or find that they are better off avoiding Connecticut altogether.”

Make that Connecticut AND its northern neighbor, Massachusetts! Truckers had better be on their best behavior while traveling through the northeast corridor.

A fiery crash involving several heavy trucks and an SUV on Interstate 64 in southern Illinois left two people injured, one critically. The crash took place near New Baden, at a scene police described as "absolute chaos." According to Illinois State Trooper Mike Link, the accident happened as traffic slowed down for a construction zone. As a southern Illinois 18 wheeler collision attorney, I have seen many accidents involving semi trucks, like this one, and I am glad that no one was killed in this one. I hope that those who were injured recover quickly and fully.

The accident involved an eighteen-wheeler, a pickup truck hauling a trailer, a U-Haul truck pulling a trailer, a flatbed semi truck and a Chevy SUV. According to WJBD radio, the U-Haul and the pickup truck had slowed or stopped because of the construction zone, and the eighteen wheeler crashed into the U-Haul, smashing it into the pickup. The SUV managed to stop, but the flatbed semi truck rear-ended it and pushed it into the crash. Fire spread through the U-Haul, pickup truck, and eighteen-wheeler. The eighteen-wheeler’s driver was extricated from the wreckage by ten people who pulled him out through the moon roof.

"We had to pull him out through the moon roof cause the semi was trapped on its side," said James Sheppard, a driver who was able to stop before the crash and got out to help. "He was kind of a big guy, so he was hard to get out. He was a little beat up. I think he was conscious. We were able to walk him to the stretcher and he left. He was bleeding."

The truck driver was taken to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Belleville in critical condition, and later moved to St. Louis University Hospital in fair condition. The driver of the flat-bed semi had less severe injuries and was treated and released the same day at St. Elizabeth's. The westbound lanes of I-64, where the crash occurred, were closed for several hours.

As a St. Louis semi trailer crash lawyer, I'm struck by how often preventable accidents like this happen. We don't know why the eighteen-wheeler and flatbed semi drivers crashed into the traffic ahead of them, but as I discussed last week, studies show that crashes like this are often caused by the same few mistakes, such as driving too fast, following too closely, and failing to pay attention. It’s also worth noting that large trucks need longer distances to stop from highway speeds, which may be why the flatbed semi couldn’t stop when the SUV could. It's distressing to think of how many people have been injured and killed because of bad judgments that truckers have made on the road. Trucking industry voices often emphasize that drivers of smaller vehicles need to exercise caution around large trucks, but we don't hear as much commentary from them about their own responsibility to obey the speed limit and avoid tailgating cars ahead of them in traffic.

Continue reading "Truck Driver’s Failure to Stop Ignites Fiery Five-Vehicle Crash in Southern Illinois" »

We’ve all seen the open and closed signs for highway weigh stations. Have you ever wondered what, exactly, happens at those stations? And do truckers always stop, or do they sometimes avoid them?

Usually, a weigh station is just that: a place where big trucks are weighed to make sure they are not overloaded. An overloaded truck is a major hazard on the road. Among other things, they are harder to steer and take greater distances to slow down or stop. In some states, the bigger the weight violation, the bigger the ticket: In Massachusetts, for example, it's $40 for every 1,000 pounds above the permitted weight, but if the truck is more than 10,000 pounds overweight, it's $80 per 1,000 pounds over.

In addition to checking a truck's weight, state police often set up truck inspections at weigh stations. They will check trucks for all sorts of safety violations: Do the truck's brakes work properly? Do its brake lights work? Are the tires in good shape? Is its load strapped down properly? Is the vehicle leaking anything? Is the driver's paperwork in order? This includes registrations, weight permits, his driving record, medical information and logbook to make sure he hasn't been driving too many hours. They will also check the company's safety record.

But if a weigh station is open, and a trucker knows he's in violation, won't he just avoid that weigh station or wait until it closes? Probably. And because of their CBs, truckers know when the stations are open or closed. So, many states are trying out portable inspection stations. They plop down portable scales at random points along a road or highway, or near intersections with high incidents of truck accidents. There they can perform all the inspections they would at a regular weigh station — and also give out tickets for moving violations.

In Massachusetts, these portable inspection stations have been credited with helping reduce by 20 percent the number of fatal trucking accidents in the state. In fact, for accidents involving commercial vehicles, Massachusetts now boasts lowest fatality rate in the United States.

So the next time you drive by a closed weigh station, remember that there may be a portable inspection station somewhere else doing an even better job of finding trucks with problems.

Two men died in a fiery tractor-trailer crash on Interstate 70 near Highland, Ill., on August 9. As a southern Illinois tractor-trailer crash attorney, I am always distressed to hear about preventable accidents like this one. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the wreckage from the crash was so great that the highway's westbound lanes were closed for more than nine hours. The crash killed truck driver Jerald D. Jaynes, 52, of Seymour, Ind., and his passenger William T. Burleson of Greensburg, Ind. Two other motorists, the drivers of a semi and a pickup truck, were taken to the hospital with injuries. In all, the crash involved three tractor-trailers and the pickup.

Jaynes was driving a tractor-trailer that slammed into a line of traffic stopped for an earlier accident. The crash caused a fire that trapped Jaynes and Burleson inside the rig, killing them at the scene. That crash started a chain-reaction crash involving two other tractor-trailers and a pickup truck. One of the semi truck drivers and the pickup driver were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Highland for treatment of minor injuries. Jason Scott, the driver of the other big rig, was unhurt. He said that he saw the other trucks explode in a fireball and become engulfed in flames. In addition, he said, their tires were exploding, so he was unable to get out and help the other drivers as he had wanted to. Police said that they still weren't sure why Jaynes wasn't able to stop before hitting the traffic in front of him. An investigation is ongoing.

As a St. Louis semi truck wreck lawyer, I have worked on many cases involving semi truck crashes, and they frequently can be attributed to one of a few common causes. In fact, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Large Truck Crash Causation Study looked at the causes of large truck crashes and determined which causes are the most common. Drivers making poor judgments, like driving aggressively or too fast, following too closely, or making illegal maneuvers, accounted for a whopping 38% of large truck crashes. Another 29% of crashes were caused by drivers who were distracted or daydreaming. The many state and federal regulations of truck drivers and trucking companies are meant to minimize these issues by requiring drivers to get enough rest, get training, follow the rules of the road and take care of their vehicles. Failure to do any of these things not only violates regulations, it constitutes negligence, or carelessness that could hurt someone. Unfortunately, 23% of the crashes that the Large Truck Crash Causation Study considered were fatal, and another 29% involved incapacitating injuries.

Continue reading "‘Fireball’ Tractor-Trailer Crash Claims Two Lives in Southern Illinois" »

Whenever there's an accident involving a big rig, many of us assume that it involved driver fatigue. But according to a surprising new study from Europe, we're jumping to the wrong conclusion.

In all the accidents studied involving big trucks (624), only 6 percent had fatigue as the main cause. And of those accidents where fatigue was the main cause, 90 percent occurred on highways. In fact, fatigue is rarely a factor in accidents in cities, according to the study. Human error accounted for more than 85 percent of the accidents. But in the instances where the accident was caused by human error, the truck driver was at fault only 25 percent of the time.

Another interesting point made by the study is the specific times of day when fatigue was most often the cause of accidents. The study found that between 2-3 a.m. was a prime time for fatigue-related accidents (understandable), as was between 3-3:50 p.m.! (They figured that maybe the afternoon hour was close to the end of the working day.)

While fatigue was the main cause in only 6 percent of the accidents involving big trucks, 37 percent of those accidents proved to be fatal.

Five types of accidents accounted for the vast majority of incidents: at an intersection; in a line of vehicles; changing lanes; passing another vehicle; and accidents involving an individual truck.

The most frequent cause of accidents for truckers — as well as other motorists — is a failure to adapt speed to road conditions and a failure to observe intersection rules.

The report makes several recommendations, including the use of adaptive cruise control, awareness campaigns about safe distances and speeding and the suggestion that drivers' education material should be revised to better explain truck maneuvers.

http://ohsonline.com/articles/2010/08/02/eu-study-confirms-truckers-cause-few-accidents.aspx?admgarea=news?http://www.unece.org/trans/events/docs/2010/WCTR2010_Huegel_Paper.pdf?•

As a Missouri tractor-trailer crash attorney, I've kept up with the news about a horrifying crash that happened last summer in Oklahoma. According to an Aug. 3 article from the Associated Press, the criminal case against the trucker who was allegedly at fault in the accident has been resolved. Donald L. Creed, 77, of Willard, Missouri, was sentenced to 10 years of probation and will serve 30 days in the Ottawa County, Oklahoma, jail for his guilty plea to 10 counts of misdemeanor negligent homicide. Those ten counts represent ten people who were killed in the June 2009 crash near Miami, Oklahoma, not far from the Oklahoma-Missouri border.

In the crash, Creed's tractor trailer slammed into vehicles that had stopped for another accident on Interstate 44. The investigation into the crash did not turn up any evidence that Creed tried to brake or avoid hitting the other vehicles, nor that he was under the influence of alcohol or any other chemical interference with his ability to drive. At the scene, Creed said he thought the other vehicles had driven under his truck, suggesting he was confused or simply not paying attention. For the first year of his probation, Creed will undergo electronic monitoring. He will not be allowed to possess a commercial driver's license either, although he has already retired from his job as a driver for a Kansas City grocery company. At least three families of victims of the crash have filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma court, which was scheduled to be heard in September.

In my experience as a southern Illinois semi trailer accident lawyer, victims sometimes get the sense of closure they need when criminal proceedings end against an at-fault truck driver. No doubt some families also feel that nothing is enough penalty for taking away their loved ones. But, as the news reports about this case suggest, there is more than one avenue that families can take to demand justice for someone injured or killed in a semi truck crash. In civil lawsuits, victims and their families can seek financial compensation from the insurance companies of drivers and their employers. A financial settlement or judgment can't make their lives go back to the way they were before the crash, but it can at least pay for the costs imposed on victims because of the crash -- costs like funeral expenses, medical bills, replacement of destroyed property like the family car, and lost past and future wages. It can also compensate victims for the less tangible costs like diminished quality of life, pain and suffering, and damage to their closest relationships.

Continue reading "Trucker Pleads Guilty to 10 Counts of Negligent Homicide in 2009 Oklahoma Tragedy" »

Everyone in Woburn, Mass., is amazed that no one was injured in a freak runaway dump truck incident that occurred there last week.

A dump truck with blacktop in the bed had parked at the top of a busy street last Tuesday. The driver, 38-year-old Richard Nichols from Rockland, Mass., says he applied the parking brake before he got out of the truck. However, the police have charged him with seven safety code violations, including improper use of vehicle equipment, because they charge that he did not set the truck’s brakes properly.

The truck careened down the street, smashing into cars, a mail van and power poles, tearing electrical lines from homes and downing power lines all along the street. The truck stopped mere feet from the busiest intersection in town. The power to 40 homes was knocked out due to the rampage, but amazingly, though it all, no one was injured. One witness said that a man in a wheelchair was only a few feet away from one of the power poles that was knocked down, and just missed getting run over.

During an investigation of the accident, it was revealed that Nichols had numerous prior violations on his record, including illegal operation, speeding, unregistered improper equipment and failing to use safety. The police say the accident was the result of human error, and they are continuing to investigate whether Nichols should face more charges.

The question on many people's minds after hearing of the driver's record was “Why was this guy allowed to drive a truck?” At what point, and after how many serious violations, do you pull a trucker’s license?

While the people of Woburn are angry at the damage done by someone's carelessness, they are also very thankful that this accident, however frightening, was not deadly.