Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

As a St. Louis semi trailer crash attorney, I noticed a recent news item in the Marshfield Mail about a tractor-trailer accident that happened Oct. 19, a mile west of Marshfield. The article does not definitively blame one driver or the other, but statements from the Missouri State Highway Patrol suggest that they see the crash as the trucker’s fault. Two men were injured when a Mack truck clipped their pickup truck on the highway. Thankfully, no one was killed, but the passenger suffered serious injuries and the driver suffered moderate injuries.

The driver was Johnny P. Heckman, 36, of Fordland. He and his passenger, William P. Hilles, 45, also of Fordland, were in a 1999 Ford F350 as they drove eastbound on Highway 38 after midnight on Oct. 19. A 2009 Sterling tractor-trailer was coming toward them on a curve. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the semi truck's driver, Bryan D. Wells, 44, of Lonoke, Ark., was driving slightly over the center line as Heckman’s pickup truck approached. Wells swerved to the right to avoid hitting the pickup truck, but his trailer did not swerve fast enough to get out of he way. Instead, the trailer crossed into the oncoming traffic lane, smashing the pickup truck. The pickup was totaled, according to the article. Heckman suffered moderate injuries and Hilles suffered serious injuries. Neither man was wearing a seat belt. Both went by ambulance to Cox South Hospital in Springfield.

Unfortunately, the size and weight of large trucks means that even a sideswipe can cause serious damage, as this article shows. A loaded semi weighs up to 22 times more than other vehicles on the road, allowing it to do much greater damage to other vehicles than a passenger car would -- if their drivers aren't careful and responsible. We don't know exactly why the driver of the semi truck near Marshfield crossed the center line, but semi truck accidents frequently involve the same few causes -- distraction, exhaustion, and aggression. One might think that drivers of enormous, extremely heavy vehicles on public roads would use extra patience and caution when driving, especially since federal law gives them special responsibilities intended to make sure they are safe drivers. Unfortunately, as I know well from my work as a Missouri big rig accident lawyer, some truck drivers get sloppy, or don't care in the first place. A few trucking companies also cut corners by hiring drivers who are unsafe or even unlicensed.

Continue reading "Tractor-Trailer Clips Pickup Outside Marshfield, Causing Serious Injuries" »

America's roads are a marvel, bringing together distant places and allowing family from far apart to meet up and travel the landscape in exceptional ease. Sadly, one such story has ended in tragedy due to an accident involving a tractor-trailer and a much smaller Honda.

Jade Moore of Colorado and Bill Moore of Oklahoma were traveling together last week near Dryden, New York in Jade's Honda. The vehicle failed to stop at a stop sign for reasons as yet unknown, rolling into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer driven by Canadian native Pierre Perron. The semi truck crashed into the driver's side door, and both vehicles crashed into a ditch on the far side of the intersection. Jade and Bill Moore were both taken to a nearby hospital, but doctors were unable to sustain Jade and she died shortly thereafter. Bill is listed in critical condition. Authorities on the scene say Perron was not injured in the collision.

Tractor-trailers are very large trucks, weighing in at multiple tons and often moving just as fast as other vehicles. There are certain restrictions on where they can drive in various locales, such as laws requiring them to remain on the right side of the road. However, even when they're operating within the law, these are massive vehicles that are difficult to control in split-second incidents, and collisions between semis and smaller vehicles are almost invariably injurious. Jade’s Honda, by contrast, is a compact vehicle and would not weigh even a fraction of the mass a tractor-trailer could generate. The fact that the Moores were not killed outright in the collision and subsequent tumble into the ditch is highly unusual for such severely-mismatched collisions. The fact is that smaller vehicles are not safe around such large ones.

As a Missouri semi truck crash attorney, I have continued following the stories about last year’s terrible trucking accident next door in Oklahoma. So I was interested to see an article about the settlement of a lawsuit brought by families of eight of the ten victims of a tractor-trailer accident in Oklahoma last summer. According to the Tulsa World, the victims' families agreed to a total of $62.7 million as financial restitution for the suffering that they and their loved ones endured because of the crash. The families' attorney said that the settlement helped to bring them closure after over a year of grieving for their lost loved ones. The other two families who lost loved ones in the crash reached their own confidential out-of-court settlements earlier.

According to the newspaper, the settlement was reached the day before jury selection would have begun for a trial in their wrongful death lawsuit. The suit was filed a year ago in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, by relatives of eight of the ten victims of the crash. The defendants were driver Donald Creed, 77, of Willard, Mo., whose semi trailer plowed into stopped traffic at 70 mph, killing the ten victims; Creed's employer, Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc., of Kansas City, Kan.; two insurance companies; a California company; and Rajeev Sharma and Erin Alf, whose vehicles caused the original traffic stoppage when they collided. However, Creed was reportedly too upset to appear in court. In August, he pleaded guilty to ten counts of misdemeanor negligent homicide and was sentenced to a year of probation on each count. He also served 30 days in a county jail, will use an electronic monitoring device for his first year of probation, and can no longer obtain a commercial driver's license, ending his trucking career.

In my work as a St. Louis tractor trailer accident lawyer, I often see people devastated by preventable accidents like this one -- victims as well as at-fault truck drivers. It's terrible to see what can happen when a truck driver makes what might seem like a small mistake. Because semi trucks are so large and heavy, a small mistake in a big rig can have much worse consequences than it would for a driver of an economy car or even an SUV. In Creed's case, his mistakes are being attributed to driving while exhausted. The investigation after the crash showed that he didn't even try to brake when he approached the stalled traffic on the interstate. He was apparently so tired from having been on the road since 3 a.m. that he didn't notice what was going on around him. Associated Wholesale Grocers, Creed's employer, told the victims' relatives in court that the company had decided to pay "closer attention to fatigue when it comes to driving" and to examine its driver training and safety programs.

More attention to this deadly issue obviously is warranted. However, it's sad that it took an accident that killed ten people to get the company to take it seriously, especially since driver fatigue has been one of the National Transportation Safety Board's top concerns for years. The federal government has failed to follow through with strict regulations and steep penalties for violating them, showing how important civil suits like this one can be for public safety. The NTSB has been urging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to address driver fatigue for ten years, since 31 percent of all heavy truck crashes are caused by driver fatigue, but the FMCSA has not done so. Now that a serious accident has caused several defendants $62.7 million, those defendants are taking the issue more seriously. They don't want to have to pay out settlements like this anymore, and they may finally do what's necessary to prevent accidents.

Continue reading "Families Win $62.7 Million Settlement in Oklahoma Semi Truck Crash Tragedy" »

Large trucks are said to be more likely to be involved in fatal road accidents as compared to passenger vehicles. In fact, the statistics are quite alarming, attributing 9 percent of fatal vehicular crashes to trucks — a disproportionately large percentage considering how few trucks are on the road vs. cars. Every year, there are thousands of reported accidents and deaths that involve trucks.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), within the United States there were a total of 10,764 reported deaths that involved light trucks in 2008. In Pennsylvania alone, of the 7,987 accidents involving large trucks, 178 resulted in fatalities.

Other countries in the world are not exempt from the consequences of disregarding safety and caution while on the road. In August of this year, a truck accident in India claimed the lives of 38 people while 37 others sustained injuries. Police have reported that the truck, which was crowded with passengers who had come from a party, swerved off the road and into a gorge.

The accident happened in Mandi, a city in the Himalayan foothills. It is in the state of Himachal Pradesh, about 250 miles north from New Delhi.

Roop Chand, a police officer of the Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh, stated that the injured passengers were pulled out from the crash with the help of officers and villagers. Emergency workers toiled on pulling the truck using ropes and pulleys. Chand further stated that the doctors treating the patients revealed that at least 8 of the passengers suffered from critical conditions.

Police figures reveal that 110,000 deaths are attributed to road accidents in India. Public transportation services are poor in a lot of rural areas in the country, and people often use trucks as a mode of transport for traveling long distances. Bad road conditions, overcrowding and poorly-maintained vehicles are some of the main factors that cause these crashes.

Conforming to trucking safety measures, regular maintenance of vehicles and following traffic laws are three essential things that every truck driver and passenger must keep in mind. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of people take these points for granted.

Drivers are required to slow down in construction zones for a reason: People at work in those areas are on foot and can be badly hurt even by a small car. Truckers who don't pay close enough attention to traffic and road conditions can be especially dangerous when they enter construction zones. A recent semi truck crash in Saint Robert, Mo., is one of the latest in a string of deadly construction zone accidents in Illinois and Missouri. Two people were injured and the highway's eastbound lanes were shut down for hours, but thankfully no one was killed. As a Missouri semi truck crash attorney, I know how dangerous these accidents can be, and I wish those who were injured a speedy recovery.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported that William A. Pratt, 72, of Anderson, suffered minor injuries in a rollover accident that totaled his 2007 International semi truck. He attempted to change lanes near a construction zone and hit the impact attenuator attached to a piece of construction equipment. On impact, the semi skidded, crossed the center line into westbound traffic, and flipped over. The front of his truck landed on the trailer of a parked 1993 International tractor, and his towed unit flipped over and slid into the construction equipment, knocking it into a pedestrian. That pedestrian, Dennis T. Berger, 55, of St. Louis, suffered moderate injuries. Both Berger and Pratt were taken by ambulance to Phelps County Regional Medical Center in Rolla. The 1993 International tractor was damaged and towed away.

As a St. Louis tractor trailer crash lawyer, I am always dismayed to read about preventable accidents that cause so many injuries, deaths and other damage. Amazingly, the construction equipment that Pratt's truck initially ran into was unharmed, but Berger, who was injured, and the owner of the tractor-trailer and its destroyed cargo will now have to pay bills related to an accident that they didn't cause. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but now Berger will bear the expenses of medical care to heal from his injuries, and the owner of the truck will have to replace or repair it, and probably will lose money while the truck is out of commission. There is very little room for error in construction zones, when workers are attempting to repair or construct roads just a few feet from fast-moving traffic. Unfortunately, not all truck drivers take these situations as seriously as they should.

Continue reading "Construction Zone Semi Truck Accident Sends Two to Hospital and Wrecks Big Rigs" »

While asphalt is normally a good thing to have on the road, a recent traffic accident involved amounts of road tar that most graciously can be described as “excessive.”

Occurring around 2 a.m. on October 11 in Pennsylvania's Armstrong County, the accident closed the on-ramp between route 422 and routes 22/66. Emergency team response was described as good and no one was seriously injured. Still, as of the afternoon of October 11, the traffic situation remained unresolved because of the tractor-trailer's sticky cargo — a massive supply of liquid asphalt. The sludgy mix has been pouring onto the road nonstop ever since the wreck, and it is proving very difficult to clean up.

Cleanup crews have responded by pouring a truly massive amount of sand onto the asphalt in an effort to soak it up. Nearly 1,000 gallons of the stuff was spilled, and it has become unpredictable. What’s worse, according to officials, is that the asphalt is near a major drain that helps siphon water off the roadway. There doesn't appear to be any contamination at the moment, but officials are concerned that the next major rain in the area could wash the sand and asphalt mix into the drainage system. The exact impact that this could have is as yet unclear.

The driver of the vehicle, one Stephen Ellis, was trapped in his tractor-trailer for several hours following the accident until rescue workers could cut him loose. He was immediately taken to a local hospital for evaluation, but has been reported in stable and good condition. Ellis lost control of his vehicle for reasons unknown, rolling it over and leading to the massive spill. Given the hour of the accident, it is possible that exhaustion played a part in the loss of control and the cause of the accident. No mention has been made to any suspicion of DUI.

Good news for those of us who want better safety on the roads: a bipartisan bill has been introduced to the U.S. Senate to require all truckers to use electronic on-board recorders, known as EOBRs. This technology would help enforce existing regulation of how many hours truckers can drive before they are required to rest. In my view as a southern Illinois semi truck accident attorney, this bill is long overdue. We should do everything we can do to prevent overtired truckers from causing accidents, like the one last summer in Oklahoma that killed ten people.

The Commercial Driver Compliance Improvement Act (S. 3884), sponsored by Democratic Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, would end the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's seemingly endless equivocating over EOBRs. The National Transportation Safety Board has had EOBRs on its "Most Wanted List" of safety improvements for years, but the FMCSA has sought to require EOBRs only in trucks driven for companies with bad safety records. Under a rule put in place on April 2 of this year, companies with 10 percent or more hours of service violations are required to install EOBRs in all their vehicles for at least two years.

Hours-of-service regulations have been in place since the 1930s, but their enforcement has been difficult because paper record-keeping is up to the truckers themselves. EOBRs would automatically keep records according to a consistent standard. The tamper-resistant devices identify the person operating the truck, record driving time, provide real-time tracking of the truck's location, provide information to law enforcement during roadside inspections and communicate with the engine's control module. The senators pointed out that the devices also would help all companies and drivers manage their costs and risks better and improve drivers' quality of life. In addition, they would save $60 million per year in paperwork costs. Under the CDCI Act, the Department of Transportation would have 18 months to issue regulations, which would take effect three years after the bill is enacted. The DOT also would set EOBR design and performance standards.

Unfortunately, not all truck drivers recognize the important safety and regulatory benefits of EOBRs, and some are actively fighting the CDCI Act. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has even filed a legal challenge to the FMCSA's relatively weak rule mandating EOBRs in non-compliant carriers, arguing that it will be burdensome, expensive and invasive of drivers’ privacy. As a Missouri 18-wheeler collision attorney, I have worked with enough families who have been devastated by injuries and deaths caused by negligent, overtired truck drivers to know that any minor invasion of privacy and small cost that EOBRs would impose on truckers pales in comparison to the harm done when a 40,000-lb. truck crashes into a small car like a Ford Focus. A trucker with an EOBR gets to drive without being fatigued, and drivers of smaller vehicles don't have to worry as much about being hit when a trucker falls asleep at the wheel. How is that anything less than a win-win situation?

Continue reading "Senators Introduce Bill Requiring Better Tracking of Truckers’ Hours on the Road" »

At 3 p.m. on September 18, 2010, a 61-year-old truck driver, Milan Tomasevic, was driving south on the Stevenson Expressway/I-55 traveling through Cook County, Illinois. The semi trailer truck he was driving is owned by G&S Expedited Freight, based out of Chicago.

Tomasevic had turned onto an off-ramp at Harlem Avenue. The intersection at the exit ramp was an active construction zone. At the time of the accident, an electronic sign was posted at the expressway exit ramp entrance forbidding right turns to trucks due to the limited working space in the construction zone. Police say Tomasevic attempted to make an illegal right turn; in doing so, he apparently pinned a construction worker between his semi and a barricade.

Aurelio Rosales, 33, a worker for Illinois Department of Transportation contractor Midwest Fencing, was making repairs to a barrier fence when the truck hit him. The truck driver tried to back his truck up, but Rosales had already been seriously injured by the semi. He was stabilized at the scene and then taken to Loyola University Medical Center in nearby Maywood, Illinois, where he was pronounced dead at 5:29 p.m. No one else was hurt in the accident.

Forest View Police say Tomasevic is charged with failing to stop in a construction area, making an improper turn and disobeying a traffic control device. Preliminary investigations point to the accident being caused by the illegal turn in the construction zone. Authorities are trying to determine why Tomasevic ignored the signs. They are still looking into the possibility of driver recklessness, mechanical problems or if drugs or alcohol were factors.

Tomasevic could receive a $10,000 fine and could be sentenced to between 3 to 14 years in prison. In addition, the trucking company he works for could be named in a wrongful death lawsuit once the investigation is completed.

As a Missouri tractor-trailer crash lawyer, I have been following the news about the Oklahoma crash last year that took 10 lives. Donald L. Creed, then 76 years old, was working for Kansas City-based Associated Wholesale Grocers when he crashed his rig into stopped traffic. The National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that Creed's acute fatigue was to blame for the crash, the Associated Press has reported. Creed, who has retired from truck driving, recently pleaded guilty to 10 misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 10 years of probation. He also faces several lawsuits filed by families of the victims.

Creed suffers from sleep apnea, a disorder that can prevent restful sleep and is unfortunately common among truckers. According to the Associated Press, Creed probably only slept for 5 hours before beginning work at 3 a.m. on the day of the accident. He had just returned from vacation and was no longer in the rhythm of starting work at that hour, so he was probably very tired. By the time of the crash, he had been on the road for over 10 hours. Reports at the time said Creed apparently didn't brake or take evasive action to avoid hitting the stopped traffic, and investigators said he may have been so exhausted that he didn’t even see the traffic stopped ahead of him. His 40,000-lb. truck crashed into a Land Rover and drove over three other vehicles at 70 mph. In all, ten people were killed and several others were injured.

This crash has significance well beyond the families devastated by the loss of their loved ones. The NTSB leveled serious criticism at the trucking industry and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for their failure to implement simple accident-prevention measures that it has been recommending for a decade. In 2001, the NTSB recommended that life-saving warning systems be installed on all heavy trucks. The systems would alert drivers visually and aurally when their trucks come within 350 feet of colliding with another vehicle. Some systems would automatically brake in these situations too, without needing any action by the driver. That way, a truck whose driver is asleep at the wheel could stop before causing an accident. These systems would cost about $1,000-$2,000 per truck, and could prevent a estimated 4,700 accidents and 96 deaths each year. Unfortunately, truck operators are not required to install the systems, and not many have done so voluntarily.

Similarly, the NTSB has been urging the FMCSA to address driver fatigue for 20 years, and the FMCSA has not done so even though 31 percent of all heavy truck crashes are a result of driver fatigue. Ten years ago, the NTSB recommended that trucking companies be required to use fatigue risk management programs. The programs should include screening of truck drivers for sleep apnea, the Board said, so that drivers with the disorder could receive appropriate treatment. But the FMCSA has moved slowly on this recommendation as well. It expects to produce a model risk management program in two years, and the program would not be mandatory for trucking companies.

As a St. Louis semi truck crash lawyer, I work with families who have been devastated by the loss of their loved ones in preventable accidents. All of these families want to know why their loved ones had to die, and it is painful to recognize that there is no good reason -- other than that the trucking industry doesn't want to lose profits to regulation. Because the FMCSA and Congress are reluctant to hold trucking companies responsible for being safe, the rest of us have no choice but to drive as defensively as we can. Drivers should also educate themselves about their rights. Even though the rules that truckers must obey are not nearly as stringent as they could be, some truckers still manage to ignore them, including rules about driver fatigue.

Continue reading "Oklahoma Tragedy Prompts NTSB to Fault FMCSA for Not Addressing Driver Fatigue" »