Trucking Accident Attorney Blog

More than a year ago, I wrote here from my perspective as a Missouri semi truck accident attorney about the issue of obstructive sleep apnea in truckers. Sleep apnea is a disorder in which patients’ breathing is inadequate or interrupted while they sleep, causing sleepiness in the daytime and the attendant cognitive and motor problems. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has identified the issue as an important contributor to driver fatigue, which is a major safety issue for truckers, trucking companies and everyone else who shares the highways. That’s why I was pleased to see that the FMCSA expects medical recommendations this summer on how to begin proposed screenings of truckers for obstructive sleep apnea.

The majority of sleep apnea cases are obstructive sleep apnea, which is caused by a blockage in the airways rather than a problem with the nervous system. This causes poor sleep and frequent waking, which in turn causes the same problems posed by lack of sleep generally: slowed reaction times, problems with short-term memory and judgment, decreased motivation and vision problems. It’s believed that 6.5 percent of all Americans suffer from sleep apnea, but a 2002 study by the FMCSA found that an alarming 26 percent of commercial truck drivers have the problem.

That discovery may underlie the FMCSA’s desire to screen drivers. Its Medical Board recommended such screenings in 2008, but the agency hasn’t yet taken action. Its late August meeting may result in a plan of action. That would be applauded by some in the trucking industry, who were concerned that the 2008 recommendation wasn’t followed by action. An American Trucking Associations spokesperson said some carriers have begun screenings and others are still waiting for regulatory action. The same spokesperson said sleep apnea screenings may be more effective at fighting driver fatigue than hours of service limitations.

As a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I’m delighted that the trucking industry seems to be on board with these recommendations. As watchers of the industry know, it frequently resists regulation, seeing new requirements as a threat to business. It’s certainly true that allowing drivers to drive fewer hours drives down profit margins, but that may be an unavoidable part of the FMCSA’s larger mission: protecting the public from unsafe drivers and carriers. If a trucking company can’t make a profit without putting the public at an undue risk, perhaps it shouldn’t be in business. By contrast, some companies have voluntarily started screenings already. One Transport Topics Online article suggests that they’ve paid off for companies by creating more available, safe drivers and for drivers by treating a health problem that was affecting their lives.

Continue reading "Federal Regulators Move to Screen All Truck Drivers for Obstructive Sleep Apnea" »

Late last week, a collision between a 45-foot fire truck and a semi tractor-trailer caused a major shutdown of the Ohio Turnpike, a closure lasting more than five hours.

The trucking accident occurred shortly before midnight on April 19th. The ladder truck was in the process of responding to reports of a fire on the westbound lanes of the turnpike at the time of the accident. Due to a miscommunication, the fire truck had to use one of the emergency turnaround exits, and in the process of doing so was hit in the side by the semi truck. There is some question about whether the fire truck's lights were on in sufficient time to warn the semi's driver.

Fortunately, the accident did not produce any serious injuries, although one firefighter did ultimately require stitches to close a wound to his head.

According to reports, the collision caused a major shutdown. The center and outside lanes of the highway were closed completely for five hours. Multiple emergency vehicles, including another fire truck and ambulances, were dispatched to the collision site, further tying up personnel who could have responded to the original fire reports.

The accident further illustrates just how difficult it is to avoid a collision with a semi when things do unfortunately go wrong. Neither a semi nor a fire truck is easy to control, and when circumstances dictated that the fire truck use the emergency lane, the semi apparently had no time to correct its course, fire engine lights or no lights.

The exact circumstances of the accident are still under investigation, according to Ohio highway patrol personnel who responded to the scene. The shutdown was finally alleviated in the early morning hours of the 20th, when large commercial towers were brought to the scene to move the rigs. The fireman who was injured was released from the hospital after his treatment and is doing well, according to reports.

In January, as a southern Illinois semi truck accident attorney, I wrote here about a rear-end truck accident that killed a father, a son and the son’s pregnant girlfriend. Truck driver Robert Carmona, 37, is accused of rear-ending a car driven by Frank Weber, 56, of De Soto, Missouri as Weber was stopped at an intersection. The crash killed Weber and Bonne Terre residents Aaron Weber, 20, and Rachel Sharp, 18. On April 19, KDSK reported that a judge ruled that there’s enough evidence against Carmona, a New York resident, to go to trial. A trial date will be set at a hearing next month; Carmona is being held on $300,000 bail.

Frank Weber was stopped at an intersection on Highway 67 when the crash took place. Around 1:30 p.m., Carmona’s tractor-trailer slammed into the back end of their Ford Crown Victoria. None was wearing a seat belt. The crash pushed both the car and the big rig several hundred feet away and off the side of the road. All three were pronounced dead at the scene. Carmona was not hurt. After the crash, reports said he was driving with a suspended license at the time, with court filings indicated that his license had been suspended for stealing fuel. When Carmona is tried, he will face three counts of involuntary manslaughter as well as one count of driving with a revoked license.

As a St. Louis 18-wheeler accident lawyer, I am especially interested in the suspended license. No trucking company should hire a driver without a license, but a few unscrupulous companies prefer to save a little money by hiring these unqualified drivers on the cheap. When the license was suspended for safety reasons, this practice puts everyone on the road, including the unlicensed trucker, in danger. Stealing fuel is not exactly a safety issue, of course, but it does raise questions about what else Carmona might be willing to do. When trucking companies knowingly break the law, or intentionally turn a blind eye to drivers’ law-breaking, they may be legally and financially liable for any accidents that result.

Continue reading "Judge Rules Truck Driver Will Stand Trial for Bonne Terre Crash That Killed Three" »

Three young people from Ray, North Dakota, were injured when their passenger car collided with a semi truck late last week. According to the Dakota Highway Patrol accident report, the collision occurred around 8 a.m. this past Wednesday. The scene of the accident was Eastbound on U.S. Highway 2, a few miles east of the city of Ray.

The 1997 Geo Prism was being driven by Teslin Lucero, 16 years old. Her passengers were two younger relatives, specifically 13-year-old Terin Lucero and 12-year-old Sebrien Lucero. The driver of the semi truck was 61-year-old Mark Frisinger of Richey, Montana. He was driving his 2005 Western Star semi eastbound on Highway 2, while Lucero was heading westbound.

Apparently, Lucero tried to make a left turn from the westbound lanes across the eastbound lanes. It is unclear if she had the right of way at the time, and the investigation of responsibility for the accident is ongoing. Frisinger's truck struck and flattened the front of the Geo Prism, sending it into the south ditch of the highway, and injuring all three occupants of the smaller vehicle.

Lucero was taken to Mercy Medical Center nearby, while Terin and Sebrien were both transported to an alternative location, Tioga hospital. Mr. Frisinger was not apparently injured in the accident. The Geo prism was completely totalled by the impact. There is no word as yet on the condition of the three youths in the hospitals, but in this case no news may be good news, as it also likely means they have not suffered serious complications or died from their injuries.

The accident once again illustrates the potential severity of any collision with a semi truck. Tractor-trailers outmass smaller vehicles by an entire order of magnitude, and there is very little chance that a collision isn't going to destroy a smaller car.

As a Missouri semi truck accident attorney, I am a fan of the federal government’s proposal to require electronic on-board recorders in the cabs of interstate trucks. EOBRs, as they are known, would replace the paper logs that truck drivers currently keep to track whether they are complying with limitations on their hours of driving. The proposal has already been endorsed by the Truckload Carriers Association at its San Diego meeting in March and has the backing of various safety organizations. But a new endorsement from the American Trucking Associations will also be influential in the trucking community, which is generally suspicious of new regulations. The ATA’s endorsement covers both a proposed rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and a parallel bill pending in the Senate.

Under both the FMCSA’s proposal and the Senate bill, all trucking companies and independent truckers currently required to keep Records of Duty Status would be required to install EOBRs. The goal is to track truckers’ hours on the road more reliably than allowed by the current paper system, which can be compromised by forgetfulness or deceit. At least one trucking industry group, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, opposes them saying they will drive up costs without improving safety. In its endorsement, ATA was also cautious about costs, saying regulation should ensure the devices are cost-effective. It also asked for regulations to protect the privacy of truckers and trucking companies and to remove the burden of additional supporting documentation.

This endorsement makes me, as a St. Louis tractor-trailer accident lawyer, cautiously optimistic about the reception of the EOBR rule. In general, small trucking businesses seem to oppose the rule, while larger trucking companies seem to be in favor — and the larger companies are more likely to be the ones with the money and lobbying clout. Currently, allowing drivers to self-report their hours on paper logs leaves the trucking industry virtually unregulated — drivers are basically free to lie in order to extend their hours and make more money. Sometimes, their trucking companies explicitly or subtly encourage them to lie. EOBRs have the potential to keep everyone honest, allowing federal regulators to weed out the bad carriers and reward the good. However, it’s vital that the FMCSA does not allow industry lobbyists to carve out loopholes and exceptions that undermine this goal.

Continue reading "Trucking Association Endorses Proposal for Electronic Logs of Truckers’ Hours" »

A semi truck overturned near Topeka, Kansas, this past Monday, causing significant traffic delays before the road was reopened some hours later.

Around 4pm on Monday, the truck was southbound on US-75 near Topeka's Gage Boulevard exit. For reasons as yet unknown, the semi overturned and fell onto its side. State highway patrol officers are still investigating the cause of the trucking accident, but are pleased to report that thankfully nobody was injured, not even the driver of the overturned tractor-trailer.

However, the accident did cause significant disruptions. Because of the way the vehicle overturned, the southbound lanes of US-75 were entirely shut down for about two and a half hours. In particular, access to the Gage Boulevard exit was closed off, and traffic backed up significantly.

The accident drew the response of multiple city and county officials, including Shawnee County sheriff's deputies, Topeka police officers and KDOT workers, all of whom assisted at the scene of the accident.

By 4:30 p.m., traffic was being rerouted to Interstate 70's westbound lanes, though according to reports all vehicles were moving very slowly through the area by that point. Kimberly Qualls, Northeast Kansas public affairs manager for KDOT, ultimately reported that traffic wasn't restored to normal until shortly after 6:30 pm.

More than anything, this incident shows the indirect, ripple effect that semi truck accidents can cause to highway operations. Four departments were ultimately involved in the accident, three of them from the police services in the area. Accidents such as these take up resources and manpower, leaving other people vulnerable. This kind of response is the officers' job, yes, but every officer focused on an accident is one less officer able to respond to a crime in progress elsewhere.

Further, consider just how long the accident took to clear up. For an accident that involved only a single vehicle and injured no one, it still took more than two hours to get traffic entirely clear and moving freely. Semi accidents are always serious affairs, and drivers must exercise caution when driving nearby.

A recent semi truck accident in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, illustrated just how thin the line is between an accident and potential disaster. On April 5th, a tractor-trailer overturned on the eastbound 595 ramp. As of 10 p.m. EST, more than four hours after the accident, crews were still trying to get the wreckage cleared and traffic moving again.

The accident blocked all of the lanes for the exit, causing an extensive traffic backup for several miles. Drivers trying to use the exits were forced to use the shoulder of the ramp. This is normally discouraged, as the shoulder of the road is typically a place reserved for motorists whose vehicles have broken down, and for people suffering emergencies or exhaustion.

Part of the problem is that the truck spilled 25 gallons of fuel following the accident. At more than twice the capacity of most passenger vehicles' entire tanks, this is a significant amount of fuel to spill on a hot road with active cars moving by. If this is gasoline, then there is always a significant chance that the fumes could ignite — accidents involve a lot of hot metal flying around, and it isn't impossible to imagine a spark setting up a blaze. That, and even diesel fuel spews out fumes, so whether diesel or gasoline there's a chance of motorists being made ill as they creep by. Securing a fuel spill is a time-consuming and bio-hazardous activity, and because of the aforementioned dangers it has to be taken care of before the wreckers can move the truck itself off the road.

As said before, this was a minor accident, all things considered. Yes, it shut down traffic, but the only person injured was the vehicle's driver, and he refused to be taken to a hospital, receiving treatment on-scene. But the incident illustrates the many dangers and even inconveniences that are caused by an out of control semi truck.

As a Missouri tractor-trailer accident lawyer, I was pleased to read that no one was seriously hurt by a potentially serious crash here in St. Louis last week. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported April 1, a diesel fuel tanker truck crashed into a truck owned by the Missouri Department of Transportation that day, briefly closing Interstate 70 completely in both directions. Fortunately, the crash didn’t cause a fire or a serious diesel spill, which could have caused an explosion. It did, however, send MoDOT employee Brian Heintzelman to the hospital with a minor injury. No information was available about the condition of the trucker. Parts of the interstate were reopened 20 minutes after they were closed, but all westbound lanes were closed again as a precaution when the fuel was removed from the tank.

According to the article, MoDOT was on the highway to fill potholes, with warning signs posted for the traffic behind. Two MoDOT trucks were there: one doing the work, and another positioned behind it to protect the working truck. The tanker truck apparently could not stop as it descended a hill between Zumbehl Road and Highway 94 around 11:15 a.m., and struck the protecting truck driven by Heintzelman. The crash pushed the protecting truck into another lane and sent the tanker truck into a wall, where the cab of the truck caught fire. Luckily, the fire did not spread to the 8,500 gallons of diesel fuel the truck was carrying, and a hazmat crew was able to clean up the scene without further injuries. A spokesperson for MoDOT reminded drivers to watch out for work crews.

When fuel tanker trucks crash, ruptured tanks can cause catastrophic fires and explosions, as residents of Florida’s Space Coast have unfortunately seen firsthand. That’s why, as a southern Illinois semi truck accident attorney, I’m very pleased that this crash was so minor. The article didn’t report anything about the tanker truck’s driver, but the description of the accident suggests that he or she lost control, which invites questions about the driver’s actions as well as the condition of the truck. If the truck was out of control because of problems with the brakes or other mechanical failures, the trucking company responsible for maintaining it in safe condition may be responsible. The trucker may also be responsible, if he or she failed to take necessary and ordinary precautions when coming down the hill.

Continue reading "Runaway Diesel Tanker Truck Collides With MoDOT Work Truck, Injuring One" »