Texas Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

Here is an excellent column in today's Dallas Morning News that I wanted to share. Congratulations to my friend, Dallas lawyer Todd Clement, for his hard work fighting to stop truckers from driving while using cell phones and texting.

I just settled a large case where an 18 wheeler crashed into my client's vehicle which was at a complete stop on an interstate, because the trucker was on his cell phone and not paying attention to the road conditions ahead of him. This is a picture of her SUV.

by Steve Blow

It was more like an explosion than a collision. The work truck's cruise control was set at 71 miles an hour and the driver never touched the brake.

A car ahead of him was stopped in the highway, waiting to make a left turn. A 30-year-old woman and her 82-year-old grandmother were killed in an instant.

"The driver said, 'I never saw them.' And though he would dispute it later, in the aftermath of the accident, he told an EMS driver that he was texting prior to the wreck," said Dallas lawyer Todd Clement.

Clement represented the family of the women killed last year outside Sherman. He won a confidential settlement for them from the other driver's company. And Clement has been on a national campaign ever since to ban cellphone use in moving vehicles.

"This case affected me more than any other in my life," the 49-year-old lawyer said. "A 3-year-old and a 9-year-old lost their mom. A husband lost his wife of 62 years and had to go into a nursing home immediately after the accident."

On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board unanimously recommended that states outlaw cellphone use while driving. And Clement supports that move. But he travels the country urging a step that would have a huge and much more immediate impact.

"Businesses have to ban this activity. That's the only way they can protect themselves," he said.

That goes against the tide, of course. More and more of us use our vehicles as mobile offices. The driver who hit Clement's clients worked for Cable ONE, a major provider of cable, phone and Internet service. He drove a pickup owned by the company.

But whether involving a company vehicle or not, the law is clear that a business is liable when an employee on the job causes an accident, Clement said. And cellphone use not only makes a crash far more likely, it also increases the likelihood of being found at fault, he said.

And this is an area where juries seem especially eager to issue "send-a-message verdicts," he said -- turning their displeasure over cellphones into huge monetary awards.

A 2009 Virginia Tech study concluded that cellphone users are at least six times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash.

A Texas Transportation Institute study released in October found that texting drivers were 11 times more likely to miss visual cues.

The FMCSA's Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee and Medical
Review Board again met last week in Washington, D. C. and issued new guidelines which -- in enacted -- might prevent a few 18 wheeler drivers who suffer from sleep apnea from driving.

The panel of doctors found that "Untreated sleep apnea causes excessive daytime sleepiness, which impairs judgment, causes attention deficits, slows reaction times, and decreases alertness ... and greatly increases a driver's risk for being involved in a fatigue-related motor vehicle crash."

Really?

All drivers with a BMI over 35 might have to be tested to determine whether they suffer from sleep apnea. Or might not have to. It would be up to the examiner. And the final recommendations won't be ready until March, and it is not clear if they will ever be adopted. This process has been going on for 30 years.

A BMI of 35 would include a 5 foot 9 inch male who weighs 237 pounds. One half of commercial truck drivers have a BMI over 30.

The crash risk for a person with sleep apnea is 242 percent greater than a person without the disorder, said Charles Czeisler, professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School.

I have handled several cases involving drivers who we believe had fallen asleep driving tractor trailers, although that has been notoriously hard to prove in the past. I just settled one where a commercial trucker, whose BMI was 36, rear ended my client's vehicle on Interstate 35, seriously hurting her and other drivers. And in another I-35 case, a severely overweight, older driver drove onto the shoulder and crashed into a parked rig that my client was underneath as he was about to have it towed away, killing him.

AC -- need link to Walters case
The FMCSA reports that 1/3 of truck drivers suffer from this condition and the trucking industry recognizes that a driver with a BMI over 30 probably has it.

The Facts About Sleep Apnea and Commercial Drivers (from the FMCSA):Commercial drivers are at an increased risk of having sleep apnea. According to a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration study, almost one-third of commercial drivers have some degree of sleep apnea.

Untreated sleep apnea causes excessive daytime sleepiness, which impairs judgment, causes attention deficits, slows reaction times, and decreases alertness.
Untreated sleep apnea greatly increases a driver's risk for being involved in a fatigue-related motor vehicle crash.

Sleep apnea is a highly treatable disorder. Drivers who are treated should be able to do their job as safely as those who do not have sleep apnea.

Risk Factors for Sleep Apnea Sleep apnea occurs in all age groups and both sexes, but there are a number of factors that may put you at higher risk:

A family history of sleep apnea
Having a small upper airway
Being overweight
Having a recessed chin, small jaw, or a large overbite
A large neck size (17 inches or greater for men, 16 inches or greater for women)
Smoking and alcohol use
Being age 40 or older
Ethnicity

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Loud snoring
Morning headaches and nausea
Gasping or choking while sleeping
Loss of sex drive/impotence
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Irritability and/or feelings of depression
Disturbed sleep
Concentration and memory problems
Frequent nighttime urination

Diagnosing Sleep Apnea

In order to diagnose sleep apnea, your doctor will probably send you to a sleep disorders center for testing. You may be asked to spend a night or two at the center, where experts will monitor your sleep. A sleep study test (polysomnography) will determine if you have sleep apnea and how severe it is. If you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, you may benefit from both lifestyle changes and specific medical treatment.

Lifestyle Changes

Lose weight -- Overweight persons can help treat their sleep apnea with even moderate weight loss. For instance, a 200-pound man can lose 20 pounds and greatly reduce the number of breathing pauses.

Avoid alcohol and sleeping pills -- Both alcohol and sleeping pills slow down breathing and make sleep apnea symptoms worse.

Sleep on your side or stomach -- Some people suffer from sleep apnea only when lying on their backs. Try using pillows to avoid sleeping on your back.

Quit smoking -- Cigarette smoking increases both the risk and the severity of sleep apnea, by causing swelling and excess mucus in the airways and by damaging the lungs.
Medical Treatment

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) -- This is a highly effective form of treatment. CPAP treatment involves wearing a mask over the nose during sleep while gentle air pressure from a blower prevents the throat from collapsing during sleep. A CPAP device is portable, so you can take it on the road.

Oral appliances -- Some sleep apnea patients are helped by devices that open the airway by bringing the lower jaw or tongue forward.

Surgery -- Some patients may choose surgery for their sleep apnea. Although several procedures are used to increase the size of the airway, none of them are completely successful in all patients or without risks. More than one procedure may need to be tried before the patient realizes any benefits.

Hallelulah!

The FMCSA and PHMSA are amending the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and the Hazardous Materials Regulations to restrict the use of hand-held mobile telephones by drivers of commercial motor vehicles.

By preventing tractor-trailer drivers from using hand-held cellular phones, these new rules will obviously improve safety on the nation's highways by reducing the prevalence of distracted drivers. Distracted drivers are the number one cause of crashes, fatalities, and injuries caused by drivers of commercial vehicles.

The agencies are also implement new driver disqualification sanctions for drivers of vehicles who do not to comply with this restriction and new driver sanctions for holders of commerical driver's licenses who have multiple convictions for violating a State or local laws that restricts the use of hand-held mobile telephones while driving.

Motor carriers are now also prohibited from requiring or allowing drivers of CMVs to use hand-held mobile telephones.

I applaud these agencies for their commitment to protecting the welfare of innocent drivers everywhere. I have represented too many people who have been injured as a result of truck drivers either talking on cell phones or texting while driving -- while hurling down our roads in big rigs.

When I file suit in these 18 wheeler cases, I subpoena the driver's call logs from the cell phone carrier to prove that he was talking instead of caring about what he was doing.

I recently concluded a case where I was able to prove that the trucker had been calling on his cell phone immediately before he crashed into the rear of my client's pick up truck, seriously hurting him and his wife.

If you've been hurt in a wreck, call my office at 817-885-8000 or fill out this form for a free evaluation. The sooner I start working on your case, the sooner I can start collecting time-sensitive information to help you get the maximum amount of money possible.