Texas Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

The U.S. Transportation Department has just revised the hours-of-service requirements to cut down on fatigued 18 wheeler truck drivers.

The new rule reduces by 12 hours the maximum number of hours a truck driver can work within a week. Under the old rule, truck drivers could work on average up to 82 hours within a seven-day period.

In addition, truck drivers cannot drive after working eight hours without first taking a break of at least 30 minutes. .

The regulation retains the current 11-hour daily driving limit.

Truck drivers who maximize their weekly work hours must now take at least two nights' rest when their 24-hour body clock demands sleep the most - from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.

Companies and drivers that commit egregious violations of the rule could face the maximum penalties for each offense. Trucking companies that allow drivers to exceed the 11-hour driving limit by 3 or more hours could be fined $11,000 per offense, and the drivers themselves could face civil penalties of up to $2,750 for each offense.

Commercial truck drivers and companies must comply with the rule by July 1, 2013.

Here's the math:

(11 hours) Monday 12a-11a

(11 hours) Monday to Tuesday 9p-8a

(11 hours) Tuesday to Wednesday 6p-5a

(11 hours) Wednesday to Thursday 3p-2a

(34 hour reset) Thursday 2a to Friday 12p

(11 hours) Friday 12p to 11p

(11 hours) Saturday 9a to 10p

(11 hours) Sunday 8a to 9p

(11 hours) Monday 7a to 6p

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.

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.

Whenever I get hired on a case involving a commercial vehicle, I send a spoliation letter to the defendant immediately. A spoliation letter is a letter telling the trucking company to save evidence so I can be sure that all investigation that needs to be done can be done without the truck, documents and other materials being tampered with.

On a recent case, I was able to prove that a defendant driver was not only speeding, but speeding with cruise control on while driving through a construction zone when he rear ended my client.

By law, once a spoliation letter is received, none of the evidence discussed in the letter may be destroyed or changed without approval of the plaintiff and the plaintiff's attorney. Valuable evidence such as maintenance records, driving logs, the contents of the vehicles, and even items such as beer bottles or cell phones with may have contributed to cause the wreck are often cleaned before the attorney can properly investigate. If any evidence is destroyed after a spoliation letter is received, the defendant can face huge penalties if the evidence tampering is discovered.

A copy of my most recent spoliation letter, with personal information removed, is available for download by clicking here.

If you have been hurt in a crash with an 18-wheeler, you need a lawyer who will immediately begin working for you and perform all necessary investigation. Please call me today at 817-885-8000 for a free case evaluation.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has stated that passengers in cars may be decapitated if their vehicles go under the rear of heavy-duty trailer trucks with guards -- even if the vehicles meet U.S. rules designed to prevent severe injuries.

I have handled these decapitation cases before, and they are truly horrendous.

I believe the tests show stronger rules are needed. The Institute has also recently said that trailers made to Canadian specifications were less likely to cause catastrophic injuries.

According to NHTSA data, 419 car occupants were killed in 2007 and 352 in 2008 in crashes involving passenger vehicles striking the rear of large trucks.
Almost 80 percent of crashes involving cars rear-ending trucks involved significant amounts of underride, even after NHTSA required stronger structures to be lowered to 22 inches off the ground.

NHTSA doesn't require the guards to be tested on trailers themselves, which has led to weaknesses: guards can fail if hardware attaching them to the trailer isn't strong enough to withstand impact. The tests underscore that guards installed to U.S. standards aren't holding up out in the real world.

NHTSA expects to complete its review of the regulation in 2012.

Canadian regulators require stronger crash guards. However trailers made by a corporation based in Lafayette, Indiana are engineered to exceed the Canadian requirements.

I feel very strongly that the U.S. standards for these guards are far too low and hope they are strengthened immediately.

Please call if you have been involved in an 18-wheeler wreck; I fight these trucking companies to get you the financial recovery that you deserve.

CHANGES PROPOSED TO "DAILY" DUTY

The required off-duty period of 10 consecutive hours will not change.
For drivers not otherwise except, the consecutive hours will be reduced from 16 hours consecutive hours down to 14 consecutive hours, a step in the right direction to make sure that sleepy, inattentive 18-wheelers are not out there on our roadways putting others at risk.

The new proposed maximum on-duty within a driving window would reduce consecutive hours from 14-16 down to 13 consecutive hours. Again, another step in the right direction.

Maximum driving within driving window is either going to remain the same at 11 consecutive hours or be reduced down to 10 hours.

Currently there is no limit on consecutive hours of driving but the newly proposed rule will make it so 18-wheelers may drive only if it has been 7 hours or less since last off-duty period of at least 30 minutes. This definitely need to change because currently there is no rule in place to make these drivers take a break, often resulting in inattentive driving which is a result of numerous wrecks that cause serious injury.

CHANGES PROPOSED TO "WEEKLY" DUTY PERIOD
There is currently no proposed change to the maximum on-duty hours of 60 hrs. in 7 days/ 70 hrs. in 8 days.

Currently, there are no limits on "restarts" but a proposed new rule would limit these periods to include:
(1) Must include two periods between Midnight-6 a.m.;
(2) May only be used once per week.
Driver must designate the period being used as a restart.

All of these newly proposed rules are a step in the right direction and I hope the FMCSA will adopt all of these if not further reduce the amount hours truckers are out on the roads continuously. For info on a warning letters click here.

I have sued on many cases involving inattentive 18-wheelers, including one where I have just recently taken a several day deposition where I fought to protect my clients from the 18-wheelers attorney who was trying to trip them up during the grueling ordeal. In this case we had already shown to the company and their attorneys that the defendant driver had violated many of the above regulations and do this immediately on any 18-wheeler case that comes into my office.

If you want the check the safety of a 18-Wheeler Carrier or Driver click here to be directed to the FMCSA/CSA SAFER search.

Continue reading "18-Wheeler Safety Regulations, FMCSA Proposed Changes " »

A hotly disputed issue in the trucking industry could heavily affect my clients and every one driving on our Texas highways.

Mexican truck drivers entering the United States are currently limited to traveling only within a 20-mile to 25-mile radius of specific ports of entry. Then their goods are picked up by American truckers and transported throughout the U.S.

But, Mexico has claimed that this restriction violated the 1994 NAFTA trade agreement between the U.S. and Mexico.

Many who are opposed to allowing Mexican truckers to access American roadways say that trucking jobs in the United States would be lost and roadways will be made unsafe because of the differences in safety standards between the two countries.

Really?!

The United States Department of Transportation has put forward a preliminary proposal that includes a requirement that Mexican Truckers who want to access Texas roadways will be required to have electronic recording devices to allow monitoring of the drivers' hours of services and compliance with American trucking laws and drivers will also have their combined American and Mexican driving records checked to ensure that they have no history of unsafe driving that would disqualify them under American standards.

Supporters of this proposal state that allowing cross-border trucking would boost trade opportunities for the U.S. and create jobs her in Texas.

I think that the safety issues need to be addressed and proven before allowing these unsafe Mexican trucks onto our roadways. There is already an issue with American companies allowing unsafe trucks and drivers onto our roadways and to add the lower regulated Mexican trucks out there it would even more dangerous.

I am currently represent various clients who have been injured by 18 wheelers and other commercial vehicles, including some from Mexico.

If you are involved in an 18 wheeler accident please contact my office immediately so that I can fight to get you everything you deserve.

A fuel tanker crashed and burned on Interstate 30 early Friday morning, closing both sides of the freeway west of downtown Dallas. Traffic backed up for miles during the morning rush hour. Westbound lanes finally reopened between Hampton Road and Sylvan Avenue and by 9:30 all but one eastbound lane had reopened.

The crash happened when an eastbound white sedan changing lanes struck a second semi, causing it to veer into the tanker. The tanker then crashed into the concrete wall dividing the main lanes from the HOV lane.

Three people were taken to Methodist Dallas Medical Center: the 35-year-old man driving the truck and two women in the car. None of their injuries were thought to be life-threatening.

Please call me call if you have been involved in an 18-wheeler wreck I fight these trucking companies to get you the financial recovery that you deserve.

At least one person was unfortunately killed and a section of U.S. 287 in Wise County was shut down before dawn Tuesday after two 18-wheelers collided.

Both 18-wheekers were traveling in the southbound lane of the highway south of Decatur when the crash happened at about 5:10 a.m. shutting down the southbound lane of traffic. Details about the injured parties are not yet available.

If you have been involved in an accident with an 18-wheeler, you should immediately discuss your situation with a board certified attorney. The destruction caused by an 18-wheeler is vastly greater than what is typical of a passenger car accident. Because of this, 18-wheeler insurance policies are much higher than individual ones, and I have seen multiple policies adding up to $50 million. Insurance companies know that there is a lot of money at stake will do everything in their power to minimize their losses.

Please call me call if you have been involved in an 18-wheeler wreck and I fight the insurance companies and get you the financial recovery that you deserve.

A man in a pickup unfortunately died in a wreck with a tractor-trailer six miles west of Burleson Sunday night.

He was traveling east on County Road 920 in his 1997 Chevrolet pickup at 8:00 p.m. when he collided with a 1995 Peterbilt tractor-trailer that was unsafely turning west onto County Road 920 from County Road 1015.

If you have been involved in an accident with an 18-wheeler, you should immediately discuss your situation with a board certified attorney. The destruction caused by an 18-wheeler is vastly greater than what is typical of a passenger car accident. Because of this, 18-wheeler insurance policies are much higher than individual ones, and I have seen multiple policies adding up to $50 million. Insurance companies know that there is a lot of money at stake will do everything in their power to minimize their losses.

Please call me call if you have been involved in an 18-wheeler wreck and I fight the insurance companies and get you the financial recovery that you deserve.

The U. S. Department of Transportation wants to prohibit interstate commercial truck and bus drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving.

Hallelujah!

The proposed Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rule would prohibit commercial drivers from reaching for, holding or dialing a cell phone while operating a commercial vehicle. Drivers who violate these restrictions would face federal civil penalties of up to $2,750.00 for each offense and disqualification of their commercial driver's license for multiple offenses. Additionally, states would suspend a driver's CDL after two or more violations of any state law on hand-held cell phone use.

Motor carriers that allow their drivers to use hand-held cell phones while driving would face a maximum penalty of $11,000.00 Approximately four million interstate commercial drivers would be affected by this proposal.

FMCSA research shows that using a hand-held cell phone while driving requires a commercial driver to take several risky steps. In particular, commercial drivers reaching for an object, such as a cell phone, while driving are three times more likely to be involved in a crash or other safety-critical event. Drivers dialing a hand-held cell phone while driving increase their risk by six times.

Many of the largest carriers, such as UPS, Covenant Transport, and Wal-Mart, already have company policies in place banning their drivers from using hand-held phones.

In September of this year, FMCSA issued a regulation banning text messaging while operating a commercial motor vehicle.

Nearly 5,500 people died and half a million were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2009. Distraction-related fatalities represented 16 percent of overall traffic fatalities in 2009, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) research.

I applaud the FMCSA for finally doing something about cell phone use by truckers that will help keep everyone safe. I sponsor the Truck Safety Coalition which, through tireless efforts, has finally applied enough pressure to get FMCSA to do something about this horrendous problem.

I have been successful fighting trucking companies over the last 30 plus years and have seen wrecks caused by this very problem. I am representing clients who have been injured by 18 wheelers and other commercial vehicles. In fact, my accident reconstructionist is in Waco now investigating the scene and all vehicles involved in a serious seven vehicle pileup caused when an 18 wheeler was not paying attention and rear ended them.

I just attended the annual conference of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association (TTLA) in Austin and attended one seminar on the subject of "Driving While Distracted" to assist me prosecute the cases I am currently litigating where drivers have called and texted as they drove. I am on the board of the TTLA and we fight vigorously to prevent this negligent driving by commercial drivers.

If you are involved in an 18 wheeler accident please contact my office immediately so that I can fight to get you everything you deserve.

After multiply delays, CSA (formerly CSA 2010 [which originally stood for Comprehensive Safety Analysis but was changed on Nov 30th to Compliance Safety and Accountability and the 2010 was dropped]) is now live at www.SAFERSYS.org. This will have a significant impact on litigation involving trucks, buses, and other commercial motor vehicles.

The FMCSA caved to industry pressure, so there is now a warning that indicates the data is not a safety fitness determination or a safety rating. The warning pops up when you log into the SaferSys site.

As a member of the Americans Association for Justice's Interstate Trucking Litigation Group as well as the board of directors of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, I am glad this information is available to help people like you who unfortunately might be seriously injured in a tractor trailer crash.

I have been successful fighting trucking companies over the last 30 plus years. I am currently various clients who have been injured by 18 wheelers and other commercial vehicles. My accident reconstructionist is in Waco now investigating the scene and all vehicles and performing a representing a young women who was seriously injured when she was hit by a tractor trailer driver who was speeding at least 10 miles an hour over the speed limit.

If you are involved in an 18 wheeler accident please contact my office immediately so that I can fight to get you everything you deserve.

Tractor trailer insurance is often not enough to cover damages sustained by my clients. Medical bills alone can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Fortunately, a new federal study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the agency responsible for regulating the trucking industry, reached the same conclusion.

Asa member of the Americans Association for Justice's Interstate Trucking Litigation Group as well as the board of directors and committees in the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, I want to show that the current insurance policy limits are nowhere high enough to compensate people like you who unfortunately might be seriously injured in a tractor trailer crash.

I have been successful fighting trucking companies over the last 30 plus years.

If you are involved in an 18 wheeler accident please contact my office immediately so that I can fight to get you everything you deserve.

There is a new push to allow bigger trucks on the roads and highways of America. Trucking companies are talking about longer trucks and trucks with double and triple trailers. Even with the current weight limit, crashes involving commercial trucks cause too many serious injuries and deaths every year.

The Wall Street Journal indicated the push in Congress is coming from 150 companies who want to allow trucks up to 20% heavier than the current 80,000 pound limit. This would make the average truck go from 80,000 pounds to 96,000 pounds. These longer and heavier trucks would increase the blind spots of truck drivers around the tractor trailer as well as making them harder to stop quickly. Unless they are able to substantially increase the power of the brakes, the additional momentum will mean longer stopping distances and more accidents.

And even if trucks have increased breaking capacity, passenger cars and pickup trucks wont have any additional strength added to withstand the impact from these super trucks. Even if newer cars can be built to withstand the additional impact force, hundreds of millions of older cars would remain unprotected.

In addition to consumer safety organizations that uniformly think this is a bad idea, OIDA (Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association) has stated that the stability of a tractor trailer is "substantially reduced on bigger and heavier trucks." Rollovers are already the leading cause of truck driver deaths. Allowing heavier trucks would only make one of the most deadly professions more dangerous. One government official, a truck inspector, called the idea is "insane" according to the Wall Street Journal article.

I have represented hundreds of innocent people who have been seriously injured in wrecks with tractor-trailers. Many of them are lucky to be alive. The picture below is the car two of my clients were in after it was run over by an 18-wheeler. Fortunately, they both survived. If the truck that hit them had been 16,000 pounds heavier, they would surely have been killed. If you have been involved in an accident with an 18-wheeler or other commercial truck, call my office at 817-885-8000 immediately to discuss your case. I will take the time to meet with you and answer all your questions. The sooner you call, the sooner I can start working on your case and making you money.

On my other blog, I wrote about how many insurance companies engaged in inproper handling claims practices Apparently feeling bad for not making the 10 worst list in that report I quoted, Travelers decided to jump on the bad behavior bandwagon.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, not known for criticizing insurance companies or big businesses, just ordered Travelers Insurance to stop airing a deceptive TV advertisement.

Thursday's cease and desist letter says the ad wrongly tells Texas homeowners to purchase additional vehicle insurance or risk losing their homes if they have inadequate insurance after a traffic accident.

The truth is, state law already protect homeowners so "it is improper for Travelers to scare Texans into buying insurance they may not need, " Abbot explained.

Under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Travelers could be liable for up to $20,000 for each airing of the ad.

I'm disgusted with Travelers over trying to rip off Texas consumers. Is it not enough that this megabillion dollar corporation already rakes in billions of dollars every year in premiums? Is not enough that they refuse to offer fair compensation to the innocent victims of their drivers' negligence? Now they are scaring people into paying them even more so they can make even bigger profits?

Last year, I represented a woman who was hit by an 18-wheeler insured with Travelers. The wreck ruptured one of her breast implants and she needed 4 surgeries to repair the damage. Her medical bills totaled nearly $140,000.00. Even though she had no complaints during the more than 20 years that the implants were in place, Travelers argued that they might have been ruptured prior to the wreck so they weren't responsible. They also argued that there wasn't much damage to either vehicle and even that the wreck was my client's fault.

I filed a lawsuit after they refused to make anything close to a reasonable settlement offer.

I hired a focus group and asked several local attorneys what they thought about the case. The consensus was that if a jury awarded $100,000.00, would would be lucky. After months of fighting, at mediation the case settled for nearly a quarter of a million dollars. I was then able to reduce the amount of medical bills she needed to pay so she would get to keep more of her settlement. Out of the nearly $140,000.00 worth of bills, all she had to repay was $300.00. My client received $132,200.00 after all fees, expenses and medical bills were paid. She was very pleased.

If you have been injured in a car wreck, e-mail or call me today at 817-885-8000.

I just got back from running a marathon in Oregon, my fifth marathon in the last five months, so you know I'll go the distance for you.