Video tip 6 for truck accident lawyers

This is the sixth tip from my series of 13 videos for truck accident lawyers on how to handle truck lawsuits. This video is from a past American Association for Justice truck accident attorney seminar. I’m discussing the importance of GPS black boxes (also called  on-board hours of service devices).

Truck companies pushing truckers to break safety regulations, lie on logs books and speed

I received the following comment from Ron, a professional commercial truck driver. He makes a number of personal observations about how the trucking industry puts truck drivers in jeopardy and in no-win positions. It is the same thing I’ve seen as a truck accident lawyer helping both injury victims who’ve been seriously hurt from truck accidents, and from many truck drivers who were injured while on the job.The public safety issue involving large commercial motor vehicles is one I’ve written about often in this space.

Truck accident attorney explains why Michigan residents are put at such great risk

Yet another wrongful and completely senseless death has occurred at the hands of an extremely negligent truck driver. This trucker was watching streaming porn on a laptop over a period of several hours and while “distracted,” he crashed his tractor-trailer into the vehicle of a young mother named Julie Stratton – killing  her.

Rule of the Road No. 12: EVERYONE in a trucking company must follow truck safety rules

My fellow truck accident attorneys, this is the last blog in my “Rules of the Road” series. I posted this series because it is my sincere wish that by sharing these dozen rules of what I consider to be some of the most important Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for lawyers handling truck accidents, and showing how they’re integral to handling such a case properly, we can work together with many in the industry to stop so many tragic and preventable truck fatalities and serious injury accidents.

Rule of the Road No. 11:  The daily log  book as an oath or affirmation

This week, I’ll be wrapping up my “Rules of the Road” series of blogs for truck accident lawyers from my recent seminar. These 12 rules were shared with lawyers throughout the country during a truck accident litigation seminar I spoke at in New Orleans.

I had a truck driver e-mail me yesterday on the subject. This is what he wrote:

Rule of the Road No. 10: Truck accident lawyer says get medically impaired truck drivers off our roads

There are close to 600,000 commercial truck drivers with dangerous medical conditions — and who qualify for full federal disability payments — driving tractor-trailers on the roads today, according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office study. This means 600,000 truckers on our roads with epilepsy, heart disease and various other illnesses and injuries that can greatly impair their ability to operate an 80,000-pound commercial truck. These truck drivers share our highways and put our families in danger of completely preventable and sometimes catastrophic truck accidents.

Rule of the Road No. 9 – How Trucking Companies Aid and Abet Bad Drivers in Breaking Laws

One of the most important federal safety regulations that many truck accident attorneys have never heard of is Rule 49 CFR § 390.13, which states that no person shall aid, abet, encourage, or require a motor carrier or its employees to violate the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.

Rule of the Road No. 8 – Truck Accidents Under Hazardous Driving Conditions

Weather is almost never a valid excuse for causing a truck accident.  I’ve taught at several trucking seminars and case workshops for lawyers around the country, and I’m always surprised by the number of lawyers bringing truck accident cases that occurred in bad weather; and how worried they are about a “sudden emergency” argument from the defense at trial.

Let’s nip this misconception in the bud right now.

Rule of the Road No. 7 – How to poke holes in a dishonest truck driver’s story during the deposition

Pre-trip inspection requirements are probably the most violated mandatory safety rule by the trucking industry today. Unfortunately, most lawyers who handle truck accident cases have no idea what those inspection requirements are. Most lawyers think a pre-trip inspection is one inspection by the driver before he gets behind the wheel.

Wrong.

As required by 49 CFR § 392.9, a truck driver must inspect his truck and cargo:

Rule of the Road No. 6 – Truck Accident Attorneys Show How to Identify Driver Fatigue

A recent survey states that 20 percent of truck drivers nationwide admitted to falling asleep at the wheel in a given month. This stat comes at no surprise to our truck accident attorneys, who frequently handle horrible truck crash cases, caused when fatigued truckers continue driving over the legal limits. This is usually due to intense pressure by management, as well as financial incentives to drive past federally regulated hours of service.