Last week I went to Chicago for the American Association for Justice Interstate Truck Accident Litigation Group seminar. As president of the group, I helped organize the event, which was a great success with nearly 100 lawyers who specialize in truck accident cases coming together from all over the country. But the primary reason I counted the program a success is because it reminded the truck accident lawyers just how important our jobs are.

From talking with many of the attorneys, one message that came across loud and clear is just how many trucking companies will hurt others and allow others to be hurt if there is no punishment for their negligence.

In my previous blog, “Crotch Rocket” Motorcycle Death Rates Continue to Rise in Michigan, I discussed the extreme danger of young, inexperienced crotch rocket drivers who daringly dart down Michigan roads at speeds exceeding 150 miles per hour. For supersport drivers who cause accidents, the legal outcomes regarding a third-party tort case for injuries and pain and suffering are generally unfavorable — especially compared to those of car or truck drivers.

However, the no-fault attendant care lawyers of Michigan Auto Law have been able to successfully help many motorcyclists — even those who cause motorcycle accidents — receive important no-fault attendant care benefits.

It’s no surprise that texting while driving on Michigan roads greatly increases the likelihood of getting into a serious car accident. But one recent tragedy is providing a shocking, real-life example — that automobile accident lawyers can also learn from.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a Los Angeles Metrolink commuter train crash, which resulted in 25 deaths and 128 people injured. According to published reports, it’s suspected that the engineer of the train was text messaging when the train ran a stop signal and crashed into an oncoming freight engine.

As lawyers helping Michigan drivers involved in serious car accidents and truck accidents, we know from very real cases how dangerous texting while driving can be. Yet the same people who would never drink and drive think nothing about how completely unsafe it is to text while driving.

It is human nature to believe one is invincible, and people will no doubt continue to pound away on the keypads of their cell phones during their lengthy commutes. In fact, an estimated 18-20 percent of drivers are sending or receiving text messages while behind the wheel, stated a recent Nationwide Insurance study.

As Michigan lawyers specializing in truck accidents, our truck accident lawyers have litigated several truck underride crashes. Underride truck accident cases are usually catastrophic, as most involve cars smashing at high speeds into the rear or sides of large semi trucks or tractor-trailers.

Recently, my friend Ken Shigley, an excellent Atlanta truck accident lawyer, spoke on this subject. Ken stepped in to speak for Allan J. Kam, who consults on federal motor carrier safety issues around the country, at an advanced seminar on litigating truck accident crashes. The presentation was shocking. It showed how politicians and the trucking industry have conspired to oppose inexpensive safety changes that have led to thousands of semi truck accident wrongful deaths and catastrophic serious injuries from underride accidents over the past 40 years.

In late July, I took the deposition of a truck driver who killed a wonderful husband and father of two beautiful little girls. In this completely preventable Michigan truck accident case, the driver lost control of his fully-loaded 150,000-pound gravel truck and swerved into my client’s car as it was traveling alongside the truck on I-75 in Detroit, killing him.

The driver admitted he had received no formal training or supervision from his employer. He also said he failed to inspect the truck’s tires and brakes. Additionally, he had a seizure disorder and was on powerful epilepsy medication that causes drowsiness and delayed reaction time.

In late July, Michigan was listed among the top 12 most sanctioned states in the nation that allow truck drivers with serious medical problems, including seizure disorders, to drive large tractor-trailers on the roads and that fail to require truck drivers to carry valid medical certificates. Clearly, Michigan is destined to have more truck accidents due to this sad fact.

Nick Bollea, the teenage son of wrestling idol Hulk Hogan and star of VH1 reality show “Hogan Knows Best,” is serving eight months in jail on charges of causing a car accident that critically injured his best friend.

Given the tremendous amount of publicity the case has received and my firm’s expertise in helping people who have suffered serious personal injury and wrongful death in car accidents and truck accidents throughout Michigan, I’m compelled to inform the public of what results a lawsuit with similar facts would garner accident victims if it happened to occur in Michigan. And it’s not a pretty picture.

On April 3rd, 2008, the conservative, 4-justice majority of the Michigan Supreme Court, referred to as the “Gang of Four” by many Michigan personal injury lawyers, wiped out all lawsuits and legal claims based on consortium in any car accident caused by government employees.  Parents, children and spouses are now barred from making any claim for loss of society, companionship, or consortium for the injury or death to a loved one if the car accident has been caused by a governmental employee.   This terrible decision is still limited to lawsuits against a governmental entity based upon the negligence of a governmental employee in causing a motor vehicle accident.  Michigan lawyers can still bring a loss of consortium claim for personal injury or death to a parent, spouse or child after car accidents not been caused by a governmental employee.
 
Wesche v. Mecosta County Road Commission:
The decision, Wesche v. Mecosta County Road Commission was authored by Justice Corrigan, the same justice who has ironically called herself a “champion of children,” despite authoring such previous travesties as Cameron v. ACIA.  Justice Corrigan ruled in Wesche that the parents of an unborn child killed in a car accident caused by a negligent driver employed by the government, cannot recover anything for the loss of society and companionship of their child.