Video tip 10 for truck accident lawyers
Here’s the tenth of my series of 13 videos for truck accident lawyers. This one is from a past American Association for Justice seminar for truck attorneys. I’m explaining how a lawyer should properly put the onus on the trucking company when a truck driver causes a serious truck crash.
The takeaway: According to Rule 49 CFR ? 390.13, no person shall said, abet, encourage or require a motor carrier or its employees to violate Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations. This means trucking company management cannot pressure truck drivers to speed, drive past hours or break any of the FMCSA rules whatsoever.
When this happens, this important safety rule makes it clear that the real fault for a serious truck accident are the higher-ups of a trucking company. It is the key to holding these people – who often pressure truckers to break important safety rules – accountable.
Remember, a truck driver may have caused a truck accident. But it’s often the motor carrier who created the situation that caused that truck accident to begin with. As I said in the video, you get to the trucking company by asking the trucker who gave him orders that caused him to violate important safety rules. For example, if a truck driver drove beyond his hours of service…
Who made him do that?
Was it the dispatcher, the transportation manager or the trucking company owner?
What did this trucking company higher-up instruct the truck driver to do?
Was the trucker told he and was he pressured to meet an unrealistic deadline?
Are truckers given a period of time to drive from one point to another that they can’t possibly meet unless they speed, drive over the hours of service, or both?
It’s almost impossible to have a serial bad truck driver who repeatedly violates safety rules and not have anyone at the motor carrier who knows about it. And truck drivers usually don’t like being forced to break the law and to needlessly endanger others on the road – and themselves.
If you are a truck driver, and this is happening to you, here is more information on how you can protect yourself.
Here’s another blog on bad trucking companies.
– Steven Gursten is a partner of Michigan Auto Law and one of the top truck accident lawyers in the country. He is past president of the American Association for Justice Truck Accident Litigation Group, and has received the top-reported jury verdict in Michigan for a truck accident case. Steve was named a Michigan Lawyers Weekly Leader in the Law for his work to promote national truck safety.
Related information to protect yourself:
Michigan truck rules and regulations
8 important things to know about truck accident cases
Help for truck accident attorneys
Michigan Auto Law exclusively handles car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state of Michigan. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Detroit. Call (248) 353-7575 to speak with one of our truck accident lawyers today.
