Liability for Highway Obstructions in Texas Law
We have noticed a lot of news reports lately about motorists who for one reason or another collide with the rear of a tractor-trailer. Fault in these instances is always case-specific. Sometimes it falls on the passenger vehicle's driver; in other instances, fault lies with the trucker. There are even accidents where inclement weather or...
Should Semi-Truck U-Turns Be Illegal?
It's difficult for a truck accident law firm to ask questions about commercial truck safety without those who drive trucks for a living taking offense and thinking we're "anti-trucker." I'd like to dispense that notion right off the bat. We have the utmost respect for 99% of professional truck drivers who drive their whole careers...
What Do I Do If I’m in an 18-Wheeler Chain Reaction Accident?
On December 30, 2016, a chain-reaction collision begun by a 2001 Freightliner tractor-trailer led to one fatality and ten injured people on westbound Interstate 40 in St. Francis County, Arkansas. According to the official report filed by the Arkansas state highway patrol, six passenger vehicles were moving slowly in a line as traffic passed by...
Anthony Lefteris and Fraudulent Truck Driver Physicals
While it should have been a shock that federal prosecutors brought charges in early December against an Atlanta chiropractor for falsifying hundreds of truckers' medical exams, it wasn't. Over the years, our truck accident injury attorneys have come across cases where we were left wondering how a driver passed their mandatory bi-annual physical. In some...
Loose Selection and Enforcement Standards Make Some Truckers Fear Their Own Industry.
Have you heard the expression "one bad apple spoils the bunch?" I know it's a little folksy, but most people recognize its meaning without too much strain: Take a generally-benign group and introduce an element that is decidedly less so. Over time, this foreign element will corrupt the larger group, and the more the corruption...
Are Meritor WABCO Air Brake Modulator Valves Dangerous?
This past Friday, a wrongful death suit was filed in Alabama on behalf of Jordan Mays Matson. Ms. Matson lost her life October 20, 2015 in a collision with an 18-wheeler. What makes this lawsuit different from a typical 18-wheeler wrongful death suit is that in addition to the truck driver and trucking company, a...
Viral Social Media Post Falsifies Crash Details, Blames Victims
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes auto accidents are an acceptable hazard of driving around. It may be a necessary evil to spend time behind the wheel, but the road holds many hazards. Some of them are environmental, certainly—weather conditions, poor road quality, low visibility—but drivers themselves are arguably the most dangerous part...
Despite Court Case: Electronic Truck Logs Very Likely
Earlier this week we chronicled the potential Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) electronically-enforced national truck speed limit, which pitted the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the FMCSA against the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). That doesn't appear to be the only controversy where the ATA and OOIDA find each other on opposite sides of...
18-Wheeler Explosion in Quemado, Texas and the Law
If you pay attention to the news at all, or you have an interest in feeling safe in your own car, you've probably heard the name "Takata" coming up occasionally over the past year or two. A truck accident and explosion this past week in Quemado, Texas, which killed 69-year-old Lucila Robles, has thrust Takata...
Employee or Independent Contractor? The Excel Direct Case
News broke the other day of a settlement in the case of Villalpando v. Excel Direct Inc. et al. The case involves a group of truck drivers and Excel Direct, a trucking company that claims the truckers were independent contractors. The truckers saw things differently, given the many hoops they had to jump through at...
Scam Firm Puts 600 Unqualified Truck Drivers on the Road
With the recent guilty plea of Adrian Salari, the saga of RussianTruckingSchool.com nears its conclusion. This case originated from four alleged scammers, who targeted Russian-speaking individuals wanting become commercial truck drivers. Operating out of Florida, Mr. Salari, Ellariy Medvenik, Natalia Dontsova, and Clarence Davis were responsible for fraudulently obtaining Commercial Driver's Licenses (CDLs) for roughly...
Attention Truckers: You’re Not Always On The Clock When You’re In the Sleeper Berth
When an trucker is injured while in the sleeper berth of his rig, he may have an injury lawsuit on his hands, not a workers' comp claim. In most instances, when an employee is injured on the job, their losses (wages, medical bills, etc.) are covered by a worker's compensation plan, meaning they file a...
Mechanical Failures in Single-Vehicle 18-Wheeler Accidents
Most of the time, authorities and the general public assume that if there was only one vehicle involved in a crash, then the driver must have done something wrong, such as failing to maintain speed, failing to adjust to weather conditions, distracted driving, or driving while intoxicated. The same holds true for 18-wheeler accidents, which...
Fiery South Dallas 18-Wheeler Accident Exposes Flaw in Texas Wrongful Death Laws
Around 6:35 Monday morning, five people were killed in a horrific accident when an SUV and a tractor-trailer became entangled on an overpass at the intersection of I-20 and I-35E in south Dallas. The fiery accident tied up traffic in the area for hours, but more importantly cost the lives of two children, a pregnant...
Car Accident with Fire Truck, Police Car, or Government Vehicle: Here’s How it Works in Texas
Government vehicles, such as police cars and firetrucks, are commonly found at the scene of an accident, but what happens when government vehicles are actually responsible for causing an accident? In the past, you would be out of luck because the government was immune personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. Until recently, the government was...
18-Wheeler Rollover Accidents Shouldn’t Be Fatal
There's a huge problem that has claimed the lives of truck drivers for years, yet most people are completely unaware of it: minor rollover incidents that crush truckers to death. At certain high speeds a rollover accident is simply unsurvivable, and I'm not suggesting that manufacturers build indestructible cars that can survive any impact at...
Failure to Maintain – Why Some Trucks Are Unsafe For The Road
Everyone understands that simply by driving onto the interstate we all run the risk of sharing the road with a truck driver who may fall asleep at the wheel, forget to check their mirrors before changing lanes, or otherwise fail to live up to the legal obligations he or she assumes when they become licensed...
18-Wheelers Have Unprotected Fuel Tanks and That’s a Problem
Each year, somewhere between several dozen and one hundred truck drivers burn to death. These incidents get reported, the news basically implies that the truck drivers killed themselves, and no one seems to care beyond that. Then it happens again, and again, and again. But let's get one thing perfectly clear: The majority of these...
Are Truck Drivers Required to Avoid Vehicles That Cut Across their Path?
Many traffic accidents are entirely black and white. Imagine that Car A is sitting at a stop light when Car B rear-ends them. This type of accident is not very complicated, and it is obvious in this situation that Car B is at fault. Other accident scenarios are not quite as cut and dry. For...
How Trucking Companies Gain Upper Hand In A Case & What You Can Do About It
In an accident involving a commercial truck or 18-wheeler, the truck driver and the company he or she works for will always have the upper hand at the outset of the case. Sure, there are things their victims can do to level the playing field, but trucking companies always have a head start building a...
