Can We Retire the Myth of the Truck Driver Shortage?
Have you heard that a shortage of truck drivers exists and it's only getting worse? According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the American trucking industry finds itself in need of 61,000 drivers. To make matters worse, within 7 years, that number could balloon into hundreds of thousands of truck drivers short of what the...
Is There a Downside to Record Alcohol Sales in Texas?
In May 2021, Texas bars, restaurants, and other licensed alcohol vendors sold $742,884,835 worth of beer, wine, and spirits. This eclipsed the previous record of $722 million in monthly sales from March 2019. Coupled with near-record sales in April 2021 ($689 million, the third-highest monthly sales on record), it certainly appears that Texas drank away...
Just Because Police Rarely Enforce Texas’ Texting Ban Doesn’t Mean it Doesn’t Have an Impact
Recently, the Dallas Morning News measured the enforcement of the texting while driving ban in Texas. The initial ban went into effect in September of 2017, in the wake of a horrific mass-casualty crash outside of San Antonio. In that incident, a young man was allegedly texting, when he crashed into a church bus, killing...
What Are the 5 Deadliest States for Truck Drivers?
While many people worry about the dangers that tractor-trailers pose to them on the highway, few consider that they aren't the only ones at risk in accidents with large vehicles. In fact, nearly 700 truckers die every year on our nation's highways. This makes driving commercial trucks one of the more dangerous occupations in the...
The Chamber of Commerce Is Lying About Our Legal System (Again)
Last fall, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform (the organization's tort reform propaganda arm) released a shocking report, Tort Liability Costs for Small Businesses, claiming that our court system costs the average person upwards of $3,000 annually, due to injury and other damages claims. The report also claims that these costs fall...
What are Reporters Missing About the 6 x Fatal 133-Car- Pile-Up in Fort Worth, TX
To say that the Thursday, February 11, 2021 133-car-pile-up on I-35W in Fort Worth, Texas received a lot of media coverage is an understatement. Hundreds of articles and dozens of videos of the incident litter the internet. We know that the following people died in the crash: Aaron Luke Watson, 45, Fort Worth, TXTiffany Louann...
Warning: Scammers are Pretending to be attorney Keith Purdue. Don’t fall for it.
One of the problems of having a semi-public persona in the internet age is that anyone can obtain your basic biographical information from a Google search. For scammers and con artists, this represents an opportunity to add legitimacy to their scam. Unfortunately, it has been brought to our attention that a scammer has been using...
One Danger to Police Officers Will Continue Until We Hold Bars Accountable
Mention police officers and drunk drivers in the same sentence, and I'll bet most people will assume that you're talking about the role that police play catching drunk drivers and protecting the public. What many people never consider is the threat that drunk drivers pose to the police. Given that the hours when most police...
Why Do West Texas Oilfield Companies Keep Hiring Dangerous Truck Drivers?
"How do we bring the number of Texas oilfield trucking fatalities down?" Media outlets raise issues such as speed limits, road maintenance, and truck upkeep, which all play a role in the problem: What no one wants to discuss is that the biggest factor in whether an 18-wheeler causes a deadly crash is the quality of the truck's driver.
What Is Missing from the Discussion of Deadly West Texas Oil-Field Truck Crashes?
Out of the half-dozen outlets that filed reports on this incident, not a single one mentions that the pick-up that likely caused the crash is owned by an oil services company. While authorities are aware that Imperative Chemical Partners Inc. owns and operates the offending pick-up, and will likely classify this crash as an oil-field truck accident, it's certainly concerning that skilled reporters missed this crucial detail.
