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 simply an acceptable hazard of driving to and fro. It may be a necessary evil to spend time behind the wheel, but the road holds many dangers. Some of them are environmental, certainly--weather conditions, road quality, loose debris--but drivers themselves are responsible for many...
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...
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...
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
Single-vehicle 18-aheeler accidents happen regularly and more than they should. 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...
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...
Cargo-Related Accidents: Who is at fault?
Cargo-related accidents are of major concern. It seems like every week we open the newspaper and read about a motorist who was injured or killed by cargo that fell off of a commercial truck. Additionally, people may be killed or injured by cargo that hasn't fallen off trucks, but merely hung too far off the...
How And Why Trucking Companies Conduct Surveillance on Accident Victims
Something I continually encounter in truck accident cases are the various surveillance operations launched by trucking companies and their insurers against my clients. As crazy as it sounds, trucking companies spy on people who file claims against them all the time. Why they do this. Before I go into this, there is a misconception about...
