Breaking Legal News — Trucking Accidents

This comes after multiple trucks hit Oahu’s Gulick overpass within the past few weeks. The H-1 overpass is one of the lowest on the island.

Two weeks ago, the driver of an Island Topsoil Service truck failed to clear the 14-foot-3-inch overpass by six inches, sending small chunks of concrete to the freeway below.

The accident caused an inconvenience to morning traffic as officials moved the truck to the side of the road and photographed the damage.

Two days prior, another truck spilled 300 gallons of paint on the Waipahu off-ramp, which took four hours to clean up.

It’s the responsibility of heavy-load drivers to make sure their loads are properly measured and secured, said DOT spokesman, Scott Ishikawa, adding that failing to do so could inconvenience and even endanger the public.

Structural damage can also cost big bucks. In 2006, an Army transport crashed into a pedestrian overpass, shutting down all six lanes. It cost $700,000 to fix. The driver of the truck also did not have a permit.

We’re not giving out permits for the sake of giving out permits, Ishikawa said. We want to make sure that loads are properly secured and help drivers map out alternative routes.

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The driver, 64-year-old David Wells, slammed his semi-tractor trailer into the Chinatown CTA station just before 5:30 p.m. Twenty-one people — including six children — were injured, and two people died at the scene. Both deaths were ruled accidents.

Wells was reportedly seen acting oddly at the scene. A later search discovered he was carrying another person’s prescription at the time.

His odd behavior continued when Wells was taken into custody for two days. Sources said he refused to put clothes on and urinated on the wall during his lockup. He also refused to give a statement to police and declined a urine test.

Police said drugs and alcohol were not a factor in the crash, but they are looking at other factors. Investigators are awaiting results from a more extensive toxicology test to see if the prescription drugs were involved.

Police are also not ruling out mechanical failure of the truck. Initial investigations showed the truck left no skid marks, which could mean a possible malfunction.

Wells was cited for negligent driving. He was driving a truck for Whiteline Express, based in Plymouth, Michigan.

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The proposal would add four center lanes for truck drivers — two going eastbound and two going westbound. A grass barrier would separate the truck lanes from the nearby car lanes. To exit the freeway, trucks would first merge into car traffic via special ramps.

The design’s project manager, Kenny Voss, said the extra lanes are an obvious safety improvement to the busy highway that approximately 10,000 trucks drive on daily.

Nearly 27 percent of accidents involve a truck, and 38 percent of those are fatal, Voss said.

In addition to increasing highway safety, the new design would help improve traffic flow when truck accidents occur, which can block multiple lanes.

So far, reviews are mixed. At the hearing, some attendees agreed that separating trucks and cars would reduce incidents between the two. Others talked about the dangers of having trucks merge from the left side of the road. For highway patrol officers, getting to the center truck lanes may be difficult if the lanes are separated with grass barriers, according to an officer at the meeting.

Transportation officials said they consulted with major truck industries about the design.

The new lanes would cost around $4 billion. So far, there is no government funding for the project.

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Medical experts have suggested to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders who are obese or have a body mass index higher than 30 be routinely tested for obstructive sleep apnea.

Further, those who have sleep apnea must be treated in order to receive their CDL certification.

The recommendations, aimed at improving highway safety, come after studies found truckers have a 20 to 30 percent incidence rate for sleep apnea, higher than for people over age 40.

Sleep apnea causes individuals to wake up frequently during the night, resulting in lost sleep time. For fatigued truck drivers, the effects can be hazardous.

According to Allan Pack of the Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania, drivers with sleep apnea are 2 ½ times more likely to be involved in a severe crash.

One of the major contributors to sleep apnea is obesity.

Some truckers say the testing recommendation is unfair because it singles out truckers from the rest of the drivers on the road.

The FMCSA currently does not have a timetable for considering the new recommendations. It could take up to a year for the regulations to be implemented if approved by all federal agencies.

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The accident occurred between 2:30 and 3 P.M. Dallas time, when for as-yet-undermined reasons the large truck vaulted the center barrier dividing the northbound and southbound lanes of Texas 183 and struck a northbound motorcycle before toppling onto its side, landing atop a red sport utility vehicle.

The 41-year old female driver of the SUV was killed immediately. A young girl who was a passenger in the SUV survived the wreck and was hospitalized at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas in critical condition. The motorcyclist and the cement truck operator were also hospitalized; both are currently listed in serious condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Names of the injured and deceased have not been released.

Northbound lanes of the highway were shut down for hours while rescue operations were underway. Two heavy-duty wreckers were required to raise the cement truck off the remains of the crushed SUV. Southbound lanes of Highway 183 remained open, though traffic was slowed due to a light pole that was felled in the accident, blocking part of the road.

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Nebraska is set to receive full federal incentive funding for its efforts to keep the number of trucking accidents down.

From 2002 to 2006, the state cut its rate of fatal crashes involving trucks in half. During the same time period, Nebraska also reported 200 less trucking injuries.

The State Patrol will receive approximately $200,000 in an effort to continue this trend and make sure that trucks and their drivers do not pose a danger on the road.

The funding will be used to carry out more effective inspections of large commercial trucks, including surprise roadside inspections by troopers. During vehicle inspections, the State Patrol checks everything and everyone, from brakes to mechanics, to fatigued drivers and those driving with suspended licenses. Funding will also help to pay for any special equipment needed to assist with the inspections.

Nebraska is one of only eight states, including Kansas, that will receive full federal incentive funding. In order to keep the funding, however, the state must show continued improvement in reducing the number of accidents.

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Jurors awarded plaintiff Barry Bowman, a 62-year-old security guard and former Los Angeles police officer, $11 million for his pain and emotional distress caused by the accident, which occurred in October 2004. They also awarded him $4.7 million for his medical expenses and lost income.

Bowman’s attorney, Michael Alder, says that Bowman suffered brain damage as a reult of the accident and now requires round-the-clock care.

According to Bowman’s lawsuit, the dump truck involved in the accident was operated by Tommie Wyatt Trucking, a company that had been hired by the city to transport asphalt.

During the trial, city attorneys disputed the city’s liability in the accident by arguing that the vehicle’s driver had finished working for the day and was not on a job site when the incident occurred. They also contended that the truck was traveling at 2 mph when it struck Bowman. Alder, however, claimed that it was moving at 14 mph.

The case went to trial after attorneys for both sides could not reach an agreement, Alder said, adding that city lawyers were unwilling to offer more than $50,000 to settle the case.

The city is currently deciding whether to appeal the verdict.

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John Reutter, 65, and his wife, Mary, 61, were seriously injured in the June 2006 accident on Interstate 35W near Burleson, Texas. Mrs. Reutter suffered a paralyzed left arm and has only partial movement of her right arm. Mr. Reutter experienced lower back pain as a result of the wreck, their attorneys said.

The Reutters sued Oklahoma-based United Petroleum Transports Inc. and this week announced the parties had reached an out-of-court settlement to end the case, just as it was set to go to trial. The settlement was among the largest ever reached in Johnson County courts, attorneys said.

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San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Dodie A. Harman, in handing down the sentence reached through a plea agreement between attorneys, noted that the driver of the truck, Shawn Brandon Evans, 25, of Atascadero, did not intend to hurt anyone. The judge said the incident was “absolutely the most tragic for the court to handle.”

Jerry Carter, 27, was killed and three others riding on the ATV with him were hurt on July 1, 2006. Evans was driving his off-road truck over a sandy dune ledge when it landed on top of the ATV being ridden by Carter and others. Evans pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence, a misdemeanor.

About 30 members of Carter’s family crammed into Harman’s courtroom on November 19 and urged the judge to impose a longer jail sentence than was agreed to in the plea bargain. In addition to spending 30 days in jail, Evans must also spend two years on probation and complete 200 hours of community service.

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Jurors had ordered the food giant to pay the damages to the family of a 22-year-old Marine who died in the accident, which occurred near Crestline, Ohio. Tyson appealed the amount of the jury’s award and also asked for a new trial.

A federal court judge on Oct. 31 denied the food giant’s motions and tacked on interest that had accrued on the damages but had not been paid to the victim’s family during Tyson’s appeal period.

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