Over decades of representing victims of catastrophic truck crashes and their families, we often have seen fly-by-night truckers hired by larger entities that knew or should have known of the dubious safety records of the truckers they hired. Sometimes we have been able to assert claims against the larger companies for negligent hiring of unsafe truckers.

For several years, insurers for trucking freight brokers have tried relentlessly to use the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) to preempt claims for negligent selection of unsafe motor carriers. The defense position has been that the FAAAA, 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(1)) trumps all other state and federal rules authorizing liability of motor carriers, brokers, and freight forwarders. That code section says:

“General rule.—Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3), a State, political subdivision of a State, or political authority of 2 or more States may not enact or enforce a law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect of law related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier (other than a carrier affiliated with a direct air carrier covered by section 41713(b)(4)) or any motor private carrier, broker, or freight forwarder with respect to the transportation of property.”

However, the same section states includes a “safety exception”:

(2)Matters not covered.—
Paragraph (1) shall not restrict the safety regulatory authority of a State with respect to motor vehicles, the authority of a State to impose highway route controls or limitations based on the size or weight of the motor vehicle, or the authority of a State to regulate carriers with regard to minimum amounts of financial responsibility relating to insurance requirements and self-insurance authorization.

This statute out of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, which was codified in 1994 and recodified in 1995.  Though it was focused on contract and frieght claims, clever defense lawyers sought to expand it to block personal injury claims.

However, preemption of persoanl injury and wrongful death claims arising from truck crashes is based on an overly restrictive construction of what it means to “relate to” a service “with respect to the transportation of property.” The connection between the intended scope of the FAAAA on contractual and freight claims and claims for personal injury and wrongful death is too “tenuous, remote, or peripheral” for such preemption to pass the “smell test” of common sense.

In the case of C.H. Robinson v. Miller, a tractor trailer crossed the median on I-80, flipped over, blocked all lanes of travel, and caused a crash that rendered a 30-year-old man quadriplegic for life. C.H. Robinson was a freight broker that placed a load with a “chameleon” motor carrier—a truck company that changes names and applies for a new USDOT number to avoid government fines and insurance premiums. The lawsuit also asserted that the chameleon motor carrier has a history of  serious safety violations,  over 40% of its trucks were found illegally on the road when stopped for random inspections, that they had been cited many times for hours of service violations and false log books, and their percentage of out of service violations is twice that of the national average. All that information was accessible to the broker through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website.

However, the broker argued that all claims for negligent selection of the trucking company were barred by the FAAAA. A federal district judge in Reno went along with that argument. However, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the district court that common law negligence claims against brokers are not preempted because they fall within the FAAAA’s “safety exception.”

The freight broker petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the Ninth Circuit’s rejection of the FAAAA defense. Several industry groups filed amicus (friend of the court) briefs supporting the broker’s position on FAAAA preemption. This week, the Supreme Court denied that petition. Lawyers for injury victims across the country breathed a sign of relief.

However, this is not a Supreme Court decision on the merits. Lawyers for frieght brokers, trucking companies, insurance companies, and their allies in big business will continue to argue for FAAAA preemption. As we have seen in other, more newsworthy court decisions, eternal vigilance is required to guard against  established rights being taken away by a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Eternal vigilance is required to protect future victims of truck crashes.

Kudos to my friend, Rena Leizerman, and Public Citizen for their hard work in beating back the industry claims of preemption. She and her husband, Michael, from Toledo, Ohio, will represent the quadriplegic injury victim at trial in 2023

If you or a loved one has suffered a femur fracture in a truck, car or motorcycle crash in Georgia, contact us online or call us at 404-253-7862.

Johnson & Ward has been a leading personal injury and wrongful death specialty law firm in Atlanta since 1949.

senior counsel at Johnson & Ward, is a former president of the State Bar of Georgia (2011-12). He was the first Georgia lawyer to earn three board certifications from the National Board of Trial Advocacy (Civil Trial Advocacy, Civil Pretrial Advocacy, and Truck Accident Law). In 2019, he received the Traditions of Excellence Award for lifetime achievement. Mr. Shigley was lead author of  eleven editions of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice (Thomson Reuters, 2010-21). He graduated from Furman University and Emory University Law School.

Since 1981, forty years ago at the beginning of the Reagan Administration, minimum liability insurance required for large trucks in interstate commerce has remained unchanged at $750,000. Everything else has gotten more expensive in the past forty years. Nothing costs the same since then–not the truck, the repairs, the gas, or the tolls, so it is completely unrealistic for the truckers to have the same insurance as they did forty years ago.

If adjusted for the general rate of inflation over the past forty years, it would be $2,203,415.84 today. People who are injured by trucking negligence need to pay their medical bills so trucking safety advocates have sought for years to bring some balanced fairness to others on the road. If adjusted to the rate of medical inflation it would be about $5 million. But opponents of advancing public safety on the highways repeatedly have blocked an inflation adjustment on the amount of insurance required.

This year, a 2019 recipient of the “Tradition of Excellence” Award from the State Bar of Georgia General Practice & Trial Section. as a reasonable compromise.

The principal opposition to this inflation adjustment on minimum insurance coverage for large trucks is the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). While portraying itself as the representative of individual truck drivers, OOIDA operates largely as an insurance company. That is a pattern familiar in several national organizations that portray themselves as grassroots groups but are essentially insurance companies.

On June 10, 2021, U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure approved a provision of the 2021 Highway Bill to increase the minimum insurance required for interstate motor carriers for the first time in forty years, from $750,000 to $2,000,000, over the opposition of congressmen allied with OOIDA.

The greatest threat of injury and death to truck drivers comes not from smaller vehicles on the highways, but from collisions with other large trucks. We have represented a number of semi-truck drivers over the years who were badly injured when their trucks were struck by other tractor-trailers. It is ironic that OOIDA would oppose the inflation adjustment of insurance that would protect its own members against the greatest threat of injury to themselves.

The legislative process is always difficult. The struggle to update trucking insurance coverage for forty years of inflation is far from over. Those that oppose that update will pull out all the stops in the House Rules Committee and in the Senate to block measures for improved trucking safety and adequate compensation for the victims of large truck crashes.

Call us today at our Atlanta office 404-253-7862 or submit your inquiry online, and find out if we can help.

A senior counsel in the firm of Johnson & Ward, Ken Shigley is

Mr. Shigley is the first Georgia lawyer to earn three national board certifications in his practice area from the National Board of Trial Advocacy – in Civil Trial Law, Civil Practice Law. and Truck Accident Law. He is one of only three Georgia lawyers to earn board certification in Truck Accident Law. He has served as a board member of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, and former chair of the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section, which includes the Trucking Litigation Group.  He was a 2019 recipient of the “Tradition of Excellence” Award from the State Bar of Georgia General Practice & Trial Section.

He is lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice, now in its eleventh annual edition with Thomson Reuters West. His law practice is focused on catastrophic injury and wrongful death including those arising from commercial trucking accidents and those involving brain, neck, back, spinal cord, amputation, and burn injuries. 

In 2011-12, Mr. Shigley was president of the State  Bar of Georgia, which includes all the lawyers and judges in Georgia.  He also is a former chair of the Institute for Legal Education in Georgia (board member 2008-2020, chair 2012-13),  State Bar of Georgia Tort & Insurance Practice Section (1994-95), and the Georgia Insurance Law Institute (1994). A former prosecutor and former insurance defense lawyer, Mr. Shigley is a graduate of Furman University and Emory University Law School. Mr. Shigley is a widower, father of two adult children, and an elder in his church. 

Over decades representing individuals and families devastated by highway crashes with large trucks, one of the most poorly understood hazards we have seen is that of tractor trailers parked on the side of the road. Among the hazards presented by semi trucks parked in the emergency lane is decapitation of people in an approaching car due to trailer underride.

Often late at night on Georgia highways, we see tractor trailers parked on what many people commonly refer to as the “emergency lane” next to the traffic lanes. Unfortunately, many people even in the trucking industry do not appreciate how dangerous this can be for the truck driver and for motoring public.

Stopping on the roadside increases risks of a potential deadly crash, which can be prevented through management practices that include good trip planning, vehicle inspections, and appropriate equipment maintenance.

Due to the severe risk posed by parking on the roadside, trucking company management should require drivers not to stop along the roadside in non-emergency situations. At the very least, trucking companies should instruct drivers to exit the highway and find a safe place to park when necessary.

The hazard is multiplied when large trucks park on the roadside at night without using hazard flashers and warning devices. Just about every time I make a road trip at night, I see an unilluminated tractor trailer parked in the dark inches from the traffic lane.

If a driver absolutely must stop on the side of the road, motor carriers should train drivers and dispatchers on actions that can be taken to reduce the risk of a loss in the event of a breakdown or other roadside emergency. Such actions include:

• Immediately turn on hazard flashers when slowing and leave them on while stopped.
• Immediately set out warning devices (reflective triangles or flares) in accordance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations at 49 CFR § 392.22.
• Keep marker lights on after dark.
• Avoid parking on curves or on the downside of undulated roads that obscure the approach of oncoming traffic.
• Park as far off the traveled roadway as safely possible. Remember shoulders can be soft and have a steep drop-off or ditch.
• When stopped, set parking brakes.
• Notify employer as soon as possible to arrange roadside assistance.
• Avoid falling into traffic by using three points of contact exiting /entering the cab or climbing onto the catwalk or trailer.
• Walk along the side of the vehicle opposite traffic.
• Watch out for debris or uneven surfaces when outside the vehicle.
• Use a visible flashlight after dark.
• Wear reflective clothing (such as a high visibility safety vest) when exiting the vehicle.

National highway design standards from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) recommend construction standards for shoulder and right of way design. This includes the removal of dangerous obstructions such as, trees, steep slopes, or abutments. The reason for this design standard is to clear the roadside of obstructions which hinder a motorist from being able to recover from an unintended departure from the roadway. They also recommend guardrails feasible to redirect errant vehicles back onto the paved portion of the roadway.

The Roadside Design Guide defines a clear zone as the total roadside border area, starting at the edge of the traveled way, available for safe use by errant vehicles. This area may consist of a shoulder, a recoverable slope, a non-recoverable slope, and/or a clear run-out area. The desired minimum width is dependent upon traffic volumes and speeds and on the roadside geometry. Simply stated, it is an unobstructed, relatively flat area beyond the edge of the traveled way that allows a driver to stop safely or regain control of a vehicle that leaves the traveled way.

According to the Roadside Design Guide by the American Association of Highway Transportation Officials, highway shoulders, a clear zone is

The total roadside border area, starting at the edge of the traveled way, available for safe use by errant vehicles. This area may consist of a shoulder, a recoverable slope, a non-recoverable slope, and/or a clear run-out area. The desired minimum width is dependent upon traffic volumes and speeds and on the roadside geometry. Simply stated, it is an unobstructed, relatively flat area beyond the edge of the traveled way that allows a driver to stop safely or regain control of a vehicle that leaves the traveled way.

The Clear Zone, is further defined as

An unobstructed, traversable roadside area that allows a driver to stop safely, or regain control of a vehicle that has left the roadway. The width of the clear zone should be based on risk [of immediate danger]. Key factors in assessing risk include traffic volumes, speeds, and slopes. Clear roadsides consider both fixed objects and terrain that may cause vehicles to rollover.

Thus, the shoulder of the highway isn’t designed for parking at all. It is a “clear zone” or “recovery zone” and not a parking area. But every day we see 18-wheelers parked in the “recovery zone” or shoulder, over parked overnight and not illuminated.

Personal cars and trucks are doing the same thing, but the hazard they present is less severe. When a truck driver parks an 18-wheeler or other large Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) in on the shoulder of a highway in what is designed as a “Clear Zone,” the driver creates an eminent hazard to occupants any vehicle which may depart, for whatever reason, from the travel portion of the roadway.

Tractor trailers parked in the “clear zone” or “recovery zone” present a vastly greater danger to people in approaching cars that would another car parked in the same position. When a car veers out of its lane and collides with a stopped car of the same size, there may be serious injuries. But when the same car collides with an 80,000 pound tractor trailer, the physics of the collision is vastly different.   Semi-trucks are not only larger and heavier than regular vehicles, but their trailers also stand high off the ground. If a car traveling at highway speeds comes into contact with the trailer of an 18-wheeler, the big rig is the perfect height to sheer off the top of the car and kill or perhaps decapitate anyone inside.

Even if a parked semi-truck is illuminated at night, there is a recognized condition known as the “Moth Effect” which may contribute to an unwary driver running into a truck parked on the shoulder. The “Moth Effect” occurs when drivers are attracted to flashing lights or other things along the roadway, especially when fatigued.  The “Moth Effect” is especially likely when visibility conditions are reduced at night or in heavy rain which is common in Georgia.

When presented with catastrophic crashes that involve a commercial motor vehicle parked by the side of the road, we investigate deeply and retain appropriate experts. We have to determine why the driver chose that particular spot to pull off and stop.  We normally download electronic control module data and other electronic records from both vehicles. Was it an actual emergency or mechanical failure? Was the driver failing to follow safety rules and simply stopped for a “break.” Did the driver have the ability to stop in a safer location?

A lot of people who see these collisions and are uninformed on the safety standards involved assume that it is always the fault of the driver of the car that struck the parked tractor trailer. Thus, it is necessary to thoroughly investigate and, we hope, refute potential defenses. If the driver of the car had a cell phone, it is worth the cost to do a forensic download and rule out driver distraction from a cell phone at the time of the crash. A reliably conducted medical examination or autopsy is needed to rule out alcohol or drug use that may have contributed to cause of the crash.

If a loved one is killed or injured due to collision with a tractor trailer parked on the roadside, call us at (404) 253-7962 for a consultation to see whether or not there is a viable case.

Ken Shigley is recipient of the 2019 Tradition of Excellence Award from the State Bar of Georgia General Practice and Trial Section. He is a past president of the State Bar of Georgia, past chair of the State Bar’s Tort & Insurance Practice Section, past chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute, past chair of the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section, and a member of the board of governors of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys. He is lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation & Practice (Thomson Reuters West, 2010-2018). His law practice is focused on catastrophic injury and wrongful death including those arising from commercial trucking accidents and those involving brain, neck, back, spinal cord, amputation and burn injuries. He is licensed to practice law in Georgia. Representation of clients in others states, which possible, can be undertaken only in strict compliance with the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules of the other state.

This week in north Georgia there was a fatal crash between a tour bus en route to a North Carolina casino and a tractor trailer blocking traffic lanes while waiting to turn left. This happened on Georgia Highway 515 (also known as the Zell Miller Mountain Highway) at the intersection with Whitestone Road in Gilmer County.  The bus driver was killed and 43 passengers suffered a variety of injuries.

The preliminary investigation by the Georgia State Patrol  blamed the truck driver. Troopers reported that the truck driver was making a left turn onto Highway 515 southbound when he paused for traffic, leaving the trailer projecting across and blocking northbound lanes. The northbound bus driver was reportedly unable to avoid crashing into the truck’s trailer. However, first reports are not always conclusive.

This crash highlights issues with both tractor trailer operation and tour bus operation.

It is well known in the trucking industry that making a left turn across a highway with a long vehicle creates problems that automobile drivers do not have. Any properly trained truck driver and company dispatcher planning a driver’s route should know the widely accepted safety principles in trucking is that a tractor trailer driver should never start turning until there is enough time for the rear of the vehicle to clear the intersection without forcing opposing drivers to slow down or swerve. This is supported by a variety of industry safety publications, including each state’s Commercial Driver’s License Manual, the USDOT’s “Commercial Vehicle Preventable Accident Manual, A Guide to Countermeasures,” safety publications of J.J. Keller Company and other driver training manuals.

The left turn across traffic hazard is so well known that some national trucking companies  have manuals for their drivers that prohibit left turns and U-Turns. These manuals make it clear that these are among the most dangerous maneuvers a tractor trailer driver can perform. The root cause analysis of this crash will likely involve failure of the company to train and manage its drivers and dispatchers to avoid left turns across traffic on highways.

Why are left turns in tractor trailers so dangerous? Studies have shown that making such a turn from a stop takes the average truck at least 40 seconds to complete. During that time, the trailer is blocking the travel lanes and presents a hazard to all other traffic. Traffic traveling 60 mph will travel approximately three-fourths  of a mile while the truck is completing this maneuver.

This crash occurred in daylight in a location with limited sight lines, and a left turn across traffic rather than a U-turn. It is even more dangerous at night because the brightness of the truck’s headlights will mask the marker lights on the trailer. The reflective striping on the side of the trailer is invisible until the trailer is close to be at a 90 degree angle across the road. Combine these phenomena with the fact that a car driver sits low enough to see under the trailer and focus on lights that are farther away and you have created an invisible barrier for approaching traffic.

According to news reports, this truck is owned by Polcon Tile & Terrazo out of Charlotte, North Carolina.  The company lists five trucks for private delivery rather than as a motor carrier hauling for others. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) safety records online show that in January 2015, inspectors issued two unsafe driving violations to Polcon drivers. One was a lane restriction violation in South Carolina, and another for failure to obey a traffic control device in Georgia. More information is probably available through a Freedom of Information Act request to the FMCSA.

Because Polcon operates tractor trailers for its own deliveries rather than as a motor carrier hauling for others, its liability insurance information is not available online.  Since first posting about this crash, I have learned that the company has liability insurance in the amount of $7,000,000.

Over the past 20 years, we have represented numerous injured occupants of tour buses, college buses and vans, etc. Often we have utilized joint prosecution agreements to coordinate efforts of counsel for victims.

Ken Shigley is a 2019 recipient of the “Tradition of Excellence”Award from the State Bar of Georgia General Practice & Trial Section.

Mr. Shigley has earned three national board certifications from the National Board of Trial Advocacy – in Civil Trial Law, Civil Practice Law and Truck Accident Law. He is a board member of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, former chair of the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section, which includes the Trucking Litigation Group. 

He is lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice, now in its tenth annual edition with Thomson Reuters West. His law practice is focused on catastrophic injury and wrongful death including those arising from commercial trucking accidents and those involving brain, neck, back, spinal cord, amputation and burn injuries. 

In 2011-12, Mr. Shigley was president of the State  Bar of Georgia, which includes all the lawyers and judges in Georgia.  He also is a former chair of the Institute for Legal Education in Georgia (board member 2008-2019, chair 2012-13),  State Bar of Georgia Tort & Insurance Practice Section (1994-95), and the Georgia Insurance Law Institute (1994). 

A former prosecutor and former insurance defense lawyer, Mr. Shigley is a graduate of Furman University and Emory University Law School. He is a widower,  father of two adult children, and an elder in his church.

Truck crash on I-16 at I-95 on 5/19/2015 killed 5. Truck driver admitted falling asleep, is charged with 5 counts of vehicular homicide.

In the spring of 2015, there were two separate five-fatality truck crashes on I-16 in Georgia. The first one got most of the publicity because the victims were all beautiful young nursing students, but both were equally lethal and egregious. In both cases, there were at least indications that a truck driver fell asleep before running over a line of stopped traffic.

On April 22, 2015, in Bryan County, John Wayne Johnson, a truck driver from Louisiana driving for Total Trucking, a subsidiary of US Express, ran over vehicles stopped traffic. He killed five Georgia Southern University nursing students and injured two others. It appears he went to sleep as there was clear visibility on a long, straight stretch of road before he ran over the stopped vehicles. Johnson admitted he had been texting and exchanging sexually provocative message with a woman while driving but denied he was on the phone at the time of the crash.

Less than a month later, on May 19, 2015, on I-16  at its intersection with I-95, a line of traffic was stopped due to road work. David Gibbons of Pooler, driving from Georgia Freightways Corporation, while towing an intermodal container chassis trailer that carried a shipping container for CMA CMG (America), LLC, the US subsidiary of a French shipping line. The tractor-trailer was seen weaving for some distance prior to crashing into the line of stopped traffic, killing five people and injuring one. While the driver’s cell phone was allegedly destroyed in the resulting fire, phone bills indicated he was connected to the internet all day. He admitted to police on video at the scene, “I must have went to sleep.” The GBI crime lab found that he had a sleeping medication in his system, the most common trade name for which is Ambien. In deposition, he asserted his 5th Amendment right to remain silent on every question other than his name. (Disclosure: Our firm is involved as co-counsel in several of those cases.)

This spring, the Chatham County District Attorney charged Gibbons for five counts of vehicular homicide for the May 2015 crash.. This week, a Bryan County grand jury indicted Johnson for on nine counts based on the April 2015 crash, including five counts of first-degree vehicular homicide, serious injury by vehicle, reckless driving, following too closely, and failure to exercise due care. In an unusual move, the company that employed him was also indicted.

Several weeks ago, the civil cases arising from the Bryan County case were settled for substantial amounts. That was relatively simple as such things go since the trucking company and its parent company reportedly had $100 million in liability insurance coverage.

The Chatham County civil cases remain pending. It is more complex because a small trucking company with few assets had only had $1 million liability insurance coverage, so it is necessary to involve companies that are responsible for the flow of intermodal freight traffic into and through Georgia. Those cases remain actively in litigation with trial dates scheduled in 2017.

The conditions that led to both of these lethal crashes remain essentially unchanged. Truck traffic, largely to and from the Port of Savannah, may have had some cyclical waning but remains heavy. Tired and impaired truck drivers are still on the road. The Georgia Department of Transportation continues to repair sections of roadway, leading to lane closures and occasional traffic backups.

Moreover, trucking companies still resist use of forward collision avoidance technology and in-cab devices to monitor and alert drowsy drivers.  As Congress is concerned more about protecting trucking companies from implementation of more safety measures than with safety of the public on the roads, these tragedies will continue until being unsafe becomes more expensive than being safe.

Ken Shigley is a  double board certified trial lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia. He has served as president of the State Bar of Georgia, chair of the largest practice area section of the American Association for Justice (Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section), and chair of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia board of trustees. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys,lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation & Practice (2010-2016) and a chapter author of the 2016 edition of Handling Motor Vehicle Accident Cases, both published by Thomson Reuters.  He can be reached at ken.shigley@johnsonward.com.

Last week in Cherokee County, a Comcast truck failed to stop behind a car that had stopped to turn, went into the opposite lane, and struck head-on an oncoming car, killing the driver.

According to media reports, at the intersection of Ga. 140 and Avery Road, a Ford Fiesta  stopped to turn left onto Avery Road just before 12:30 p.m. on September 28, 2015.  For unknown reasons, a Comcast truck steered to the left to avoid hitting the Ford and traveled into the westbound lanes striking a Chevy pickup head-on.

The driver of the pickup — who I understand was a really good guy with whom I have several friend in common —   died at the scene of the crash. The driver of the Comcast truck and an occupant of the Fiesta were also injured.

One must reserve judgment pending investigation, but the list of possible causes may include driver distraction (e.g., cell phone, texting, GPS manipulation, food or beverage, etc.), driver impairment (medical, fatigue, etc.), speed, following too closely, mechanical failure, etc.

This is similar to the scenario in a case I tried several years ago in Calhoun in Gordon County. A box truck failed to stop behind a retired teacher who was preparing to make a turn at an intersection. The truck driver was not medically qualified to drive a commercial truck, lacked depth perception, and failed to accurately judge time, speed and distance as he approached the stopping car. He crossed into the opposite lane, passed through the intersection on the wrong side, and crashed into an approaching pickup truck. Fortunately, our client was able to avoid headon impact but the driver’s side of his vehicle was shorn away in the impact. He lived but had a shattered femur that caused a permanent impairment. The jury in Gordon County awarded a verdict of $2.3 million for his injury.

Even though the first priority is the need to process grief and celebrate the life of the loved one who was killed, in such cases it is important for family members to act quickly to make sure the case is properly investigated. Commercial vehicles generally have a great deal of data that can be downloaded after a crash. If police fail to do a thorough investigation and reconstruction, and allow a truck to be removed from impound before the family has a chance to send its own investigator, that electronic data evidence may be lost. For example, we had a case involving a fatal collision south of Atlanta. The police impounded the truck, but somehow allowed the trucking company to remove it from impound prematurely. The truck was repaired, put back in service and driven several hundred miles, overwriting data about the crash. We were able to retrieve some data from a Garmin GPS unit that was found on the dash in the truck cab, but that was far less valuable that the data that was erased.

The first step in such an investigation is to immediately serve the company with a notice of the need to preserve evidence, including a list of categories of evidence to preserve inviolate. Then as soon as practicable an inspection should be scheduled with a competent accident reconstruction expert.

Georgia wrongful death law includes two types of potential claims. First is the wrongful death suit for the “full value of the life,” which may include both economic damages such as value of lifetime income and benefits reduced to present value, and intangible value of life for what the experience of living was worth to the person who was killed. This claim must be brought by specific categories of survivors in priority order: spouse, children, parents, and then by the representative of the estate on behalf of other heirs at law. Second is a “survival action” for pain and suffering before death, medical and funeral bills, etc. The “survival action” must be filed by the executor or administrator of the estate. Sometimes we include both claims in a suit, and sometimes for tactical reasons we file one and leave out the other.

——————

Ken Shigley is a trial attorney practicing statewide in Georgia, focused on serious personal injury and wrongful death cases, especially arising from commercial truck accidents. He is currently chair of the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section. Previously he served as president of the State Bar of Georgia and chair of the board of trustees of theInstitute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia. He is lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice and a board certified civil trial attorney of the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

Once again, a tractor trailer making a u-turn in dark or fog on a rural Georgia road has proven fatal. Once again, a turning tractor trailer forms a deadly and virtually invisible fence across a highway.

On September 30th at Lenox, Georgia, a man was killed when he collided with a Scruggs Concrete semi-truck attempting to make a u-turn in the roadway in foggy conditions. He was killed when the collision sheared off the top of his pickup truck.

This is an all too common form of truck crash across the United States, largely due to poor training and management at companies that operate the trucks.

A poorly trained, poorly manged and poorly supervised truck driver might not know better than to make a u-turn in the road at night or in the fog. But the intelligent, trained action is to avoid this. The fundamental duty of any driver is to exercise reasonable care. A lot of things can go into that. For a professional driver of tractor trailers, safety regulations, vehicle size, professional training and industry standards must be considered.

Because of its size — 80,000 pounds (or more for some types) and 48 to 60  feet in combined length — a tractor trailer cannot move quickly from a starting position.   A widely quoted estimate is that it takes 15-30 seconds for an 18-wheeler to execute a u-turn.  During that time, the trailer will have the highway blocked in both directions for roughly 12 seconds.  If the truck driver has difficulty executing the turn in the space available, the truck will block the road even longer.

An approaching motorist, especially at night or in fog, may not have time to perceive, react to, and avoid the tractor-trailer during the time that the highway is blocked. The result, as in this tragic incident, is often that the approaching motorist cannot stop in time to avoid going under the trailer that blocks the road.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations include rules on conspicuity (visibility) commercial motor vehicles such as tractor trailers. In general, trailers must meet the conspicuity standards found at FMVSS 108 (49 C.F.R. § 571.108). In a u-turn case, rules about visibility from the side are most significant. These vary slightly between federal and state rules for intrastate operations in some instances, but generally the rules require lights and reflective tape or sheeting to make the trucks visible to other motorists. The reflective material must have alternating red and white colors and be positioned horizontally, beginning and ending and the front and rear ends of the trailer.

Often in cases where a tractor trailer is attempting a u-turn in low light conditions, all an approaching driver sees is headlights in the opposite lane. By the time the driver perceives that a tractor trailer is straddling both sides of the highway, there is too little time to react and avoid a crash.

Conspicuity tape and reflectors are cheap. Going another half mile down the road to a place where a turn can be made safely off the highway is cheap. Lives are precious. Too often companies operating big trucks on the highway fail to weigh those values.

We often see tractor trailers that do not comply with conspicuity standards. In one recent case involving a log truck making a u-turn on a rural Georgia highway in the dark, side lights and reflectors were missing and what little reflective tape was on the trailer was worn and dirty. In sum, it had less than one-third of the conspicuity devices required by even the relatively slack rules governing log trucks in Georgia. With logs extending 20 feet off the rear of the trailer and lights not working properly, it formed a black fence across the highway in the dark.

Georgia Code Section 40-6-121 says, “No vehicle shall be turned so as to proceed in the opposite direction: (1) Upon any curve; (2) Upon the approach to or near the crest of a grade where such vehicle cannot be seen by the driver of another vehicle approaching from either direction; (3) Where such turn cannot be made in safety and without interfering with other traffic; or (4) Where a prohibition is posted.” Trucking industry standards go beyond that, taking into account vehicle size and visibility.

Drivers of tractor trailers are professionals who require special training and licensing. Operating vastly larger vehicles than a passenger car or pickup truck, their standard of reasonableness in driving takes into account the type of vehicle they are operating. The basics of that are outlined in the Commercial Drivers License (CDL) manual, which is essentially the same in all states.

Driver manuals from major trucking companies with good safety programs include industry standards higher than the minimum requirements of statutes. Some flatly state that truck driver should never make u-turns in roads under any circumstances. Some command that their drivers never make a left turn on a highway. They should go to the next place they can turn around off the road without blocking the road by making a u-turn.

The concrete industry has a wealth of driver training videos through the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, covering most any situation that can arise in operation of those specialized vehicles. Every time I have handled a case involving a concrete truck, I have found that there were great training materials that if used would have educated the driver to avoid the hazard. And every time, I have found that the company did not bother to use those training materials. Once a concrete driver, upon seeing the training video for the first time in his deposition, exclaimed, “them [expletive deleted] never showed me that; if I had known, this wouldn’t have happened!”

Root cause analysis of these totally preventable and unnecessary crashes usually goes back to corporate management, training and supervision.  If a driver was lost, it is likely because dispatch failed to provide good directions and GPS systems. If the driver was tired, we need to consider whether the company adequately monitored fatigue and hours of service compliance, including the auditing driver logs against available documents to catch log falsification.

The bottom line is that an 18-wheeler driver simply cannot safely make a u-turn on a public road, especially in conditions of reduced visibility. Every time a tractor-trailer driver makes a u-turn in a highway, he creates a clear and present risk of injury or death just to save the time it would take  to go a little way down the road to a place he
could safely change directions. Every company that fails to train its drivers to avoid u-turns has an unspoken policy of endangering the public.

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Ken Shigley is a trial attorney practicing statewide in Georgia, focused on serious personal injury and wrongful death cases, especially arising from commercial truck accidents. He is currently chair of the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section. Previously he served as president of the State Bar of Georgia and chair of the board of trustees of theInstitute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia. He is lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice and a board certified civil trial attorney of the National Board of Trial Advocacy.  Ken Shigley is a candidate for election to the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2018.

NOTE TO TRUCK DRIVERS:
Our law practice focuses on representation of people who are seriously injured, and families of those killed, in crashes with large commercial vehicles. While those are often truck drivers, we do not handle truckers’ employment law matters. For legal advice on issues with your employer or truck driving schools, see Truckers Justice Center. 

One day in Kansas City, I took the deposition testimony through an interpreter of a Bosnian immigrant truck driver. He was driving with a Florida Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) when he crashed an 18-wheeler into my client on a Georgia interstate highway.

I asked where he got his truck driver training. He said some Russian guy in North Carolina, whose name he could not recall, trained him. How did he study the Commercial Drivers License manual, published in English?   He said his 10-year-old daughter read it and translated it for him. She may have been a precocious child, but really? I didn’t think then to dig into how he was able to take and pass the Florida CDL tests.

For several years, a high percentage of our serious truck crash cases have involved immigrant truck drivers who have to testify through interpreters. They drive the highways of America in little bubbles of their home countries, talking by cell phone as they drive with people in their home countries, listening to music in a native dialect, and never really interacting with America language or culture.

When I look back over the past several years, all the truck drivers with inadequate English whom I have encountered in truck crash cases had obtained their CDL’s in either Florida or New Jersey. Perhaps that is just a coincidence. Perhaps.

I deeply respect the immigrant work ethic that leads many newcomers to this country to work hard in jobs that it is hard to find enough Americans to do. Occasionally I have represented hard-working immigrant truckers, visited in their homes and met their wives and children.  But language proficiency has real implications for safety. That is why interstate commercial truck drivers are required to be able to read and speak English well enough to read signs, make entries on records and interact with the public and police. (49 C.F.R Section 391.11)

Now FBI and Florida law enforcement officials have charged four people, including three Russian immigrants, with operating a fraudulent business to provide CDL’s to unqualified immigrants.

Ellariy Medvednik,, Natalia Dontsova, Adrian Salari, and Clarence Davis  have all been indicted for conspiracy to aid and abet the unlawful production of Florida driver licenses and commercial driver licenses. According to the indictment, they were associated with Larex, Inc., a commercial truck driving school that marketed itself online to Russian speakers.

Russian speaking people from elsewhere seeking Florida CDLs would contact Medvednik to arrange for Larex’s services at a price of $2,000 to $5,000. It only took a few days to get a license through the school. A typical truck-driving school lasts three or four weeks and costs at least $6,000.

Many of the CDL applicants were Russian-speaking immigrants living in New York, Illinois, California and Virginia. These  would travel to Florida to obtain their CDLs with the intention of returning to those states immediately afterward.

However, to obtain a Florida CDL, an individual must first possess a Florida driver license. Florida restricts its driver licenses and CDLs to Florida residents. The Russian defendants would provide false documentation that the applicants resided with them in Florida, so that the applicants could obtain Florida driver licenses.

They would then proceed to fraudulently obtain a Florida CDL.  Dontsova, using covert communication equipment, provided answers to the students during the written portion of the CDL exam, leading to issuance of a CDL permit.

Second, Larex hired Davis, a third-party tester authorized by the State of Florida, to administer vehicle inspection tests, basic control skills tests, and road tests. According to the US Attorney, Davis routinely passed and certified students who should have failed based on their test performance. Based on Davis’s certifications, these Russian applicants were able to obtain Florida CDLs. At least 600 people have been identified as utilizing Larex’s services with Davis as the third-party tester to obtain a CDL.

The FBI started investigating the school in June 2013 after the Orange County Tax Collector’s Office noticed that many people had applied for a CDL using the same home address. This led to a sting investigation in which a Russian-speaking informant posed as an applicant and went through the whole process, and ultimately a federal search warrant for the records at Larex.

The implication for public safety across the United States is that hundreds of unqualified truck drivers, who are not sufficiently proficient in English to qualify for a CDL, and who could not pass either the written or the road tests, were authorized to drive 80,000 tractor trailers on every highway in the United States. Most probably were hired for small, fly-by-night trucking companies that to turn a blind eye to  driver qualifications and compliance with safety rules.

I hope they do not run into my future clients on the road.

—————-

Ken Shigley is an Atlanta trial attorney focused on serious personal injury and wrongful death cases. He is currently chair of the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section. Previously he served as president of the State Bar of Georgia and chair of the board of trustees of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia. He is lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice and a board certified civil trial attorney of the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Ken Shigley is a candidate for election to the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2018.

In 2009, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration reported results of a study finding that 18% of fatally injured drivers tested positive for at least one illicit, prescription, or over-the-counter drug. Perhaps more significantly, drugs 7 times as likely as alcohol to be present in weekend nighttime drivers — 16% testing positive for drugs compared with only 2% above the legal limit for alcohol. In our practice, we have also seen the catastrophic impact of drivers who combined some alcohol with a mix of various legal and illegal mind-altering drugs.
When you combine the witch’s brew of drugs and alcohol with the huge kinetic force of an 80,000 pound tractor trailer, the danger is exponentially greater than when a similarly intoxicated person is driving a small passenger car.

On March 25, 2015, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) lowered the boom on a Georgia-based truck driver for drugged driving. Robert Lee Turner was declared “an imminent hazard to public safety” and banned from operating any commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce.

Turner was operating an intermodal tractor trailer when he hit and seriously injured Corporal William Solomon, a Georgia Ports Authority police officer, who was doing routine traffic control duties at the Garden City Terminal. After he tested positive for cocaine, he was arrested and charged with DUI.

“Commercial drivers should have no doubt that we will vigorously enforce all federal safety regulations to the fullest extent possible by law,” said FMCSA Chief Counsel Scott Darling. “FMCSA is committed to raising the bar for commercial vehicle safety, and we will remain vigilant in removing unsafe truck and bus drivers from our roadways.”

Turner was not terribly atypical of truck drivers hired by small trucking companies that are contracted to tow intermodal container chassis trailers from the ports of Savannah and Jacksonville. The larger companies that control the international ocean shipping of intermodal freight containers attempt to hide behind these small, minimally insured companies. When disasters occur in their operation on Georgia highways, most victims and most attorneys don’t know any better than to accept the relatively paltry amount of insurance dangled before them. A significant part of our practice involves navigating the little-known path through federal regulations to reach the more adequate insurance coverage of the intermodal companies.

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Ken Shigley is a former prosecutor who began his career prosecuting DUI and vehicular homicide cases. After decades of civil trial experience he became president of the State Bar of Georgia in 2011-12. A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy and author of a book on Georgia tort law practice, his practice focuses on catastrophic injury and wrongful death caused by negligent operation of commercial trucks.

Over the years in my Atlanta based trucking litigation practice, I have had truck drivers tell me – reluctantly in deposition testimony, and sometimes voluntarily in confidential talks over coffee at roadside Waffle Houses – how paper logs of their hours of service are easily fabricated “comic books.”

Often I have gone behind those records to a variety of electronic records of a variety of related transactions to prove that the logs were wildly inaccurate. With tractor trailers now becoming rolling computer networks, I have anticipated that those who are motivated to cheat would find ways to cheat the computers too.

More than three million truck drivers in the United States are facing a regulatory upheaval which will cost the industry an estimates $2 billion and change the ways in which many truck drivers operate. Over the next few years it will become mandatory, by law, for all American truckers to carry an electronic onboard recorder (EOBR) in their vehicles. Although there are a number of EOBR on the market, in order to comply with the incoming federal mandate the device must all be able to track when a truck’s engine is running, record its duty status and ensure that drivers aren’t working for more than 14 consecutive hours, including a maximum of 11 actual driving hours within that window.

The idea is to make the mandatory “Hours of Service” logs that trucking companies are supposed to keep more accurate. The underlying objective is to reduce fatigue related crashes involving truck drivers who have been on the road over the legal amount of hours. But the new systems alone may not be a panacea for all driver fatigue risks.

Of course, a lot of truck drivers resist closer monitoring of their hours of service. I have heard truck drivers say it was nobody’s *#$%@ business” how many hours they work, apparently oblivious to the safety risks inherent in fatigued operation of an 80,000 pound vehicle.

Other trucks acknowledge that the new EOBR system is a step in the right direction and even helps them financially. One veteran trucker was recently quoted in a media report saying, “My gross revenues have been up year over year each year since using the electronic logs. Now is it due to the electronic logs? Not the machine itself, it’s the efficiency that’s been forced onto us by the machine.”

Resistance to change comes from the group of veterans that have been on the road for decades. One veteran trucker explained, “I worked better in a ‘nobody-hassling-me’ kind of environment. I modified my operation to make it work. As much as the libertarian in me says no to mandates, they’re coming. You might as well just wake up, face it, and deal with it.”

Concerns about the devices come from the people pushing for mandates as well as the truck drivers themselves. Truckers are fearful that this new device will be used more like a babysitter than a tool for change. Many are aware that a record which shows a trucker is slightly harder on fuel thanks to the way he revs, idles, and brakes could mean that he won’t get a job in an increasingly competitive market. Fears that trucking companies could misuse their expanded awareness have already been expressed in the courts. In 2011 the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) launched a lawsuit against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the authority responsible for drafting the new mandate.

OOIDA complained that there was a risk of driver harassment in which carriers might persuade their drivers to get back on the road and complete a run even after they have passed the 11 hour limit that drivers are given to be on the road for a day. The worry was the fatigue, weather conditions, and traffic problems could all be problems that are ignored for the sake of the time sheet. There is also a growing concern about the reliability of the devices that the mandate specifies be in the vehicle.

According to Karen Levy, a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Princeton, many drivers are already experimenting with hacks and methods of tampering. “Truckers are a particularly savvy and motivated bunch,” she says. “Some driver have figured out how to temporarily disconnect certain EOBR models from the truck, or to otherwise block their signals so they can’t record data. Another approach is to drive using multiple driver ID numbers which are sometimes called “ghost logs.”

New products, such as the Safety Pass Pro, enable truck drivers to override speed governors that their companies install to limit them to safe speeds. While the product is sold as a safety feature to facilitate passing or to slow down so that a “road rage” driver can pass the truck, it does not take a genius to understand how this can be used to enable truckers to drive at unsafe speeds.

Some examples of cheats and hacks I have heard about from truckers include: (1) when stuck in traffic, take the truck out of gear and snub out the truck, shifting the log from “driving time” to “off duty not driving”; (2) if an activity is under 5 minutes, the driver can fudge it back into the last duty status, so that a short hop from a truck stop to a terminal might not be recorded as driving time. These types of e-log hacks would not be detected in a surface scan but could raise questions in an in-depth log audit that compares logs to GPS locations.

Today, OOISA says it is not currently planning any further legal challenges against the FMCSA, whose rulemaking is nearly complete. Most observers believe the final rule will be enforceable on American highways by 2015.

Going forward in trucking accident litigation, we face new challenges in looking behind the electronic logs for cheats, hacks and truth.

Ken Shigley is past president of the State Bar of Georgia (2011-12), double board certified in Civil Trial Advocacy and Civil Pretrial Advocacy by the National Board of Legal Specialty Certification, and lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice. His Atlanta-based civil trial practice is focused on representation of plaintiffs in cases of catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death.

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As a trucking accident personal injury and wrongful death lawyer based in Atlanta, I get a chance to see the trucking safety issues from the point of view of both innocent folks who are run over by tractor trailers and truck drivers who are themselves put at risk by companies that care too little about safety.

A blogging truck driver at Go By Truck News wrote this week that “A rogue motor carrier is a truck driver’s worst nightmare.”

He wrote that last year, D.A. Landis Trucking, Inc. was charged with conspiracy for ordering drivers to falsify their daily logbooks, maintain two sets of logs, falsely certify accuracy of the lying logs, had dispatchers also knowingly dispatched drivers on trips that were truck accidentto exceed hours-of-service requirements.

That is old news to those of us who have been digging through truck drivers’ logs and trip documents and both deposing and interviewing truck drivers.

He also gathered these tweets from tired truck drivers:

– “My dispatcher goes retarded when I tried to tell them I have only 1 hr left to drive.”

– “I have heard this from many dispatchers before. Come on we need you for one more.”

– “When it comes to driving we have 65mph trks n 100mph dispatchers with 26 hrs in a day!”

– “Dispatch was kind enough to plan my first load for 4am central time. My paperwork is invalid and dispatch won’t be in for another 3 hrs.”

Go By Truck News urges truck drivers to check the safety records of any company they consider working for, and to make sure they know the rules, including these:

FMCSR 392.6 Schedules to conform with speed limits. “No motor carrier shall require a run nor permit nor require the operation of any commercial motor vehicle between points in such period of time as would necessitate the commercial vehicle being operated at speed greater than those prescribed by the jurisdictions in or through which the commercial motor vehicle is being operated.”

FMCSR 390.13 Aiding or abetting violations. “No person shall aid, abet, encourage, or require a motor carrier or its employees to violate the rules of this chapter.”

FMCSR 392.3 Ill or fatigued operator. “No driver shall operate a commercial motor vehicle, and a motor carrier shall not require or permit a driver to operate a commercial motor vehicle, while the driver’s ability or alertness is so impaired, so likely to become impaired, through fatigue, illness, or any other cause, as to make it unsafe for him/her to begin or continue to operate the commercial motor vehicle.” (This regulation was mentioned in my prior article and worth repeating again here).

He is spot on in stating that, “A good safety director will educate a driver about these regulations, rewarding and not penalizing a driver for declining to take a load if they are too fatigued. A good company with a pattern of safe behavior will give a trucker an opportunity to develop a disciplined sleep routine.”

He urges that, “it’s often the employer / load planner / dispatcher pushing the trucker beyond their limits. However, all truckers should take a stand with the Trucker Mike’s ‘Mantra’ – ‘I will NEVER let anyone ‘push’ me, instead I’ll be fired for being SAFE if need be!’”

This afternoon, my friend Steve Gursten in Michigan forwarded this plea he received from a truck driver who wants to drive safely but works for a rogue trucking company that won’t allow him to follow the law:

The company that I drive for has me doing illegal runs. I feel if I don’t do them my miles will be cut or they will find a way to get rid of me. I need to care for my family. I have been too many companies and they are all the same. The one I’m with now is the worst. I’m looking for other employment and coping the best I can. Is there anyone I can talk to like a whistle blower organization? Or maybe a letter too the sec of transportation? Companies, dispatchers, shippers and receivers need to be held accountable. Until we have better legislation in place to address this, us truckers will always be at the bottom of the hill. And of course we know which direction s##t rolls.

Wow!

That is right in line with my impression over the years that most truck drivers are just ordinary good guys working hard to make a living, but are too often pushed by employers, motor carriers, shippers, brokers, etc., to make illegal runs on impossible schedules, so that they are often pushed beyond the limits of human endurance.

That is why I generally try to handle these cases by digging for a root cause analysis in the corporate safety management system — or lack thereof.

I suggested referring this guy to Truckers Justice Center in Minnesota, operated by a lawyer who represents whistle blowing truck drivers nationwide
If your or a family member were run over by a tractor trailer, or if you are a truck driver badly injured in the line of duty, I would be glad to talk with you with no obligation.

Ken Shigley is an Atlanta-based trial attorney who served as president of the State Bar of Georgia in 2011-12, is listed in Georgia “Super Lawyers” and “Legal Elite,” is double board certified by the National Board of Legal Specialty Certification, and focuses his practice on serious personal injury and wrongful death cases arising for truck, car and defective product accidents.

American Trucking Associations asked drivers to reflect and appreciate the 3.1 million professional truck drivers last week for the 25th annual National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. The week was dedicated to showing appreciation to the millions of truck drivers that deliver America’s freight safely and securely every day.

“For 52 weeks a year, America’s professional truck drivers make sure that our most essential items – food, fuel, medicine, clothing,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves, “are delivered and lately they are doing so more safely and efficiently than ever before despite increasingly congested highways and ever more demanding logistics schedules. Their commitment is second-to-none and that’s why we’re asking that Americans take a few minutes to appreciate the effort these professionals put in every day.”

During the 25th anniversary of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, state affiliates and America’s Road Team Captains made sure the event would be special by holding events across the nation. Celebrations last week were hosted by motor carriers, shippers, and other trucking related industries.

Some of the ways in which trucking industries showed their appreciation included million-mile and safety awards, cash bonuses or gifts, an extra paid day off, a cup of coffee or windshield cleaning at truck stops, goodie bags with fresh fruit and water, free health checks, and celebration meals. There were many events that lasted all week so that every driver could experience some sort of gratitude as they cycled through shifts.

The trucking industry continues to be a large part of America’s economy. Below are a few statistics that shows just how important the money brought in by the trucking industry really helps the economy. For instance, did you know the trucking sector dominates the commercial transportation industry by 83.7%?

• The trucking industry is expected to grow by 21% over the next 10 years
• The trucking industry collects $650 billion in annual revenue, which is 5% of America’s GDP
• The top 5 tractor-trailer registrations are in Florida, Texas, California, Alabama and Georgia

• There are 761,850 registered tractor-trailer drivers and 49,920 registered light truck and delivery drivers
• The annual expenditure in driver earnings equals to $30,660,552,900
• The value of shipped goods equals $139,463,000,000 per year, $382,090,411 per day, and $4,422 per second
• 3,000,000 class 8 trucks (18 wheelers) are registered in the US
• There are 54,000,000 individual truck tires on the road, equaling 5,400,000,000 pounds of rubber
• Truckers cover 93,512,000,000 highway miles each year, 256,197,260 per day, and 2,965 per second, equaling 3,755,351 times around earth
Ken Shigley is a past president of the State Bar of Georgia. His Atlanta-based trial law practice focuses on trucking accident litigation for injured individuals and their families.

But most of us have personal experience to know that a driver can be dangerously sleepy in far less than 11 hours of driving.

Australian researchers have confirmed what we intuitively know. Caffeine can help maintain driver alertness. But caffeine alone is not enough, and naps can help too. In “Use of caffeinated substances and risk of crashes in long distance drivers of commercial vehicles: case-control study,” published at BMJ 2013; 346 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f1140 ( 19 March 2013), Lisa N Sharwood and her collaborators reported on their study.

Their bottom line:

– Caffeine helps, but that alone is not enough.

– Breaks help, whether used for naps, exercise or drinking coffee.

All this seems like common sense, but it bears repeating. One problem in the trucking industry is that trucking companies and shippers sometimes insist on driving the maximum hours allowed (or longer), so that no credit is given for drivers who take breaks to help maintain alertness within those hours.

However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations include not just the hours of service rules but also a more general restriction against operating a commercial vehicle when too fatigued or ill to safely do so.

Ken Shigley is former president of the State Bar of Georgia, which includes all lawyers licensed to practice in Georgia. His practice is focused on representation of individuals and families in serious injury and death cases arising from truck and bus crashes in Georgia.

When we share the road with semi tractor trailer drivers who pilot 80,000 pound big rigs on highways across the country, we hope they are well-qualified and safety conscious. Most are but some are not.

Among the many things I examine as a trucking accident litigation trial attorney in Georgia are the qualifications, experience and background of the truck driver.

Commercial truck and bus drivers are required to have knowledge of and comply with all government trucking safety regulations and company policies. Motor carriers operating truck and bus lines are required to make sure drivers are adequately trained and monitor drivers’ performance.

Entry level truck drivers must obtain a Commercial Driver’s License, usually referred to as a CDL. That requires training in driver qualifications, hours of service, safe operations and whistle blower protection. The CDL manuals for all states in the US are materially identical. Drivers are required to know and understand pertinent provisions of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, so the CDL manual explains the regs in simpler, graphic terms.

Drivers of specialized commercial vehicles need additional training specific to those types of vehicles. Trade organizations and safety materials publishing companies produce training videos and manuals for a wide variety of specialized commercial vehicles such as concrete mixer trucks, crane trucks, etc.

These CDL manuals and specialized training materials are extremely useful in cross examining truck drivers after they crash.

In applying for a truck driving job, a truck driver must provide his or her CDL, employment history, driving records, record of convictions and violations, medical history, drug and alcohol history, and physical exam.

Trucking companies are required to conduct a road test of the driver, testing knowledge, skills, experience and training, using the same type vehicle the driver is expected to operate. The test must be conducted by an employee who is qualified to do so.

When representing the victims of a catastrophic semi tractor trailer crash, all this fair game for thorough and sifting examination. Any lawyer who thinks a commercial truck crash is just a bigger car wreck will be clueless and unprepared, vastly reducing the prospects for success in representing his client. That is why our years of experience in trucking litigation matters.

Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations; Truck Accident Litigation (3d edition)

Ken Shigley is a former president of the State Bar of Georgia, which includes all lawyers licensed to practice in Georgia. His own law practice is specialized in representation of plaintiffs in cases of serious personal injury and wrongful death, especially those occurring in commercial truck and bus accidents.

a. Has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight 10,001 pounds or more, whichever is greater; or
b. Is designed or used to transport more than 8 passengers (including the driver) for compensation; or
c. Is designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers, including the driver, and is not used to transport passengers for compensation; or
d. Is used in transporting material found by the Secretary of Transportation to be hazardous.
Every state has adopted most portions of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for intrastate transportation.

Ken Shigley is immediate past president of the State Bar of Georgia, chair of the board of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia and secretary of the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle, Highway and Premises Liability Section. He is a board member of the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group and has been on the faculty of trucking litigation seminars from coast to coast. Mr. Shigley is double board certified in Civil Trial Advocacy and Civil Pretrial Advocacy by the American Board of Legal Specialty Certification (formerly National Board of Trial Advocacy), has an AV Preeminent rating in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, is listed as a “Super Lawyer” by Atlanta Magazine and “Legal Elite” by Georgia Trend, and is the lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation & Practice (West, 2010-12).

But it is important to know that the trucking company and its insurance company get a rapid response team to the crash scene before the vehicles are moved. While the victims are in an ambulance or in the emergency room, the trucking company has its investigators massaging evidence and trying to influence the police report.

Some electronic data from tractor trailers may be lost or destroyed within a few days if there is not quick action to assure that it is preserved. Every minute of delay leads to loss of crucial evidence.

Therefore, it is vitally important for the victim’s family to move quickly after a catastrophic truck crash to hire a lawyer who specializes in trucking cases and who can deploy his or her own rapid response team. While responses may be scaled to the seriousness of the case, the ultimate rapid response may include:

• a highly qualified accident reconstruction expert with solid experience in reconstructing crashes involving large commercial vehicles, not just car wreck.

• a trucking safety expert qualified to assess violations of trucking safety rules;

• a conspicuity expert qualified to assess visibility of vehicles in the conditions existing at the time of the crash;

• a forensic evidence photographer qualified to preserve the actual appearance of the vehicles and conditions under existing lighting conditions;

• a human factors expert who can assess perception and reaction under the conditions on
the roadway;

• a forensic computer expert qualified to obtain and interpret the wide array of event data recorders and computers on large commercial trucks.

In a catastrophic truck wreck it is a mistake to rely solely upon the police report, even when reasonably well qualified police accident reconstructionist are involved.

Ken Shigley is immediate past president of the State Bar of Georgia, chair of the board of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia and incoming secretary of the American Association for Justice Motor Vehicle, Highway and Premises Liability Section. He is a board member of the American Association for Justice Trucking Litigation Group and has been on the faculty of trucking litigation seminars from coast to coast. Mr. Shigley is double board certified in Civil Trial Advocacy and Civil Pretrial Advocacy by the American Board of Legal Specialty Certification (formerly National Board of Trial Advocacy), has an AV Preeminent rating in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, is listed as a “Super Lawyer” by Atlanta Magazine and “Legal Elite” by Georgia Trend, and is the lead author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation & Practice (West, 2010-12).

NHTSA said in its annual report that 3,675 people died in trucking related accidents in 2010, an increase of 295 over the 3,380 fatalities in 2009. The number injured in trucking accidents increased 12% from 17,000 to 19,000. (Those number are surely rounded off.)

NHTSA did not clearly identify a cause, but increased truck traffic due to gradual economic recovery is likely a major factor.

Ken Shigley is an Atlanta based trucking trial attorney who currently serves as president of the State Bar of Georgia.

The ailing economy and strapped government budgets led the ARC to ax or defer beyond my likely lifetime:

– optional toll lanes alongside I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties
– a component that would carry only tractor trailer trucks
– widening South Cobb Drive from Cobb Parkway to Atlanta Road, and from Atlanta Road to Bolton Road
– widening University Ave. from Metropolitan Parkway to the Downtown Connector
– new interchange at I-675 and and Cedar Grove Road
– mass transit line across northern I-285 from Cumberland to Perimeter Center

Ken Shigley is an Atlanta-based trucking accident trial attorney, and president of the State Bar of Georgia.

Here are the top 100 public trucking carriers in the US in 2010, the largest of which is UPS, based right here in metro Atlanta:

UPS Inc.
FedEx Corp.
DHL USA YRC Worldwide Inc.
Ryder System Con-way Inc.
Penske Truck Leasing Co.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services Schneider National Inc.
Swift Transportation Landstar System Sirva Inc.
Werner Enterprises TransForce Inc.
UniGroup Inc.
Arkansas Best Corp.
U.S. Xpress Enterprises Estes Express Lines Purolator Courier Ltd.
Old Dominion Freight Line Greatwide Logistics Services C.R. England Inc.
Crete Carrier Corp.
Saia Inc.
Prime Inc.
NFI Industries Averitt Express Atlas World Group Southeastern Freight Lines Ruan Transportation Management Systems Lynden Inc.
CRST International Kenan Advantage Group Knight Transportation Vitran Corp.
Quality Distribution Inc.
Covenant Transportation Group Anderson Trucking Service Marten Transport Trimac Group Universal Truckload Services Inc.
Celadon Group Stevens Transport Dart Transit Co.
Interstate Distributor Co.
Heartland Express Roadrunner Transportation Systems TransX Group Western Express Shevell Group AAA Cooper Transportation Forward Air Corp.
Comcar Industries USA Truck RoadLink Frozen Food Express Industries Canada Cartage System Contrans Group Mullen Group Central Refrigerated Service Inc.
Dynamex Inc.
P.A.M. Transportation Services Inc.
Challenger Group Gordon Trucking Inc.
Mercer Transportation 3PD Inc.
TransAm Trucking Graebel Cos.
KLLM Transport Services Cardinal Logistics Management The Suddath Cos.
Pitt Ohio Express Super Service Holdings (formerly Gainey Corp.)
Mesilla Valley Transportation Specialized Transportation Inc.
Calyx Transportation Group Roehl Transport Koch Companies Inc.
Bridge Terminal Transport Inc.
Epes Carriers Inc.
Dayton Freight Lines Inc.
Central Freight Lines Bennett International Group Duie Pyle Cos.
Transport America Cowan Systems United Road Services Navajo Express Maverick USA Milan Express Co.
Superior Bulk Logistics A&R Logistics Consolidated Fastfrate Evans Network of Cos.
Velocity Express U.S. 1 Industries Paschall Truck Lines Groendyke Transport Arpin Group Jack Cooper Transport Co

Ken Shigley is president of the State Bar of Georgia, author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice, a Certified Civil Trial Attorney of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (one of 20 in Georgia), a board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group, and designated as a “Super Lawyer” by Atlanta Magazine. His practice involves litigation of interstate motor carrier collision cases in Georgia and neighboring states in compliance with the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules of each state.

Private carriers transport their own products, as opposed to public carriers that haul for others. While the general public may not think of these as “trucking companies” but their truck fleets are regulated by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations as motor carriers hauling for other companies.

Here are the top 100 private trucking carriers, as listed by Transport Topics.

1. PepsiCo Inc.
2. Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.
3. Sysco Corp.
4. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
5. U.S. Foodservice 6. Tyson Foods Inc.
7. Halliburton Co.
8. Dean Foods Co.
9. Dr Pepper Snapple Group 10. Baker Hughes Inc.
11. McLane Co.
12. Performance Food Group 13. Reyes Holdings 14. Schlumberger Limited 15. Agrium Inc.
16. Key Energy Services 17. Airgas Inc.
18. Oldcastle Inc.
19. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated 20. Supervalu Inc.
21. Safeway Inc.
22. Gordon Food Service 23. Hostess Brands Inc.
24. United Rentals Inc.
25. MDU Resources Group 26. International Paper Co.
27. CHS Inc.
28. Weatherford International 29. MBM Foodservice 30. Prairie Farms Inc.
31. Praxair Inc.
32. Shaw Industries Group 33. Ben E. Keith Co.
34. Delhaize America 35. Dot Foods 36. Perdue Inc.
37. Cemex Inc.
Linde North America 38. Walgreen Co.
39. Kellogg Co.
40. RSC Equipment Rental 41. Clean Harbors Inc.
42. Basic Energy Services 43. BlueLinx Holdings 44. Kraft Foods Inc.
45. Castellini Group 46. Plains All American Pipeline 47. Sunbelt Rentals Inc.
48. H-E-B Grocery Co.
49. Nabors Industries 50. Archer Daniels Midland 51. Land O’ Lakes Inc.
52. AmeriGas Partners 53. Air Products Inc.
54. Publix Super Markets 55. Advanced Drainage Systems 56. Leggett & Platt Inc.
57. Food Services of America 58. Ashley Furniture Industries 59. Pilot Flying J Inc.
60. Quanta Services Sanderson Farms Inc.
61. Mohawk Industries Inc.
62. Pepsi Bottling Ventures 63. American Air Liquide 64. United Natural Foods 65. Bunzl Distribution USA 66. Ace Hardware Corp.
67. Wakefern Food Corp.
68. Helena Chemical Co.
69. Sentinel Transportation 70. Patterson-UTI Energy 71. Cardinal Health Inc.
Foster Farms 72. Army & Air Force Exchange Service Core-Mark Holding Co.
73. Ashland Inc.
74. Sherwin-Williams Co.
75. Mobile Mini Inc.
76. Genuine Parts Co.
77. Gilster-Mary Lee Corp.
78. Silver Eagle Distributors 79. Darling International 80. Stericycle Inc.
81. ABC Supply Co. Inc.
82. Chrysler Transport 83. True Value Co.
84. Austin Powder Co.
(tie) McKee Foods Corp.
85. CVS Caremark Corp.
86. HD Supply Inc.
87. Costco Wholesale Corp.
88. Unisource Worldwide 89. Owens & Minor Inc.
90. Valley Proteins Inc.
91. Bridgestone Americas 92. IFCO Systems North America 93. Cargill Meat Logistics Solutions 94. Trinity Industries Inc.
95. Stock Building Supply 96. Bimbo Bakeries USA 97. Sealy Corp.
98. Safety-Kleen Systems 99. Builders FirstSource Inc.
McGriff Industries 100. Grocers Supply Co.

Ken Shigley is president of the State Bar of Georgia, author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice, a Certified Civil Trial Attorney of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (one of 20 in Georgia), a board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group, and designated as a “Super Lawyer” by Atlanta Magazine. His practice involves litigation of interstate motor carrier collision cases in Georgia and neighboring states in compliance with the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules of each state.