The following is excerpted from my presidential speech at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the State Bar of Georgia at Myrtle Beach, S.C., and was published in the August 2011 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal. It not focused on my practice as a personal injury and wrongful death trial attorney focused on commercial trucking…
Continue reading ›Stability of semitrailer tanker trucks with high and shifting centers of gravity is a significant issue in tanker truck accident cases. Now the National Transportation Safety Board has recommended for commercial vehicles over 10,000 gross vehicle weight: – that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration require retrofitting of stability-control systems on tanker rigs; and –…
Continue reading ›A fatal truck accident on a Los Angeles area freeway highlights a type of safety hazard we also see in Atlanta, Georgia. In the predawn darkness last Friday, a passenger vehicle struck the rear of a disabled tractor trailer parked in a traffic lane on I-5 at Burbank, California, killing the driver of the car.…
Continue reading ›While my law practice in Atlanta is focused on representing people who are seriously injured when they are hit by commercial trucks and buses, I get a lot of calls from truck drivers all over the country who are concerned about employers requiring them to drive unsafe equipment or to drive beyond their legal hours…
Continue reading ›On June 5th, there was another fatal accident involving tractor trailers in Georgia. The seven vehicle fatal pileup involved an RV, two tractor trailers and four passenger vehicles were involved in the accident near Dry Pond Road in Jackson County. There was an accident about 3:30 AM which resulted in a traffic backup. A second…
Continue reading ›Driver fatigue is one of the major causes of large truck crashes, though perhaps less so than prescription and over the counter medications. The battle over truck drivers’ hours of service rules has raged for six years now. I won’t repeat the whole controversy here. While there is much more detail, the short version is…
Continue reading ›At a trucking litigation seminar in New Orleans last spring, I had the opportunity to pinch hit for Allan J. Kam, who consults on federal motor carrier safety issues around the country. Mr. Kam is the preeminent authority on how politicians and the trucking industry have blocked safety changes that have led to thousands of…
Continue reading ›Justice delayed is justice denied. Brian Nichols is charged with escape when he overcame a deputy and took her gun, and with the murders of Judge Roland Barnes in his courtroom at Fulton County Superior Court, a court reporter also in the courtroom, a deputy sheriff outside the courthouse, and a federal officer several miles…
Continue reading ›ASCUTNEY, Vt., 11/22/05 A tractor-trailer driver who fell asleep at the wheel crashed on I-91, causing a rollover and forcing the evacuation of about 300 residents and two schools Monday. Officials said the tractor-trailer was carrying sodium persulfate, a strong oxidizer, along with several flammable materials which combined could have caused a toxic chemical fire.…
Continue reading ›All our work on individual catastrophes seems so small in the wake of the devastation that Hurricane Katrina inflicted upon New Orleans and much of Louisiana and Mississippi. It appears that thousands have died from the effects of the storm, and thousands more may die from disease in the flooded city of New Orleans. Many,…
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