Tractor Trailer Driver on Cell Phone Before Crash That Killed Eleven

When a tractor trailer crashed into a passenger van in March, killing 11 Mennonites en route to a wedding, the truck driver from Alabama had been continually on his cell phone and speeding up to 80 mph, according to the Kentucky State Police report.

Right now I’m working on a brief opposing a motion to exclude my expert witness from testifying about cell phone distraction in driving. I am scheduled to speak on driver distraction in trucking at the American Association for Justice convention in Vancouver this July. The Kentucky crash provides more material for that presentation.

Ken Shigley is a commercial trucking safety trial attorney who has extensive experience representing parties in interstate trucking collision cases. He served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute in 2005 and is a national board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he has been listed as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale). In addition to trucking litigation, he has broad experience in products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, spinal cord injury, brain injury and burn injury cases. Mr Shigley is president-elect-designee of the 41,000 member State Bar of Georgia, of which he will serve as president in 2011-12.

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