Trucking Safety Not at Top of Priority List for New DOT Secretary

Ray LaHood, the new US Secretary of Transportation, is apparently focused on infrastructure and air traffic control, but not so much on trucking safety.

According to an Associated Press article by Michael Tarm, LaHood is preparing to meet with the state DOT chiefs from all 50 states about plans for road and mass transit projects with funds from the economic stimulus legislation. That seems certain to consume most of his energy and attention.

A strong second priority is replacement of the radar-based national air traffic control system with a satellite-based system called NextGen.

I have not yet seen any announcement of who may be the new head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Stay tuned.

Ken Shigley is a trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia who 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), and is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy,. He served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute and is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs for Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America and the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. Mr. Shigley has extensive experience representing parties in trucking and bus accidents, products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, spinal cord injury, brain injury and burn injury cases. Currently he is Secretary of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.