While I am an Atlanta trucking trial attorney now, many years ago I was a child at Mentone, Alabama, frequently trekking to Chattanooga with my parents. Our usual route was through Dade County, separated from the rest of Georgia by Lookout Mountain,(historically known as “the independent state of Dade”). While our route was on old two-lane U.S. 11, I was fascinated by the early stages of construction of I-59.
Recently on the short section of I-24 from Chattanooga to Nashville that dips down into Dade County, Georgia, a truck going too fast for rainy conditions lost control, hit another vehicle. Both vehicles crossed into the eastbound lanes and struck two more vehicles. Seven seven people were injured, and some were transported to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. There is no word on their conditions.
The report from WRCH-TV in Chattanooga doesn’t specify what type of truck was involved. If it was a commercial truck governed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, then 49 C.F.R. § 392.14 requires that “extreme caution in the operation of a commercial motor vehicle shall be exercised when hazardous conditions, such as those caused by . . rain . .. ”
Ken Shigley is a trucking accident trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia. 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). He served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute, is a national board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice, and is on the National Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America. 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 Treasurer of the 41,000 member State Bar of Georgia.This post is subject to our ethical disclaimer.