Truck driver fatigue is a chronic issue in the causation of commercial truck accidents. Now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has tweaked the rule yet again, but only at the outer margins of the hours of service rules. Effective February 27, 2012, the FMCSA revises the hours of service…
Articles Posted in Truck driver fatigue
On I-85 in Anderson County, SC, Georgia truck driver apparently falls asleep, kills self and 2 others
Truck driver fatigue is one of the more common causes of tractor trailer collisions. Too often the trucking industry pushes drivers to complete deliveries on impossible schedules, falsifying their logs if necessary to look legal if they are stopped. Over the years as a trial lawyer specializing in interstate trucking…
US agrees to allow Mexican tractor trailers to operate here
While Georgia is a long way from the Mexican border, as a tractor trailer and big rig accident trial lawyer based in Atlanta, I have for several years followed the controversy over allowing Mexican trucking companies to operate in the United States. Concerns about safety rules and practices in Mexican…
Douglasville toddler killed by Indiana trucker on I-75
The infant child of a young couple from Douglasville, my hometown, has died of injuries sustained when a tractor trailer ran over their car from the rear on I-75 near Windy Hill Road last Saturday night. The truck driver, Henry Lipps, 59, from Indiana, has been charged with following too…
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration sets listening sessions on proposed hours of service rule change
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has scheduled a public listening session on its proposal to revise hours-of-service (HOS) rules for commercial truck drivers on February 17, 2011 in Arlington, Virginia. The agency will also webcast the session live with a forum on its website for comments and questions…
Truck Safety Coaliation works for safer highways
As a trucking safety trial attorney in Georgia, I find that one of the most valuable sources of information about accident prevention in the trucking industry is the Truck Safety Coalition. It is a partnership between The Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH) Foundation, and Parents Against Tired Truckers…
Federal trucking safety agency proposes rule on electronic on-board recorders
Because driver fatigue is one of the most pervasive safety issues in interstate trucking, trucking safety regulations for many years have included rules on how many hours a driver may drive and be on duty. In almost every serious trucking accident, the accuracy of paper driver logs becomes an issue.…
Trucking industry backs legislation to hide any truth that hurts them in Electronic On Board Recorders
As a trucking accident trial attorney in Georgia, half of my work seems to be ferreting out the facts that the other side wants to conceal. For years much of the challenge has been in attempting to prove driver fatigue by piercing the fog of deception in paper driver logs…
Trucking hours of service rule may change again
As a Georgia trucking accident trial attorney based in Atlanta, one of the things I always look at after a catastrophic crash is whether a truck driver was dangerously fatigued due, in part, to violation of hours of service rules. It looks like the rules may change yet again. Prior…
Roadcheck 2010 shows truckers still faking paper logs
Time and time again, as a trucking accident trial attorney in Georgia, I have seen the dangers of overly tired truck drivers who violated Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations hours of service rules. The paper drivers’ logs are called “comic books” for a reason. Now we see that 2010 Roadcheck…