Today the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration banned text messaging by interstate truck drivers during operation of a commercial motor vehicle. Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute released a study last July that found that when truckers text, they are 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash or near…
On Georgia highways you often see trucks carrying intermodal freight containers that were delivered to southeastern ports from places around the world. Attorneys preparing to take to trial cases of catastrophic trucking accidents involving intermodal freight need to understand issues that differ not only from regular highway accidents but also…
I’m a trucking safety lawyer in Atlanta, not a futurist or a psychic. However, I’m going to go out on a limb and post my top five predictions for motor carrier safety in 2010. 1. Accident and fatality rates in interstate commercial trucking will continue to decline. 2. In addition…
A prominent highway safety organization, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, has petitioned the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to evaluate risks posed by drivers of commercial vehicles using electronic devices and to then issue regulations to limit such distractions. Electronic distractions that cause concern include cell phones, text messaging,…
As a trucking accident trial attorney in Atlanta, I see all the time how regulatory decisions in Washington impact safety on the roads throughout the U.S. A Senate committee hearing today on the nomination of Ann Ferro as administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration brought that into focus.…
One of the things I do as a trucking trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, is monitor what’s happening with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in Washington, DC. Ultimately the political and bureaucratic decisions about truck safety regulations in Washington affect the safety of your family and mine on the…
As an Atlanta trucking safety lawyer, I find trucking companies trying to disown their driver’s safety violations. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, which are intended to protect safety of the public, require trucking companies to see to it that their employees to obey the driver regulations. 49 C.F.R. §…
Safety advocates, led by Stephen Owings, an Atlanta financial planner, are joined by the American Trucking Association in seeking rules requiring speed governors on interstate commercial trucks. They say the devices will save both lives and money. Owings started Road Safe America after his son, Cullum, was killed on a…
As long as truck drivers for interstate motor carriers have been required to log their driving, on duty and off duty time, falsification of logs has been common. Some drivers — though certainly not all — have regarded their logs as “comic books.” We have unraveled webs of deception to…
If you stand on River Street in Savannah for more than a few minutes, you will see a huge ocean-going container ship gliding up the Savannah River, stacked high with hundreds of freight containers. Then if you drive along our Interstate highways you will see those shipping containers bolted to…