This weekend an 18-wheeler that crashed and overturned at the Interstate 65/85 interchange in Montgomery, Alabama. Fortunately, no injuries were reported in this incident, unlike a fatal crash when a big rig overturned on a ramp Friday in San Jose, California. While news reports stated the incident was under investigation,…
Wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases involving commercial trucks are seldom just about a moment’s inattention. Usually we find there are issues of training, supervision and rule violations, though frankly with a local delivery truck in rush hour it is sometimes simpler than that. Lithonia truck driver Stephen Scott has…
Two people were killed this afternoon on I-985 southbound under Georgia 20 in Gwinnett County when the vehicle they occupied was rear-ended by a box truck, according to a report in the by Angel Brooks in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Reportedly, traffic was slowed or stopped at the ramp from…
Five years ago, a tour bus carrying the baseball team from Bluffton University in Ohio crashed in predawn darkness in Atlanta. I was part of the litigation team of Ohio and Georgia lawyers who represented the team members and their families. We finally concluded the cases last summer. As a…
In my commercial trucking accidents law practice, we often need to subpoena business and medical records from other states, especially in interstate trucking personal injury and wrongful death litigation. In cases filed in state courts of Georgia, rather than federal courts, it has been necessary to comply with an arcane…
For years we have explored cell phone distraction as a factor in the cause of motor vehicle accidents, including commercial trucking accidents. Discovery of cell phone records has become routine in litigation. We have read all the studies, deposed the experts and argued about the legal ramifications. I won’t rehash…
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…
Fatalities in large truck accidents increased 8.7% in 2010, according to a report released last week by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. NHTSA said in its annual report that 3,675 people died in trucking related accidents in 2010, an increase of 295 over the 3,380 fatalities in 2009. The…
Atlantans woke this morning to the news that at 5:30 AM a hit and run tractor trailer caused a chain reaction accident on I-285 southbound in DeKalb County near Ponce de Leon Avenue. It hit a Ford Focus, knocking it into a Toyota Camry. Those drivers got out of their…
While my trucking litigation practice focuses largely on representation of individuals and families in personal injury and wrongful death cases arising from trucking accidents, a lot of those are truckers hurt in wrecks with other trucks. I’m working on several of those now. Truck driving is hard, dangerous and underpaid…