Several times I have written about the difficult lifestyle of truck drivers, and how that adversely affects their health and the safety of others on the roads. It is virtually impossible to find healthy food or a place to exercise at truck stops across America. So truckers are somewhat more prone than other middle aged guys, become obese and develop cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes, sleep apnea, etc. (Not that I’m such a paragon of fitness either, but at least it’s easy for me to eat healthy, jog around the neighborhood and get to the gym in my office building if I make the time.)
But driving with my son from Los Angeles to Atlanta a few days ago, I noted something even worse affecting truckers’ lifestyle. Through Arizona and New Mexico we saw several truck stops with adjoining casinos. I didn’t stop to see if they have healthy food or exercise facilities, but they surely have places for truckers to drink and gamble away their earnings.
There are no casinos in Georgia, and certainly no truck stop casinos. For a number of reasons, primarily my view of morality, I would be happy to keep it that way.
Ken Shigley is a trucking safety trial attorney representing seriously injured people in tractor trailer, big rig, intermodal container freight, cement truck, dump truck and bus accidents statewide in Georgia. He served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute in 2005, 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.
He has extensive experience representing parties in interstate trucking collision cases, and in the past two years has spoken at national interstate trucking litigation seminars in Chicago (trucking insurance), New Orleans (trial tactics and side underride issues), St. Louis (punitive damages), San Francisco (dealing with insolvent trucking companies), Atlanta (trucking insurance, closing argument), Nashville (use of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations), and Amelia Island (overview of trucking litigation).
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). In addition to trucking litigation, he has broad experience in products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, spinal cord injury, brain injury and burn injury cases. Currently he is Treasurer and a candidate for President-Elect of the 41,000 member State Bar of Georgia.This post is subject to our ethical disclaimer.