Here is a remarkable video of a tractor trailer tipping over on a straight, level road. My hunch is that it was caused by a load shift due to improper loading. It is usually the truck driver who is most likely to be injured in such incidents.
Since truck drivers are required the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, 49 CFR 392.9, to check the load unless it is sealed, however, recovery from the shipper on behalf of the driver normally requires proof that the freight was improperly loaded by the shipper and that the trailer was sealed when it was picked up by the driver.
Ken Shigley is a trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia who 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), and is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute, is on the National Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs for the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. 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 Secretary of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.This post is subject to our ethical disclaimer.