Articles Posted in Truck Accidents

As Atlanta truck accident attorneys, we don’t hesitate when it comes to holding truck drivers responsible for their negligence if it results in truck accidents. So, it’s only fair that we acknowledge truck drivers who have an exemplary driving record. This week, UPS inducted 49 Georgians into its elite Circle of Honor organization. These are truck drivers in Atlanta and throughout Georgia who are helping keep our roads safe by avoiding truck accidents.

The Circle of Honor includes only those UPS drivers who have completed 25 years of safe driving. This year was a record year for new Circle of Honor inductees. There were 1,122 new honorees worldwide into the Circle of Honor this year, the highest in any year for the company.

With Georgia’s 49 new UPS drivers who are in the Circle of Honor, Georgia now has 232 active UPS Circle of Honor drivers. These drivers have among them 6,670 years of combined safe driving experience. The safest UPS truck driver in Georgia is Flintstone-based Robert Millican Junior, who has an impressive 41 years of accident- free driving to his credit.

A truck driver has been charged after being involved in a truck accident in Clayton County, Georgiain which a police officer was injured. The trucker had been driving a massive tractor-trailer rig, when he rear-ended a patrol car in front of him. The police officer was driving the Department of Transportation truck on the road when the truck accident occurred. The officer suffered serious injuries, and had to be airlifted to Grady Memorial Hospital. The tractor-trailer driver meanwhile has been charged with causing serious injury by vehicle, following too closely and too fast.

One of the challenges of operating a massive truck is understanding that your vehicle takes a much longer time to come to a complete stop than a passenger vehicle. It’s important for all 18-wheeler drivers to understand that this greatly increased stopping distance amplifies the risks of colliding with a vehicle in front.

Any time a passenger vehicle is involved in an accident with a tractor-trailer, injuries sustained can be extremely series. A typical rear ender accident involving two passenger vehicles can cause whiplash and other injuries. However, when you have a massive 18-wheeler weighing more than 80,000 pounds rear ending a passenger vehicle, the kind of injuries that the passenger car occupants suffer can be devastating.

There has been yet another serious school bus accident in Georgia.Six students on a school bus suffered personal injuries in a truck accident in Cherokee County over the weekend.The accident involved a school bus and a tractor-trailer.The bus was taking students to the Free Home Elementary School when it struck a tractor-trailer early Tuesday morning.The bus driver, truck driver, and six students of the school suffered personal injuries in the crash and had to be taken to the hospital.

The year 2010 proved to be a dangerous year for Georgia school children.A number of accidents involving school buses and other vehicles were recorded last year, and some of these ended in personal injuries and even fatalities.The accident is under investigation, but according to CBS Atlanta, the school bus driver was a substitute driver.She had been with the Cherokee County School System since November.By all accounts, she had had sufficient hands-on training according to state laws.However, some parents have been questioning whether her driving was sufficient.

Besides, this school bus accident also brings up the question of seat belts on school buses.Atlanta personal injury lawyers would like to see some movement in this direction in 2011.New bus safety rules that were announced in 2010 include charter and intercity buses, but not school buses.This is in spite of the fact that school buses transport some of the most vulnerable passengers, and are at a high risk of being injured in an accident.

The idea of using speed limiting devices to restrict speed limits on commercial trucks, and therefore, minimize the risk of speed-related truck accidents, has been floating around for a while now. In 2006, the American Trucking Associations and several other interested parties petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to mandate speed limiting devices on all trucks. Last week, the NHTSA announced that it would initiate an NPR aimed at getting these devices installed in all trucks. If the rule does pass, there will be far fewer truck accidents and, therefore, many injuries avoided and many wrongful deaths prevented.

The NHTSA announced on its website a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking related to the mandating of such devices on all trucks. Proposals to have speed limiting devices installed on commercial trucks have been widely supported, not just by Atlanta truck accident lawyers, but also by trucking safety groups and the trucking industry.

It’s not every day that you get the trucking industry and Atlanta truck accident attorneys on the same page as far as trucking safety is concerned. However, on this issue, the American Trucking Associations has been extremely vocal in its support for such devices. However, not all trucking companies are happy about such rules. The Owner- Independent Operators Drivers’ Association, which consists of smaller independent trucking companies and drivers, has strongly opposed any rules to mandate these devices on truckers. The devices would limit the speed of trucks weighing 20,000 pounds and above to a maximum of 68 mph.

As Atlanta truck accident attorneyswho have been concerned about the lack of serious restrictions on cell phone use by truck drivers, we were happy with a new Department of Transportation proposal banning the use of handheld cell phones by truck and bus drivers. The banning of cell phones by truck drivers and bus drivers will greatly decrease the likelihood of truck accidents and bus accidents. Personal injury attorneys and lawyers for the trucking and busing companies will closely monitor the new proposal. Simply put, the ban would prevent a significant number of personal injuries and deaths each year.

This week, the DOT made a formal announcement, proposing the ban. The ban would include not just talking on a cell phone, but also holding and dialing a cell phone while driving.The announcement comes just months after a ban on text messaging while driving for both commercial truck and bus drivers earlier this year.

According to the DOT, inattention was a factor in 9% of all commercial truck accidents in 2009. Meanwhile last year, between 6% and 13% of all bus accidents were linked to distracted driving. Obviously, there is a need for a law that would completely ban the use of handheld cell phones and text messaging devices for all commercial truck and bus drivers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is responsible for issuing regulations to decrease truck accidents, this week proposed a series of changes in the current Hours of Service rules for truck drivers. According to the agency, the new rules will give the drivers more rest in a workday, allowing them to work fewer hours, and reducing the possibility of truck accidents. Of course, truck accidents pose one of the greatest risks of serious personal injury and death to drivers of cars. Lawyers for trucking companies and injury attorneys will be monitoring these changes very carefully.

Overall, the changes have been encouraging to Atlanta truck accident lawyers. The FMCSA is proposing the following changes:

· The possibility of restricted driving time from 11 hrs daily to 10 hours

Mandatory Alcohol Testing Could Have Caused Decline in Truck Accident Fatalities

As Atlanta truck accident lawyers, we keep ourselves informed about the latest developments in trucking safety.A study by scientists at Columbia University seems to suggest that mandatory alcohol testing programs have been responsible for the decline in truck accident fatalities in 2009.Last year, saw a significant drop in these deaths, from 4,245 fatalities in 2008, to 3,380 fatalities in 2009.

The results of the study titled Effectiveness of Mandatory Alcohol Testing Programs on Reducing Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Motor Carrier Crashes show that these alcohol testing programs that were implemented in 1995, have contributed to an approximately 23% reduced risk of alcohol use as a factor in truck accidents.

Proposals to Mandate Speed Limiters on All Trucks Gather Steam

As Atlanta truck accident lawyers, we have supported efforts by truck safety groups to get the federal administration to mandate speed limiters on all commercial trucks.Ultimately, it might be environmental concerns that help meet that goal.

We’ve known for long that reducing speed limits on trucks can help prevent the catastrophic injuries and multiple fatalities that result during high-speed truck accidents.Besides, even a reduction of 1 mph in truck speed can contribute to a 1% increase in fuel efficiency. Environmental and trucking efficiency concerns are high right now, and this May, the President asked his administration to get to work on developing a policy that would tackle fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emission concerns.Speed limiters will help meet both these targets.

A new piece of legislation that has been introduced in the U.S. Senate seeks to allow individual states to increase the gross weight limit on trucks plying the Interstate Highway System.The current gross weight limit in Georgia is about 80,000 pounds.If the legislation were to become law, trucking companies would be able to increase that weight to up to 97,000 pounds.

There are several reasons why Atlanta truck accident attorneys have a problem with this.For one, it would mean greater wear and tear on our already stretched highways.These are tough economic times, and funding for highway repairs and maintenance is already hard to source.The increased wear and tear from heavier trucks would leave Georgia’s highways compromised.

There’s another more serious reason why we strongly oppose any bill to increase funding for weight limits on trucks plying interstate highways.No matter how experienced a truck driver, he will find it a challenge to drive a trailer with an additional 17,000 pounds of cargo.Ask any truck driver and he will tell you that this is likely to be a safety concern if the bill actually becomes law.Trucking can be extremely strenuous, physically challenging work, and while experience can help, Atlanta truck accident lawyers often come across devastating truck accidents caused by experienced truckers.