Georgia Personal Injury Law Blog : Atlanta Georgia Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Jason R. Schultz Law Firm : Wrongful Death, Malpractice, Car Accidents : Georgia

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) has agreed to rewrite hours of service regulations for truck drivers, bowing to pressure from safety groups and labor unions who insisted that the current rule increased the risk of accidents.

The current rule allows long haul truckers to drive for 11 consecutive hours at a stretch, extended from the previous ten.  That move had been opposed by victims’ families, truck safety groups and the Teamsters union, who challenged the rule, claiming that these extended hours increased the risk of accidents. The FMCSA has now agreed to rewrite the rules.  The agency has assured these groups that it will come up with new rules governing hours of service within the next 9 months.

The move to rewrite the rules comes even as a new chief takes office at the FMCSA.  Anne Ferro, a former Maryland trucking industry lobbyist has been confirmed as administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Ferro’s nomination for the post of FMCSA chief had not been without controversy, mostly because of her past as a lobbyist for the trucking industry.  For 6 years, Ferro served as president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, a fact that aggravated her opponents, even though her lobbying was restricted to the state and didn’t extend to federal officials.

As an Atlanta trucking accident lawyer, I have been especially concerned about Ferro’s strong support for the 11-hour trucking rule, in light of the mounting evidence that it placed truckers and motorists at greater risk. It doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to appreciate that truck drivers are under constant pressure to meet tight delivery schedules, and the fewer hours they are forced to drive, the safer we all will be.

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The American Trucking Association has announced its support for a bill that would minimize accidents by banning texting by all drivers, including passenger vehicle drivers and commercial truck drivers.

The bill, the Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act or ALERT Drivers Act, has been introduced by Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY).  The bill bans the use of handheld cell phones and other personal electronic devices that can be used for making calls or texting. States that don’t enforce the ban within 2 years will have up to 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding cut.

In August, a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute monitored truck drivers' behavior by installing video cameras in cabs. The researchers found that truckers who indulged in activities that took their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel, like texting, increased their risk of an accident by 23 times. Those are staggering statistics, and call for strong measures. Even if you don’t agree with the 23-times risk increase, you have to agree that any kind of distraction behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound truck is extremely dangerous.

The ATA also adopted three other policy statements, one of which involved support of the use of onboard safety systems, including lane departure warning systems, brake monitoring systems and collision avoidance systems. However, the ATA is insisting on stronger incentives to encourage trucking companies to adopt such accident-prevention technologies. It also adopted a policy statement regarding educating new motorists on sharing the road with commercial motor vehicles. The policy statement says that passenger vehicle drivers must be educated on proper distances for following trucks, blind spots and other issues that can cause accidents.

Jason Schultz is an Atlanta truck accident attorney, representing injured victims of truck and tractor trailer accidents across the state of Georgia.

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Three members of a single family were killed last week in a truck accident in Walker County, Georgia. According to news reports, a tree trimming truck traveling on Highway 136, struck and car and a pickup truck. The truck driver Charles Keen, seems to have crossed the centerline, and collided with the two vehicles. One passenger in the car was injured, while all the three occupants of the pickup truck were killed. The dead included a minor female. Keen was employed by a tree service company in Walker County.

Last year, 180 people were killed in truck accidents in Georgia. Any time a large truck is involved in an accident with smaller passenger cars or light trucks, the consequences for the occupants of the smaller vehicles can be deadly. Victims in smaller vehicles may also suffer severe injuries, including multiple body trauma injuries, and catastrophic injuries like spinal cord fractures and brain injuries. That's why drivers of large trucks need to be especially careful and vigilant while on the roads.

Driving errors like allowing the vehicle to drift out of its travel lane and crossing the center line are often the result of distracted driving. A driver who is distracted because he is snacking, reaching for an object or any other activity that requires him to take his eyes off the road, is at a higher risk for an accident. Cell phone use can also cause a driver to lose focus and make driving errors. Mistakes can also occur when a truck driver is fatigued or tired. Whatever the cause, the consequences of a trucker’s error is highly likely to result in death for those sharing the roads.

Jason Schultz is an experienced Georgia truck accident lawyer and represents victims of serious injury and wrongful death arsing from truck, tractor trailer and 18 wheeler accidents across Georgia.

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A truck driver working for Con-Way Freight Company in Georgia has clocked an admirable milestone – Ken Truman of Gray in Jones County, Georgia has completed two million miles of driving a tractor trailer without being involved in a single truck accident. Truman is only the 88^th driver in the company's 25-year-old history to have completed the milestone, and company officials are justifiably proud of their employee. 

Truman has been driving a tractor trailer for Conway since 1988. Since he joined as a driver, there has been a staggering increase in the number of vehicles that he has to share the road with, and that makes his accomplishment even more impressive. It takes extra care and fine-tuned attention to road and traffic conditions to be able to complete two million miles without a single accident to your name, but Truman proves that although it is challenging, it's far from impossible.

Truman has been candid about the reasons for his remarkable achievement and they are what Atlanta truck accident lawyers and trucking safety advocates have known all along. He never starts a journey without a complete pre-trip check of the truck, including the steering wheel, brakes, and lights. He makes sure that he checks the weather forecast for the route he is headed on before he begins to drive. Adverse weather can make it harder to control a tractor trailer, especially in slippery or foggy road conditions.

It also helped Truman that he knows the power of a good night's sleep for a truck driver. Overworked, overstressed truck drivers who have been "working" the log books – a common enough practice in the trucking industry where a driver manipulates his log books to be able to work longer hours and earn more money– are more at risk for an accident. Driving slowly and steadily without indulging in any undesirable driving behaviors, like sudden lane changes and tailgating have helped this driver pass a crucial safety milestone.

As Truman illustrates, it is not impossible to avoid an accident while driving a tractor trailer on a daily basis.  Driving a big rig comes with a whole host of challenges, including the careless and sometimes reckless driving of "four wheelers".  We applaud him for his great accomplishment and hope other truck drivers will follow his example.

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I read with great interest an article written by Kyle Jernigan, an account executive for Hiring Truck Drivers entitled Truck Drivers: Not The Dangerous Ones On The Road.

While I agree with much of what Mr. Jernigan has written and believe, as he does, that most truck drivers and trucking companies are safe, unfortuanately there are still too many truck drivers, trucking companies and shippers that have too little regard for the federal motor carrier safety regulations, including hours of service violations, and treat them as a nuisance.

Many truck drivers blame shippers, not trucking companies, for the pressure some drivers are under to deliver no matter what unforeseen delays, including traffic jams or weather, slow them down.  Those delays cause drivers to push the rules.  On the other hand, you have "supertruckers" who will drive well in excess of the rules on a consistent basis and trucking companies, especially smaller ones, look the other way in order to make money.

Federal regulations permit a truck driver to drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty. They can drive a maximum of 60 hours in a seven-day period or 70 hours during an eight-day period. Before starting a shift that will run for seven or eight days straight, they must take off 34 or more consecutive hours, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Daphne Izer, founder and co-chair of Parents Against Tired Truckers, said the federal rules still don't address the continued problem with driver fatigue.  "Drivers are paid by the mile. Not much is going to change until that changes," Izer said.  Delays can prompt truckers to falsify logbooks so they can make up time and mileage.  "Oftentimes, loads have to be delivered at any cost and that cost is human lives," she said. "Granted, the truck driver is responsible when he is behind the wheel. But if he doesn't do what he's told, in many cases he will lose his job."  Izer started the group in 1994, seven months after her son and three other teenagers were killed when a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into them. The teens had pulled over onto the shoulder of the Maine Turnpike. Another teen was seriously injured.  Izer also called for onboard electronic recorders to replace the logbooks many drivers are required to fill out themselves.

While truck drivers are certainly not “the dangerous villains of the highway,“ my professional experience has revealed that in almost all of the serious injury and wrongful death trucking cases that I have handled, driver fatigue has played a role.  Oftentimes, discovery reveals a tale far different from the one told on the truck driver's log book alone.

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