Experienced Mississippi Trucking Attorney Explains: USDOT to Expand Drug Testing in 2018

If you are a long-haul trucker in Mississippi, you need to be aware of a new change in store for 2018 that could affect the way you earn your living. In response to the opioid epidemic in the United States, the United States Department of Transportation is adding additional drugs to the list to its drug-testing panel: hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and oxycodone to its drug-testing panel.  Additionally, the USDOT is adding methylenedioxyamphetamine as an initial test analyte; and removing methylenedioxyethylamphetamine as a confirmatory test analyte.

These new drugs become subject to testing on January 1, 2018.

Of course, what makes these additional drugs complex to regulate is that, as opposed to illegal narcotics such as heroin or cocaine, the new additions are all legal with a prescription. Accordingly, you could have a positive test for them because you are using them according to a physician-issued prescription.

If you are required to take a drug test either as part of an employer mandated policy or after an accident, you need to know your rights. As opposed to having the presence of illegal drugs in your system, there may be a legitimate and legal reason that you have one of these substances in your system.  If you are disciplined as a result of a “hot” test for any of these drugs, it is imperative that you contact an experienced trucking attorney immediately to protect your rights.

The Challenges of Testing for Opioids

We are all familiar with laws regarding DUI and the roadside stops and breath tests to detect alcohol in the blood of a driver. While those tests are hardly perfect, they are based on much more predictable science than testing for opioids. When a person consumes alcohol, it first enters the body through ingestion, quickly enters the blood stream, and is then expelled from the body. If you were to graph the amount of alcohol in a person’s blood after drinking, the graph would resemble a traditional bell curve, with very small amounts of alcohol at the time of initial ingestion, rising amounts while it is in the blood stream, and a sharp decrease back down to zero once it is expelled.

Opioids, like many other drugs, do not behave in the system like alcohol. If you have ever been prescribed these drugs, you know that they accumulate in the body slowly over days.  That is because opioids accumulate in fat cells and do not just pass through the digestive and circulatory system like alcohol. Several days after using a prescribed opioid, you likely still have it excreting into your blood through fat cells that absorbed it days ago. If you have been taking a prescription opioid for a long period of time, you may be within the therapeutic dosage limits, but have enough of a prohibited drug in your system to suggest abuse. 

While opioids have existed for quite a while, the effort to regulate their use in industries such as trucking remains new. Unlike alcohol, testing protocols are not well developed and can erroneously suggest a person using opioids for a legitimate health issue is actually abusing them. 

What Should You Do if You Fail a Drug Test?

If you are accused of abusing opioids due to these new USDOT rules or any other company mandated drug testing, call an experienced trucking attorney to protect your rights.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi trucking law firm, to represent you if you have failed a drug test or are having other trucking-related legal problems

Barrett Law has the experience to protect your rights, your livelihood, and your income.  Contact us now at (800) 707-9577 to get experienced counsel on your side.

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Mississippi Trucking Lawyer Advises: Five Steps to Protect Yourself During a Trucking Accident Investigation

As a long haul trucker, you need to know what information is vital to your defense if you are involved in a serious accident involving damage, injury, or loss of life. In that sort of accident, it is vital that legal counsel be involved immediately to assure that evidence necessary to defend you legally is preserved.  Here is a list of steps to take and important evidence if you are involved in a serious accident.

Step One: Say Nothing

Make no statements until your attorney is present. While you have probably seen police dramas on television where the accused is given his or her “Miranda” warning prior to a criminal arrest, warning that “anything they say can be used against you” in court, no such warning will be given or required if you are in an accident, as it is normally not a criminal matter. Thus, your statements or efforts to help police by explaining what happened can come back to haunt you in subsequent litigation. Remember, after a significant accident, you are probably in shock and rarely truly know what caused an accident. That is not a time to be making statements.

Step Two: Getting Counsel Involved Early

For a serious accident, you will need to enlist a team to help you. A usual defense team is composed of an expert on traffic or trucking accidents, representatives from your insurer, and your attorney and his or her staff. This team needs to be on the ground and investigating within hours of the crash, if possible, and definitely no later than 24 hours after the accident.

Step Three: Documentation

One of the reasons that it important to get a team on the ground early is to accurately  and professionally document the accident. The measurements and photographs taken immediately after an accident are vital evidence in your defense. You likely lack the training and tools to document the accident in the way a court will require.  If you have been involved in an accident, you also have normal self interest in portraying the accident in a way most favorable to you, another reason why the evidence you gather is unlikely to be acceptable. Accordingly, getting a professional team on the ground to accurately collect evidence that will be used to defend you is vital.

Step Four: Safeguard your Record of Duty Log

Negligence claims against long haul drivers often revolve around claims of the drivers’ lack of sleep due to inadequate breaks or speeding. Your required “record of duty,” which documents stops, can be used as evidence of your speed between points and whether you stopped enough to prevent fatigue. This is important evidence and, by law, must be maintained for six months per the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Step Five: Black Box Records

If your truck is outfitted with an an electronic control module, or “black box,” it has data in it that may more accurately show your driving, stopping, and resting data. Your legal counsel should have access to this data for the same reasons as explained regarding your Duty Log, above. It is potentially vital information in your defense, and can be lost if your truck is put back into service and the data on the black box is overwritten with new information.

Have you been involved in a trucking accident? Evidence gathering, dealing with opposing attorneys, important deadlines, statutes of limitations, and filing requirements make your representation both complex and time-sensitive.  Consulting with an experienced trucking attorney is necessary to protect yourself, your livelihood, and your rights.

Contact Mississippi Truck Accident Attorney Jonathan Barrett at Barrett Law immediately to protect your rights

Call attorney Barrett to set up a free initial consultation. Your trucking claims are not simple, and you should not trust them to an attorney lacking the trucking experience attorney Barrett possess. Call now at (800) 707-9577 to protect your career and family.

 

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Experienced Mississippi Trucking Attorney Discusses Report on Common Causes of Trucking Accidents

When a large truck crashes, small cars’ passengers are usually the victim. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that in 2015, 3,852 people died in crashes involving large trucks. The vast majority (69%) of those victims were people riding in passenger vehicles. Sixteen percent of these deaths were truck occupants and 15 percent were pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists. As a interstate carrier, it is vital to know the factors that contribute to serious accidents. If you are involved in an accident, immediately contact an experienced trucking attorney to represent your interests and protect your livelihood and family.

Mechanical Defects

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety researchers collaborated with the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol to examine factors affecting the risk of crashing for large trucks operated by interstate carriers. Their research determined that if an interstate carrier had a serious mechanical defect, there was three times the risk of having a crash.

Driver Fatigue

Long hours behind the wheel can not only lead to exhaustion, but to accidents. Driver fatigue is a significant contributor to crashes involving large trucks. This problem can be exacerbated by the use of the short-haul exemption for federal hours-of-service rules. The reason for the relationship between exhaustion and short-haul drivers is that while short-haul drivers have to comply with federal rules on rest and driving times, short-haul exemption drivers do not have the same requirements for logging their driving hours. As a result, without a requirement to log hours, some short-haul drivers drive longer than they should, become exhausted, and get into accidents.

Short-Haul Exemption Drivers

Short-haul exemption drivers are drivers who normally drive short distances, but get an exemption work as an interstate carrier. They are not necessarily accustomed to the legal requirements of interstate carriers. Less experience can translate to less ability, less skill, and more accidents. A lack of familiarity with the legal requirements that interstate carriers have to comply with can result in increased safety violations and accidents.

Are There Safety Solutions on the Horizon?

To combat inaccurate mileage logs, there is a new federal mandate requiring electronic logging devices (ELDs) – set to take effect in late 2017 – there is a belief that automating the tracking of hours driven will decrease the impulse to drive to exhaustion and make those unsafe extra hours trackable, and ultimately punishable by administrative or legal action.

Another technological advance that could have an effect on highway safety is crash avoidance technology, which is now being required on large trucks. These technological changes seek to mitigate the damage by large trucks. Specifically, electronic stability control systems, which help control situations where drivers either understeer or oversteer, and roll stability control that reduce rollovers are being added to trucks and may soon be required. Having anti-lock breaks is another factor reducing the chance of a catastrophic crash.

If you are an long haul trucker or interstate carrier, you need to have an understanding of both the safety concerns that could lead to accidents, as well as the legal changes that are affecting your profession. New rules aimed at curbing the danger posed by large trucks to passenger vehicles affect how you do business.

Call Barrett Law now at (800) 707-9577 if you need to understand new rules affecting interstate carriers or if you are in an accident.

Contacting the Mississippi Trucking Attorney at Barrett Law can mean the difference between working in compliance with the law and protecting your livelihood and losing your ability to drive. There are serious safety and financial implications to your decision to attain knowledgeable legal counsel as you work to comply with the law or react to an accident.

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Mississippi Tricking Accident Attorney Explains Jackknife Trucking Accidents

Driving near tractor-trailers can make people nervous. After all, the weight of these vehicles is 20-30 times what a passenger car is, and when a truck collides with a passenger vehicle, the occupants of the smaller vehicle are the ones that typically suffer the most severe injuries and a higher risk of death. While there are certain aspects of truck driving that make it more challenging, and potentially more likely for the truck driver to cause accidents, not all truck accidents are caused by truck drivers. With that said, the size and weight of commercial trucks makes it more difficult for them to stop quickly, especially on wet or icy roads, and truck drivers are more likely than other drivers to spend extremely long periods of time behind the wheel.

It seems that jackknife accidents would be clear examples of accidents that are the fault of a truck driver, and not the other driver, however, even in these cases an injured person will have to prove liability.

What is a jackknife accident?

Large tractor-trailers consist of a cabin and the trailer. When the driver in the cabin loses control over the trailer part of the truck, and the truck takes on the shape of the letter “L” or a “V,” this is referred to as “jackknifing.” The name is derived from a folding knife because the shape is similar to that of a partially folded blade.

What are the risks associated with jackknifing?

If a truck loses control and jackknifes, the trailer could cross the road, including the traffic in lanes traveling in the opposite direction. This can cause cars to crash head-on into the trailer with little opportunity to get out of the way or stop. There is also a large risk of a truck rolling when it jackknifes, creating an incredible risk to everyone on the road, and at times risking spilling cargo that could also be hazardous.

What causes a truck to jackknife?

When a truck driver slams on the breaks, the cab might stop, but the trailer may continue to move forward. This could occur because of inclement weather, curves in the road, or because the truck driver was trying to avoid something in his or her path.

Many times, these accidents could be caused by negligence on the part to the truck driver. For instance, the need to slam on the breaks could often occur as the result of the driver speeding, or driving at a speed that might be under the speed limit, but still reckless due to the weather or other conditions. Of course, not every accident involving jackknifing will necessarily be the fault of a truck driver. If the trucker only attempted to stop abruptly because of a car accident that occurred immediately in front of the truck’s path, then the driver might not have been negligent, but rather caught in a helpless position.

It is important to remember that if you were in an accident with a truck that jackknifed and your own driving might have contributed to the injuries that you suffered, you can still collect compensation from the other negligent driver under Mississippi law, your compensation will just be reduced to reflect your share of the fault.

Any accident involving trucks is frightening and can potentially cause catastrophic harm. Be sure to speak with an attorney to have your claim evaluated and to determine your best course of action.  Contact Barrett Law PLLC today to speak with our seasoned Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney.

 

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Trucking Accidents and Corporate Liability

Because of the sheer size and mass of commercial trucks, accidents involving these vehicles can be extremely destructive and leave people with severe injuries and enormous costs. If the accident is the result of the truck driver’s actions, then other injured people would be entitled to collect compensation for their injuries. One issue that complicates these matters is determining who is actually on the hook for the truck driver’s negligence? Is it the trucker as an individual? Or, is it the company that employs the driver?  In most cases, injured people would rather file a lawsuit against a driver’s company because there is a greater chance of recovering a higher damages award as opposed to simply going after the individual truck driver. However, it is not always clear who is going to be liable.

Respondeat superior

Under the legal concept of respondeat superior, an employer is responsible for the actions taken by their employees. If respondeat superior applies in a case, the company is just as liable for the injuries caused by the truck accident as if it was behind the wheel. There are limitations on this liability though. For one thing, the actions must have taken place in the course of the employee’s work for the company. If the trucker was working, hauling goods for the company at the time of the accident, then the accident occurred in the course of his or her employment. However, if the truck driver was on his or her way to a movie at the time, then the employer might not be responsible for the employee’s actions. Additionally, only unintentional conduct usually counts. If the truck driver committed an intentional tort, the company would not be liable.

The biggest question in determining if respondeat superior applies though, is whether or not the truck driver was an employee.

When is a trucker an employee?

State laws differ on how to determine whether a person is an independent contractor or an employee. In Mississippi, there are several factors considered, including:

  • Level of control over the details of the work
  • Whether the employer person is in a distinct occupation or business
  • The required skill of the occupation
  • If tools and a place of work are supplied by the employer
  • How much time the person is employed for
  • How the person is paid (based on time or per job)
  • Whether the work performed is a normal part of the employer’s business

Determining who is responsible for damages caused in a truck accident can be complicated, but is an extremely important part of a claim for compensation.

Because of the serious damage caused by many trucking accidents, it is vital for individuals involved in these accidents to have their claims evaluated by experienced personal injury attorneys. If you were hurt in an accident with a truck, contact an attorney to discuss your claim, and to determine the best way to pursue compensation for your injuries.  Contact the seasoned Mississippi Trucking Accident Lawyer today at (800) 707-9577 to learn more about your legal rights and options.

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Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney Describes a Very Messy Trucking Accident

Accident scenes can be gruesome, but sometimes, an accident happens that takes gruesomeness to another level. A recent accident involving an overturned tractor trailer resulted in a highway strewn with dead chicken parts. The wreckage ended up on the southbound side of I-55, near mile marker 76. The driver said that he was traveling north when the trailer portion of his rig malfunctioned. As he lost control of the truck, it went into the median and flipped over the barrier onto the southbound side of the road. Fortunately, the chicken parts that got scattered about the accident scene were the only gruesome discoveries in this wreck. The truck driver didn’t exhibit any signs of injury after the crash.

When cars collide, it can make a mess in the road. When one of the vehicles in a wreck is a tractor trailer, the potential for damage and destruction is even greater. There are other differences between tractor trailer accidents and accidents that involve only passenger vehicles. It is useful for all drivers to know what the differences are between accidents involving passenger vehicles only and accidents involving eighteen-wheelers. One difference is that tractor trailers are driven by professional drivers. If they get in an accident, they are at work. The accident might cause them to miss an important deadline, or they may be exhausted from a long day on the road. Fortunately, there are safety rules in place to help truck drivers act responsibly and avoid driving while they are tired, but those rules do not always get followed. If you get into an accident with a tractor trailer, remember that the person who is driving the truck might not even own it, so there are likely to be other parties besides the drivers involved in your trucking accident case.

Not only are the parties in trucking accident cases different and more numerous than the parties in accident cases involving only cars, they vehicles themselves are different. Eighteen-wheelers are enormous, and they are heavy. They handle differently when they are loaded than they do when they are not. They have moving parts. Eighteen-wheelers are longer and taller than other vehicles on the road. They are also much heavier. The exact weight of a trailer truck varies depending upon the weight of its cargo, but many of them weigh nearly eighty thousand pounds. Because tractor trailers are big and heavy and they maneuver differently than cars do, the physical occurrence of an accident involving a tractor trailer is much different than a wreck of only passenger vehicles.

Barrett Law PLLC:   Caring Support for Victims of Mississippi Trucking Accidents

The differences between tractor trailer accidents and passenger vehicle accidents can make pursuing resolution of your claim for damages difficult and complicated. Trucking accident cases can also involve various state and Federal laws that do not apply to passenger vehicle crashes. Accident victims who were in a wreck involving a tractor-trailer need the specialized knowledge and support of a Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney. Attorneys who understand trucking accident cases know exactly how to get and interpret evidence and business records which are needed to successfully resolve your trucking accident claim. If you would like to learn more about how Mississippi trucking accident victims can file a claim for damages, call the Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (800) 707-9577 today.

 

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Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney Discusses Trucking Accidents Involving Hazardous Materials

The wreckage from tractor trailer accidents can make a huge mess on the road, and the massive vehicles often block the roadway for some time before the road can get cleared. Sometimes, the contents of a truck will spill out when the truck gets into a wreck. If the truck is carrying books, clothing, or other household or non-hazardous items, it can take a while to get the cargo cleaned up, but it doesn’t create a threat to the environment or people in the area if traffic near the accident scene is properly diverted until the road is clear. If the truck contains hazardous cargo, there is a potential risk to environmental and human health and safety if the cargo spills in a crash,

A recent accident involving a tanker truck carrying hydrogen peroxide created such a threat when the truck overturned in the median of I-22. Since there was a hazardous substance involved in that accident, there was a lot more to clean it up than removing the wrecked truck from the road. The wreck closed the highway for hours, as emergency personnel worked to keep people at least a half of a mile away from it because a crack in the tank of the truck was releasing hydrogen peroxide vapor into the air. The driver did not get hurt in the wreck, and the vapor did not catch fire. Cleanup efforts after the crash included air quality monitoring to check for dangerous levels of the vapor as well as dilution of the hydrogen peroxide to a safe concentration. Local fire departments brought tanker trucks full of water to the accident scene, where they used the water to dilute the hydrogen peroxide. Air quality monitoring equipment got used to ensure that the vapors were not creating a risk of fire or explosion.

Hydrogen peroxide, in a highly diluted form, is safe for use as an antiseptic and many people have it at home in their medicine cabinets. Concentrated hydrogen peroxide, which is what as contained in the tanker that overturned, is an irritant, which means that it can harm skin, eyes, and respiratory organs. It is also corrosive, so it can burn skin and eat through different substances. Hydrogen peroxide vapors are flammable and can catch fire and even explode. It is fortunate that none of the potentially dangerous things that could have happened in this recent tractor trailer wreck came to pass. The accident is an illustration of the potential danger of trucking accidents involving hazardous materials.

Barrett Law PLLC:   Helping People Who Get Hurt In Mississippi Trucking Accidents

Accidents involving tractor trailers can cause serious injury, fatalities, and property damage. Some tractor trailer accidents can even spill hazardous cargo onto the roadway, increasing the risk of serious injury, death, environmental harm and property damage. To learn more about how Mississippi trucking accident victims can file a claim for damages that they sustained as the result of a Mississippi truck wreck, call the knowledgeable Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (800) 707-9577 today.

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Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney Discusses Spilled Cargo

Sometimes, tractor trailer accidents can make a big mess on the road. In some cases, when cargo spills out of a trailer, there is no real danger to the public or to the environment besides the potential for accidents to occur as people get curious and look at the mess instead of paying attention to driving. At other times, cargo that spills from a wrecked truck can be a significant threat to human and environmental safety.

A recent tractor trailer crash near the Mississippi-Louisiana state line left letters and packages strewn about the accident scene. The truck was carrying mail to California, but the mail that was in the trailer will not reach its destination as quickly as it would have if the wreck had not occurred. It was wet when the mail tumbled out onto the road, and the mail had to be collected off of the road, put into a truck, and brought to New Orleans, where it will get dried out before it continues its journey to California.

Fortunately, there were no reports of other accidents happening in the vicinity of the crashed mail truck. The envelopes and packages that ended up on the road did not cause any threat to human or environmental health and safety. There have been other trucking accidents in Mississippi and throughout America where the truck’s cargo created health and environmental hazards that had to be addressed quickly by Hazardous Materials Response Teams (HAZMAT). For example, one tractor trailer that overturned was loaded with naphtha. Law enforcement officers closed the road near the spill for twelve hours after the wreck and diverted traffic onto other roads while emergency response crews cleaned up the spill. The driver of the truck got hurt, and additional injuries resulted from accidents that happened in the midst of the heavy traffic throughout the surrounding area later that day.

Also, a tanker truck overturned during a collision with a pickup truck. The tanker truck was carrying a corrosive liquid, and some of it spilled onto the road. The road where the crash happened was closed for several hours. Area residents were advised to stay in their homes and not go outside so that they would not get exposed to chemical fumes. Many hazardous materials are transported by truck every day in the United States. Between 2004 and 2013, over three thousand of the truck crashes that happened on American roads involved hazardous materials. Ninety-one people died in those accidents, and much more were injured. In addition to their impact on human lives, the wrecks caused over four hundred and fifty million dollars’ worth of property damage.

Barrett Law PLLC:   Helping People Hurt By Mississippi Trucking Accidents

Accidents involving tractor trailers can cause death, injury, and property damage. Some tractor trailer accidents can even spill cargo onto the roadway, which could create even more danger if the cargo is a hazardous substance or creates the risk of additional accidents. To learn more about Mississippi trucking accidents, call the knowledgeable Mississippi Personal Injury Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (800) 707-9577 today.

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Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney Talks About Collisions Involving Multiple Trucks

A recent midday crash involving three tractor-trailers stopped eastbound traffic on Interstate 10 in Mississippi for quite some time while response crews worked to clear the wreckage from the roadway. Preliminary reports on the accident did not indicate that there were any fatalities from the crash, but there was a lot of property damage, and there may have been some injuries. Accidents involving one tractor trailer can cause significant amounts of property damage and bodily harm, and accidents involving multiple tractor trailers cause even more damage and destruction.

Tractor trailer accidents are often both severe and fatal. Because eighteen-wheelers are large and heavy, any accident involving multiple tractor trailers increase the amount of injury and damage that occur. Accidents involving multiple tractor trailers can happen anytime, but the risk of those accidents happening increases during times of peak traffic, when the roads are crowded with al kinds of vehicles. When tractor-trailers are traveling near each other, there are several ways that they can crash into each other. Sometimes, one truck rear-ends another.  When this happens, other vehicles may also get into a rear-end collision with the first two trucks. These rear-end collisions can be extremely dangerous, because the driver of the truck that collided with the rear of the first truck could become trapped in the cab of their truck, resulting in serious injuries or death. Multiple tractor trailers can collide in any fashion and trigger a chain reaction in which multiple other vehicles pile up into a wreck on the roadway. Another possible multiple truck accident scenario is the side impact, which can happen when trucks are driving next to each other and fail to maintain their lanes.

Drivers of passenger vehicles need to know that whenever there is a trucking accident, there is likely to be a complicated set of facts. It can be difficult for accident victims and their families to pursue claims for damages because of the complexity. Trucking accident attorneys understand how trucking accident claims work, the various types of parties involved, and how to pursue claims on behalf of their clients with the goal of obtaining compensation for their damages promptly. The reason that trucking accidents are complicated is that they involve more parties than just the drivers and passengers at the crash scene. These parties include the trucking company, their insurance company, the truck manufacturer, the manufacturer of parts used to repair the truck, mechanics that have worked on the trucks, and others. If you are involved in a trucking accident, know that the “accident response team” that responds to accident scene (not emergency rescue personnel, a separate group of investigators) is there on behalf of the insurers and the trucking companies. These people are not neutral parties, and they represent interests that are contrary to yours. You may refuse to speak with them until you have talked with your attorney.

Barrett Law PLLC:   Helping Victims Of Mississippi Trucking Accidents

Accidents involving multiple tractor trailers can be devastating. To learn more about how we could help you file a claim for damages after a trucking accident or any other type of wreck, call the knowledgeable Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (800) 707-9577 to set up a consultation.

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Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorneys Discuss Pile-Up Accidents

A tragic chain of events resulted in a fatal motor vehicle wreck involving an eighteen-wheeler and three other vehicles. The pile-up happened on the southbound side of I-270 just south of Clayton. After the accident, the southbound lanes of the highway were closed for over six hours, as multiple agencies worked to remove the wreckage from the roadway and investigate the accident.

A pile-up, or chain reaction accident occurs when one accident or collision occurs and then other vehicles subsequently become ensnared in it. For example, in this recent pile-up accident, the initial incident took place when the driver of a van that was pulling a trailer lost control of their vehicle while they were driving southbound on I-270. As the driver of the van lost control of the vehicle, it crossed lanes, colliding with a tow truck and then a passenger car. During this collision, one or more of the vehicles ended up in the median. At some point during or after that accident, the driver of a tractor-trailer tried to avoid the wreckage. That eighteen-wheeler became entangled in the mess because, despite their efforts, the driver was unable to successfully maneuver around it. Things got worse when the van caught fire, and things continued to get worse when the semi-truck caught on fire. Four people were involved in this devastating and destructive four-vehicle chain reaction crash. One died, two others received serious injuries, and one, the driver of the tow truck, escaped from the experience without harm.

All motor vehicle accidents are tragic, especially those that claim one or more lives and cause large amounts of injury and property damage. Fortunately, drivers can sometimes avoid becoming ensnared in a pile-up accident by employing safe driving strategies. One such strategy is maintaining a constant awareness of the weather and the road conditions where you are driving. We all know that weather is changeable, but did you know that road conditions can change just as quickly as the weather? In fact, some of the most dangerous road conditions can occur right after a change from dry to wet weather, partly because of how the precipitation affects the road surface and partly because drivers are often slow to adjust their driving to variations in the weather. If you reduce your speed as soon as you notice a change in the weather, you will put yourself at an advantage by being able to better maintain control of your vehicle and being better able to see what is happening on the road ahead of you with enough time to safely adjust your course if needed. A second safe driving practice that can help you avoid accidents of all kinds, including chain reaction accidents, is leaving plenty of room between your vehicle and the other vehicles that are near you on the roadway. Space provides time within which you can react to changes in the positions of other vehicles, and can give you enough time to stop or change course safely if a vehicle ahead of you loses control or has a collision.

Barrett Law PLLC:  Serving Mississippi Trucking Accident Victims

If you or someone that you love got hurt or killed in a pile-up accident involving a tractor trailer, be sure to choose an attorney who has experience with handling trucking accident cases. To learn more, call the Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (800) 707-9577, to schedule a free consultation.

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