Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorneys Discuss Road Rage Truck Accidents

A November wreck involving an overturned cargo truck was allegedly the result of road rage. Fortunately, the driver of the overturned truck was not hurt. The Mississippi Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. A co-worker of the driver of the overturned vehicle claims another truck driver cut his co-worker off, causing the crash. The wreck happened just south of Terry, on Interstate 55.

Road rage accidents can be dangerous and even deadly, especially when one or more of the vehicles involved is a large truck. Truck drivers are trained professionals. They are responsible for operating their large vehicles safely in all kinds of road and weather conditions, as well as in traffic. When a truck driver loses their ability to continue driving safely even while they are experiencing anger or other negative emotions, there is a danger to the public as well as to the truck driver.

In 2016, a woman died in a trucking accident that has been attributed to road rage. The facts that describe the scenario that led up to the fatal wreck are shocking because many people are unaware that such things occur on America’s highways. Three trucks belonging to one company were traveling between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Eugene, Oregon. As they traveled, they encountered an RV. The RV is owned by another transportation company and was driven by a professional driver who holds a CDL license. Before the fatal crash, the three truck drivers and the driver of the RV had engaged in a perilous cat-and-mouse game on a two-lane highway. All four drivers were cutting each other off, driving aggressively, braking sharply, and passing each other, even in areas where passing was prohibited. In fact, in the seconds before the collision, one of the truck drivers attempted to pass the RV in a no-passing zone. When the truck driver realized there was a car approaching, he tried to return to the lane where he had been traveling. The driver of the RV maneuvered his vehicle in a way that prohibited the truck driver from moving back into the lane. The truck driver struck the car head-on, killing a woman and severely injuring her husband.

The two trucking companies whose vehicles were involved in the wreck and their drivers faced severe penalties as the result of the deadly crash. A judge recently upheld the jury’s award to the woman’s family, which exceeds twenty-six million dollars, and one of the truck drivers involved in the fatal collision pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter.

Truck drivers, like all drivers, must follow the rules of the road and operate their vehicles safely. If you were injured in a road rage trucking accident or a family member lost their life, you might be able to file a claim for the damages that you and your family have experienced in connection with the accident. Learn more about your options following a Mississippi road rage truck crash by calling the knowledgeable Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (601) 790-1505 today.

 

 

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Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney Talks About Accidents on Rural Roads

This past summer, an early morning head-on collision between a box truck and a van turned into a catastrophic wreck that claimed the lives of eight people. The eight people who lost their lives in the crash were in the van, riding to work. The van is owned by a Mississippi forestry company, and the workers were on their way to a job site in Alabama to cut trees. The passengers in the van were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the collision. The truck was owned by an Alabama company whose ninety-one commercial drivers operate a fleet of eighty-five trucks. Nine crashes involving trucks owned by that same company were reported during the past two years. The van driver received a ticket for not having a driver’s license. At the time of the writing of this article, no other charges were filed in connection with the accident.

The driver of the van survived, as did the driver of the truck. The van driver claims that although he swerved to avoid the box truck, it hit his van. An official investigation into the accident validated the van driver’s claim with a finding that the box truck crossed the center line before colliding with the van on June 3, near Scooba. The truck came to rest on the van, which it had pushed backwards into a guardrail.

Rescue workers who responded to the wreck say that the road where it happened is in a rural area and that drivers must use caution when driving on country roads late at night or in the early morning. The roads in much of rural Mississippi are very dark, and they are two-lane highways with one lane traveling in each direction, separated in most places only by a center line. That’s not the only danger present on Mississippi’s rural roads, where higher speeds can lead to more forceful collisions than occur in areas where there is more traffic and lower speed limits.

Accident investigation data from across the nation shows that rural roadways like the one where this crash happened are four times as deadly as city streets. Mississippi often tops lists of the most dangerous places to drive, and the amount of rural roads in the state is a major contributing factor. Law enforcement agencies do what they can to keep the road safe, but the number of officers is small, considering the number of miles of roadway that they are responsible for policing. When motor vehicle wrecks occur on Mississippi’s rural roads, there may be a significant delay between the time of the crash and the time someone sees it and reports it, if the driver or passengers cannot report the accident themselves. It may also take rescue workers a while to get from where they are to the site of the wreck, which could be miles and miles away from where they are when they get the call. The crash scene could also be many miles from a hospital, which could mean the difference between life and death in some cases.

To learn about how you can file a claim for damages that you suffered in a Mississippi truck crash, call the knowledgeable Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC, at 1 (601) 790-1505 today.

 

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Experienced Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney Explains How Courts Determine Who is at Fault in a Trucking Accident

Loaded long haul trucks can weigh ten times more than an average passenger car. As a result, that weight differential results in trucking accidents being catastrophic for the vehicles and people involved. You might think that if your vehicle is struck by a large truck, the trucking company will pay for your injuries and damage to your vehicle.  But it is not that simple, and the trucking company usually tries to claim that it and the driver are not at fault.  I wrote the following blog post to help people understand how courts determine who is at fault after a trucking accident.

If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of a trucking accident, you will need to have experienced trucking accident counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury, recovery, and loss of work. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

How Courts Determine Fault After a Trucking Accident

Under Mississippi law, being injured in a trucking accident is not sufficient to attain compensation for those injuries. Instead, you must prove that the party that injured you was  “negligent,” which means that they had a duty to act reasonably to prevent harming you and that they failed in that duty.  Accordingly, if you are driving down a highway and a herd of wild horses runs into the road, causing a truck to slam on its breaks and swerve into your lane, injuring you, you may not have a solid case. That is because the truck driver acted reasonably under extreme circumstances.  However, if one cow walks into the road and an intoxicated truck driver swerves wildly well in advance of the cow, striking and injuring you, you have may have a strong case.  That is because the second truck driver acted unreasonably by being intoxicated and you were injured as a result.

Those are somewhat far-fetched examples that I have used to illustrate a point, but these are much more common ways that truckers fail to act reasonably towards other drivers, such as: Not getting sufficient sleep; Being under the influence of drugs or alcohol; Speeding; Hauling an unbalanced load; and Failing to maintain the truck or secure the truck’s cargo. To prove that a trucking company failed to reasonably meet a duty to protect you and other drivers from harm, you will need to collect evidence of one of these failures.

An experienced trucking attorney can gather relevant evidence, such a driver’s sleep and driving log.  Police reports usually indicate whether a driver with a commercial driver’s license or CDL was under the influence of any intoxicants at the time of the crash, and a truck’s “black box” indicates real drive time when driver logs might be faked. Finally, a trucking accident attorney knows how to subpoena maintenance and driving records from trucking companies.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured in an Accident?

If you or a loved one was injured in a trucking accident, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact a Mississippi attorney experienced in taking on trucking companies.  You need to focus on healing from your injuries and getting back to work. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions regarding the cause of the accident, and dealing with the trucking company’s attorneys. These are complex tasks that only a trucking accident attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury as the result of a trucking accident. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains What to Do if A Truck’s Loose Cargo Strikes You

Today I saw a truck pulled over on the side of the road, and a construction crew was picking up loose lumber that had spilled out all over the road.  That was an unfortunate incident for that crew, but it could have been a tragic accident if even one of those boards had struck an oncoming vehicle. If you drive Mississippi’s roads, you have likely seen other improperly secured cargo in the back of a truck or big rig and thought, “that guy is going to injure someone.” There are responsible long haul truckers who have with carefully strapped down loads and other trucks with their cargo unsecured and blowing out of the back of the truck behind them. Accidents stemming from loose cargo can be catastrophic, even deadly.

If you or a loved one were injured by loose truck cargo, you must find experienced counsel to help you attain your fair share of compensation for your loss of income and injury. The trucking company will have their aggressive attorneys, and you should have experienced counsel on your side as well. Barrett Law has the experience to help you if you have been injured.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

The Complexity of Loose Cargo Accidents

Loose cargo accidents are never straightforward and require the expert help of an experienced personal injury lawyer to prevent all of the parties involved from shirking their responsibility. The complexity lies in the potential number of parties that could be responsible for the object that fell off the truck and injured you or a loved one.  The most common accident type is when a truck carries a load that is insufficiently attached to the truck’s bed.  The load’s attachment may be sufficient when the truck is at rest or moving straight down a highway, but it may give way when the truck swerves abruptly to avoid an accident or some other obstacle.

A related, but different type of accident occurs when truck cargo breaks loose and blocks some part of the roadway, resulting in other cars swerving to avoid it. While this type of accident may not result in vehicles colliding with the truck’s cargo, the cargo was the proximate cause of the crash, meaning it triggered it.

In either of the above two accidents, it may seem obvious to you that the trucking company that was hauling the loads that broke loose is responsible for compensating you for your injuries and other damages. That may or may not be true.  Most trucking companies now hire independent contractors to drive their trucks. They hire other independent contractors to load their trucks.  Yet another group of contractors maintains the trucks. Trucking companies use these contractors to limit their liability, and they will likely blame them for any injuries caused by a breakaway load.  That creates two problems.  First, that means that you will need to sue the trucking company, the driver, the loading company, and every other contractor individually, which multiplies the expense and complexity of your lawsuit.  Second, the subcontracting companies usually have very little in the way of assets and will go bankrupt rather than pay out a claim.  So you will need an experienced personal injury lawyer on your side who knows how to attach liability to the trucking company itself successfully.  If you have less experienced counsel who hasn’t handled this sort of case many times, you may find yourself injured and uncompensated.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured in an Accident?

If you or a family member were injured by loose truck cargo, you deserve your fair share of compensation for the time you have been out of work, the costs of your treatment and rehabilitation, your pain and suffering, and other damages. You’ll need experienced personal injury counsel to take care of organizing your bills, attaining statements from expert witnesses, and dealing with the trucking company’s attorneys. These are critical, complex tasks that a personal injury attorney will handle for you while you concentrate on healing and getting back on your feet again.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury due to a trucking accident. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

 

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Experienced Mississippi Personal Injury Attorney Explains What To Do After a Truck Accident

We all share Mississippi’s highways with big rigs, tractor-trailers, interstate trucks, eighteen-wheelers—they go by many different names, but we all know how it feels when one of these monsters rumbles by you.

If you or a loved one was injured as a result of an accident with an eighteen-wheeler, one thing is critical to know—you will need to have experienced counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your loss of income and injury. Barrett Law has the experience to help you if you have been injured.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

An Overview of Trucking Accidents

There are over 500,000 eighteen-wheeler accidents each year in the United States.  Sadly, because of these vehicles’ tremendous mass, their accidents trend toward catastrophic, especially when the accident involves a passenger vehicle.  Even the largest passenger car does not stand a chance when it is hit by an eighteen-wheeler, regardless of speed or the weight of the load in question.

Who Do Sue in a Trucking Accident Case?

One of the significant issues that separates a trucking case from a typical automobile accident case is the complexity involving the number of possible defendants. In a negligence case, it is essential to sue everyone who bears some responsibility for your injuries, and if you fail to include a party, the other named parties may evade or partially evade responsibility by claiming that the unnamed party was actually at fault. In a car accident, you usually just have to name the other driver in your suit.  However, in a trucking accident case, you will often want to sue the driver, the trucking company that hired the driver, the company that maintains the truck, and even the truck’s manufacturer. Each of these parties will then have their own attorney. Accordingly, you will need representation of an attorney that has an office set up to take on a substantial opponent.

Why Covers My Medical Costs and Loss of Wages While the Case Progresses?

Usually, your insurer will cover your medical costs and loss of wages when you are injured in an automobile accident.  However, that is not the case if you are involved in a collision with an eighteen-wheeler or any large vehicle over 6,500 lbs. In these cases, your insurer will usually seek compensation directly from the trucking company for payment while the case is pending.

What Sort of Insurance Coverage to Trucking Companies Carry?

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires truckers to carry much more insurance than they would usually be needed to carry in Mississippi, depending upon the type of cargo they carry.  For example, an eighteen-wheeler carrying soccer balls is only mandated to have $750,000 in insurance. Compare that to a truck carrying a load of hazardous petrochemicals—it has to possess somewhere between $1 and $5 million in coverage, depending on the nature of the dangerous substance.

What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured in a Trucking Accident?

If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of a trucking accident, you are due compensation for your injuries, property damage, emotional trauma, and loss of work. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert diagnoses, and dealing with the trucking company’s attorneys. These are essential tasks that a personal injury attorney can handle for you and that you cannot handle alone.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered a trucking related injury. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

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Experienced Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney Explains Common Tactics Companies Use to Avoid Liability

As a trucking accident and personal injury attorney, I have seen every imaginable attempt by trucking companies to shift blame away from their drivers, trucks, and companies. This is particularly saddening because of the serious injuries to motorists that result from these crashes. Believe me, if a car is hit by a semi-truck or 18-wheeler, their massive weight mass results in a far greater impact and, sadly, more significant injuries. One thing is critical to state up front—you will need to have experienced trucking accident counsel help you attain any settlement from a trucking company. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

Below are four common tactics employed by trucking companies to shield themselves from liability. They illustrate why you need an experienced trucking accident attorney by your side to take on the company’s legal team.

Dismantle the Truck—Often, trucking companies will declare the truck that injured you as a “total loss” or “totaled” and dismantle it for scrap. While that may sound innocuous, it is actually an attempt to destroy evidence crucial to proving your case. The company may be negligent if the truck was not maintained to a reasonable standard or was lacked required safety technology. Immediately dismantling the truck prevents you from attaining this sort of evidence and proving negligence. As experienced trucking accident counsel, I have the experience to attain a motion immediately to prevent this sort of action.

“Repair” the Truck—When destroying or “totaling” a truck cannot be justified, a trucking company will often “repair” it. While repairs may seem innocuous or reasonable after an accident, they may be an attempt to upgrade the truck so that it has safety features that it should have had at the time of the accident.  Similarly, safety features that were not working at the time of the accident may be fixed to appear that they were.  Again, as experienced trucking accident counsel, I have the experience to attain an emergency order prohibiting this sort of tampering.

Interfere with the Crash Scene—Trucking companies have teams standing by to rush to a scene of an accident. Once there, they often try to bias investigators by talking with police officers, gather up pieces of a crash so that they cannot be photographed accurately, and influence witnesses.

Destroy Records—As discussed above, there is evidence at the scene of the crash, but also in the company’s own records. Often after an incident, important records regarding safety inspections, driver complaints, and other evidence are destroyed.  As experienced trucking accident counsel, I have the experience to attain a motion immediately to prevent this sort of action.

What Should You Do If You Were Injured in a Truck Accident?

If you were injured as the result of impact with a large truck, contact an experienced personal injury attorney so that you can focus on yourself and on your healing process. You may be offered a quick settlement after an accident in exchange for your agreement not to pursue a legal challenge.  Do not accept these “low-ball” offers, as while they may be tempting when you are out of work and in pain, you are due much more.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury as a result of a collision with a tractor trailer or 18-wheeler.

Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys and trucking companies that are focused on denying your compensation for your injuries.  Contact our seasoned Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney now at (601) 790-1505.

 

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Experienced Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney Explains: Trucking Accident Liability

As a Mississippi trucking accident and personal injury attorney, clients often meet with me to inquire about an accident with a “big rig.” Because of the size of the truck compared to the car that my clients were in, the injuries are often catastrophic and are usually far worse than what would expect from a traditional car-on-car accident. The truck’s greater mass results in a greater impact and, sadly, more significant injuries. This is even true in slow accidents that would just be a “fender bender” if the other vehicle were a car.  Simply put, big rig accidents are serious, and you will need to have experienced personal injury counsel help you attain any settlement from a trucking company. Barrett Law has the experience to help you through this process.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

If you have been injured by a collision with a big rig or other large truck, how will you receive compensation? You may receive some compensation for your losses and injuries from insurance. But what if your injuries and losses far exceed what an insurance policy will pay, such as when you are confined to a wheelchair or can never return to work? In that situation, you will need the help of an attorney to file a “negligence” claim.

What is Negligence?

Believe it or not, accidents do happen. There is a difference between something accidentally or unavoidably occurring and negligence. You cannot recover damages based simply on an unfortunate, unavoidable occurrence involving a big rig, but you may be able to recover a tremendous settlement once negligence is established. But how is negligence different from an accident? Negligence means that the truck driver or truck company failed to act as a reasonable person would under the circumstances. This “reasonable person test” can be applied to several different aspects of the incident that injured you.

Driver Negligence

You can prove negligence if a driver fails to meet the “reasonable person test” and, as a result, injures you. The reasonable person test is highly subjective, but looking at a phone while driving, being under the influence of alcohol or drugs while driving, or failing to get enough sleep all qualify as common examples of negligent behavior.

Vicarious Liability

One question that arises is whether the driver has the resources—insurance, money—to compensate you even if you are able to prove that he or she was negligent. This is where the concept of “vicarious liability” becomes important. That means that the trucking company itself is liable for its driver’s bad acts so long as the acts were committed within the “scope and duty” of the driver’s employment. That means that the trucking company is liable for any negligent behavior occurring while their employee is doing work for them. Accordingly, your attorney will have to both prove that the employee truck driver was negligent and that the he or she was working for the trucking company at the time of the negligence occurred. More and more companies use independent contractors instead of employees in an effort to sever liability; vicarious liability is based on the degree of control the company had over the employee, so it is not always a successful strategy.

Negligent Hire

A trucking company can be negligent itself if it hires truck drivers negligently, such as hiring a driver without a valid CDL.  The trucking company’s negligence can also be established by showing that it failed to do a background check that would have caught a record of reckless driving or driving under the influence. Similarly, it may also be possible to prove negligence if a trucking company hires a driver with a long record of accidents, as these records are more accessible and better kept for commercial drivers.

Negligent Training

Big rigs are increasingly complex, and new drivers must be trained to operate them safely. A trucking company can be negligent if it puts a driver behind the wheel with insufficient training or without keeping its drivers up to date on the truck’s technology.

What Should You Do If You Were Injured in a Truck Accident?

If you were injured as the result of impact with a large truck, contact an experienced personal injury attorney so that you can focus on yourself and on your healing process. Contact an experienced personal injury attorney immediately. Let experienced personal injury counsel take care of preserving medical records, dealing with aggressive opposing counsel, attaining expert diagnoses, and dealing with the trucking company’s insurance company. These are important tasks that an only a highly experienced personal injury attorney can handle for you.

Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury as a result of a collision with a tractor trailer or 18-wheeler.

The seasoned Mississippi Trucking Accident Attorney at Barrett Law has the experience to take on defense attorneys and insurance companies that are focused on denying your compensation for your injuries.  Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.

 

 

 

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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 (601) 790-1505 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 (601) 790-1505 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 (601) 790-1505 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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