Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

On Friday, June 29, two Florida residents were killed, and another was injured in a crash involving the rollover of a sport utility vehicle on a stretch of I-95 near St. George, South Carolina. The driver, Herbert White, of Fort Lauderdale was driving a 2007 Ford when the accident happened. He and Lanie Pringle, of Oakland Park, were killed in the crash. Bessie Lee Pringle, of Fort Lauderdale was seriously injured, and was taken to the Medical University of South Carolina Hospital for treatment.

According to reports, White's SUV ran off the road. White then tried to correct course, but the SUV careened across the highway, off the other side of the road. They came back onto the highway and overturned, eventually landing upside-down.

Thanks to the Charleston Post and Courier for reporting this story.

Continue reading "South Carolina SUV Rollover Crash Claims Two Lives, Injures Another " »

On May 21, 84-year-old Marilyn Thompson, of Clemson, failed to yield to an oncoming motorcycle in Anderson County, South Carolina. When she did so, the motorcycle, driven by 24-year-old Travis Lee Smith collided with Ms. Thompson's vehicle. Mr. Smith died at the scene after sustaining multiple traumas.

Thanks to the Anderson Independent Mail for its reporting of this tragic incident.

Continue reading "Motorcycle Wreck Claims Central, South Carolina Man" »

Exodus 23:6 "Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits."

Ken Shigley, an Atlanta attorney who publishes his own blog, brought us a couple of posts this week that bring to light some crucial points about big business' twisted ideas about tort "reform" on the one hand, versus true conservative principles on the other hand. Specifically, the rock solid conservative Center for a Just Society has reported on Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson's experience as a trial attorney representing injured folks, and Thompson's opposition to some of the extreme positions on the tort "reform"ers' agenda. (Thompson definitely doesn't always get it right. He's backed some of the "reform" nonsense, but he has been reasonable at other times on these issues, when many others have not).

In addition, the Center for a Just Society lays out a compelling case that true conservative principles just don't allow for wrongdoers to run roughshod over human dignity and the sanctity of human life by running away from their responsibility when they harm or kill someone. I hope you will read what the Just Society folks have to say. A fair, just and free democracy must have a system where the powerless can take on powerful wrongdoers. Injured people have rights, and those rights must not be taken away.

If we start chipping away at those rights, we start chipping away at the core of our freedoms - just so big business can feed its insatiable greed for the almighty dollar.

Continue reading "Conservative Principles Mean "No!" to Tort Reform" »

It is not unusual for truck accidents to seriously injure workers who are on construction sites. Sadly, one such accident resulted in a fatality this week. At about noon on Tuesday, 36-year old Mark Zurcher, of Kinston, TN was killed at a construction site adjacent to the U.S. Highway 70 bypass near Clayton, North Carolina when his truck overturned. Witnesses claim that Mr. Zurcher's truck backed up, and in doing so, turned over and then overturned down an embankment. It appears that the truck's cab was crushed. (There are more and more products liability claims these days dealing with defectively-designed truck cabs which crush when they shouldn't).

Firefighters who responded at the scene were eventually able to remove Mr. Zurcher from the cab of the truck, but Mr. Zurcher was sadly pronounced dead at a local hospital.

An investigation is being conducted to determine if Mr. Zurcher's employer, Pozzolanic Contracting & Supply Company of Knoxville, may have violated safety rules and standards, thereby contributing to this tragedy. According to press reports, two years ago, the same company was fined after another of the company's workers died. An investigation determined after that fatality that the company had failed to have the required back-up alarms on some of its heavy equipment.

Thanks to both the Raleigh News Observer and the Clayton-Cleveland Herald for their reporting of this important story.

Continue reading "Fatal North Carolina Truck Accident on June 26" »

Truck accidents happen all the time, but thankfully, injuries do not always result when truck drivers cause a mishap. On Thursday, June 29, James Jett, of Elgin, South Carolina was driving too fast for conditions and lost control of his 18 wheeler. Jett was leaving U.S. Highway 1 to get onto I-20 West when his rig overturned due to his excessive speed, according to the Highway Patrol.

Jett's truck spilled scrap metal across the roadway, causing the road to be partially blocked for a time Thursday morning.

Continue reading "Truck Accident on I-20 in Lexington County, South Carolina" »

We hear a lot these days about a supposedly compelling need to overhaul our civil court system in this country. It's just not true. There is no compelling need - at least not one that serves the greater public good. When you hear about tort reform, you are hearing the carefully-crafted messages put out by a public relations machine, that is very well-financed by the asbestos manufacturers, tobacco companies, big pharmaceutical conglomerates, environmental polluters, insurance companies, and their big business allies. What polluter wouldn't want to keep you from holding them responsible for poisoning your drinking water? It would be much better for them to make sure that you could never, ever do anything about the harm they cause. These people want to fool you into throwing out one of the most precious protections we Americans have - the right to have our day in court.

Those behind the tort reform rhetoric are not the friends of the American public. It is time we wake up and see them for who they really are.

The fact of the matter is that holding corporations responsible when they harm others has to be part of any system that is truly fair. Throughout most of the world, the powerful make all the rules - and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Although powerful interests still hold sway over many things in our nation, too, there is one place where the average citizen can be on equal footing with the powerful. That place is the courthouse - in front of a jury of our peers.

There have been lots of tort "reform" proposals which may sound nice at first, but the tort "reformers" are just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I read a short editorial today which explains things in a really straightforward way. I hope you will take a moment to read it. And, the next time you hear someone make a wise crack about an injury lawyer, I hope you will remember who will be your friend when you need us.

Continue reading "What They Don't Want You to Know About Tort "Reform"" »

The next time you see a tractor trailer almost, but not quite, cause an automobile accident, don't think that there is nothing you can do. The fact is, there is something you can do.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (a part of the United States Department of Transportation) compiles reports from the public about safety violations involving both tractor trailers which travel across state lines, and also those that transport hazardous materials. You can make your confidential report online.

To file a complaint over the phone, call 1-888-DOT-SAFT (368-7238) Monday through Friday between 9 AM and 9 PM Eastern Standard Time. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration follows a strict privacy policy, which is required by law, of not disclosing your identity.

Continue reading "Have You Witnessed Dangerous Driving by a Tractor Trailer Driver? You Can Do Something About It." »

As I have mentioned many times before, South Carolina truck accident cases are a different beast. They are not like automobile accident cases in many respects. Here, you will find a number of sample interrogatories that can be considered for sending to a truck company which helped cause an accident.

1. Identify all persons known to the Defendants or Defendants’ counsel to be witnesses concerning the facts of the case and indicate whether or not written or recorded statements have been taken from the witnesses, and indicate who has possession of such statements.

2. For each person known to the Defendants or Defendants’ counsel to be a witness concerning the facts of the case, set forth a summary sufficient to inform Plaintiff of the important facts known to or observed by such witness and provide a copy of any written or recorded statements taken from such witness.

3. Please set forth a list of photographs, sketches, charts, graphs, notes or letters of any communications, and any other written or computer generated files, plats, videotapes, audiotapes, pictures, drawings, animations, artist's renditions, diagrams, notes, memoranda, measurements, statements, correspondence, texts, records, reports, electronic data files, e mail communications, .jpg files, bitmap files, .tiff files, .gif files, or any other electronic images, data, web pages, brochures, information packets, manuals, or other writings or recordings, materials or physical evidence or other prepared documents or physical evidence in possession of the Defendants or Defendants’ counsel that relate to the claim or defense in this case.

4. Set forth the names and addresses of all insurance companies which have liability insurance coverage for the truck and/or tractor and/or trailer and/or tanker involved in the accident, setting forth the number or numbers of the policies involved, the amount or amounts of liability coverage provided in each policy, and stating whether such insurance policies contain the MCS-90 endorsements or equivalent endorsements required by law.

Continue reading "Discovery: Interrogatories to the Trucking Company" »

In this case, a tractor trailer backed up unexpectedly, crushing a landfill worker between the trailer and a bulldozer blade. The tractor trailer didn't have a back-up alarm - an inexpensive device designed to alert workers to backing trucks and designed to prevent just this sort of incident.

The truck driver, who had only been on the job three days, became stuck at the landfill. Apparently, this wasn't the first time this had happened, because the landfill had policies in place to deal with the situation. Landfill policy required truck drivers to personally hook a chain to their trucks so that a bulldozer could back the truck up to free it. The landfill instituted this policy to promote safety and prevent damage to the trucks. In this instance, the new truck driver simply waited in his truck and a landfill employee hooked a chain to the truck (a violation of the landfill’s own policy). A bulldozer operator then pulled the truck backwards to the machine the injured worker attended at the landfill (he did not work for the landfill; he worked for the machine owner). The worker later testified at deposition that he went to the cab of the truck and told the driver that he was going behind the truck to unhook the chain, to which the driver nodded. The worker then walked to the rear of the truck and entered the area between the truck and the bulldozer. Without warning, the truck started moving backwards and crushed the worker. The quick-thinking bulldozer operator rotated his machine, thus sparing the worker any further injuries. The tractor-trailer driver claimed another landfill worker motioned for him to back up just before the tragic incident.

This incident snapped the worker’s femur and crushed his pelvis. He now requires a walker to attempt to walk even short distances, and he must use a wheelchair for any longer movements. Needless to say, he can no longer perform his former job or any other similar work. A single father of three teenage sons at the time of the incident, he sustained lifetime earning losses estimated by an expert to be between $800,000 and $1,200,000.

This case settled before trial for $3,350,000: $2,350,000 from the landfill and $1,000,000 from the trucking company that employed the driver.

Perhaps this sort of injury could have been prevented by a simple back-up alarm. You have probably heard these on many trash trucks, school buses, and other machinery. With a properly functioning back-up alarm, the worker would have heard the alarm start beeping the instant the truck was put in reverse, giving him warning to move out of the way. This is an all-too familiar situation, one I have written about before, but some trucking companies continue to ignore the rest of their industry and will not install these devices, despite the cost to others in terms of safety.

Continue reading "$3.35 Million Settlement for Landfill Worker Crushed between Heavy Vehicles" »

This case involves an injury to the driver of a tractor-trailer, due to a defectively designed cruise control on a Freightliner truck. The driver in this case had his cruise control set on his Freightliner FLD 120 tractor when he entered an interchange ramp between two highways. When he stepped on the brake, he claimed the cruise control failed to disengage and he could not make the turns on the ramp. The truck tipped over, rolled over the guardrail, down the embankment, and landed upside-down, crushing the roof. The truck driver was trapped inside for two hours until rescue workers finally freed him.

The driver had to have his left arm amputated above the shoulder. After this, he could not drive a truck and had difficulty using a prosthetic arm due to skin breakdown and continuing pain.

At trial, the injured driver presented evidence showing that Freightliner knew that the cruise control on all cars made in this country includes a redundant, failsafe cutoff switch. However, Freightliner designed its cruise control with only one cutoff switch, according to the driver's experts. With a single cutoff cruise control switch, if something goes wrong in the switch monitoring the brake pedal, there is no backup device to disengage it. Instead, it stays on — plowing ahead at full speed, at precisely the time when the driver needs to slow down.

The driver also showed that while rollover accidents are the leading causes of injuries to truck passengers, Freightliner resisted efforts to establish specific crashworthiness rules and standards to prevent injuries.

Freightliner claimed that the driver was going too fast when he entered the ramp. They said no truck could withstand the forces involved in rolling over at that speed, and that they had strengthened the cab roof when designing the truck model in question, compared to previous models. The jury disagreed with Freightliner and found that the driver suffered damages totaling $5,500,000 and awarding punitive damages of an additional $10,000,000.

Continue reading "$15.5 Million Dollar Verdict for Injured Truck Driver in Defective Cruise Control and Crashworthiness Case" »

This tragic case involved the death of a three-year old girl, caused by a tractor-trailer crossing the center line and striking the van in which the little girl was riding. Injuries to children are devastating, and highlight the importance of what injury lawyers do for the public. Her mother was driving the van, as they returned home from vacation. Apparently, the truck driver had an epileptic seizure at the wheel, causing him to lose control of the vehicle.

The little girl was trapped in her car seat and suffered massive head injuries. Her parents and two brothers could only look on with horror as four and a half hours elapsed before rescuers extracted her from the vehicle and took her to a hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead. Her parents sought compensation for the loss of her life, the loss of her companionship to her parents, and for the severe emotional damages they suffered.

At trial, the girl’s family presented an EMS report showing that the driver had suffered a classic grand mal seizure (loss of consciousness, shaking all over, eyes rolled up, biting his tongue) two weeks before taking his commercial truck driver’s license exam. What probably assured the jury that the truck driver totally and callously disregarded the safety of others was when they viewed videotapes of him driving his car on a suspended license — during the trial, with his three year old daughter in the car! The jury returned a verdict for the girl’s family of $4,500,000: $1,000,000 to each parent for emotional damages, $700,000 for their loss of her companionship, and $1,800,000 for her lost life. After a new trial was ordered on the loss of companionship portion, the defendant settled for a confidential amount between $3,800,000 and $4,500,000.

Continue reading "Verdict for Family in Epileptic Truck Driver Case" »

Here is a truck accident case that illustrates how dangerous rest areas can be.

In this instance, a truck driver illegally parked her rig along I-80 in Pennsylvania just before the exit ramp to a rest stop. When the driver got back in her rig, instead of going through the rest area and using the entrance ramp back onto the interstate, she drove diagonally across the exit ramp. Another tractor trailer driver, approaching from behind, was unable to avoid the first rig, and collided violently after trying to swerve left. The resulting collision burst the fuel tank on the approaching vehicle. The ensuing fire burned the second driver to death. His two children brought a wrongful death suit against the negligent driver of the first rig.

The defending driver claimed that she had her turn signal on and he should have been able to avoid a slow-moving truck. The jury disagreed, finding the exit-ramp cutting driver was entirely at fault. The jury awarded a total of $4 million: $900,000 for the children’s’ loss and $3.1 million for the driver’s injuries.

Continue reading "Multimillion Dollar Verdict: Truck Cutting Across Exit Ramp" »

On the morning of Wednesday, March 30, 2005, in Santa Monica, California, one man's life was changed forever. It didn't have to be that way, and the man, Ruben Carril, Jr., is doing what he can to make sure that some other tragedies like it are prevented.

Continue reading "VIDEO: Watch This! - The Story of Ruben Carril, Jr." »

Tractor trailers and other large commercial vehicles can cause incredible damage. When you have an 18 wheeler versus a regular-sized passenger vehicle, it is no contest. This video is a perfect example. In the video, you can see a small car pull over on the shoulder of the road. A tractor trailer veers off the road and slams into the car from the rear. The results are devastating.

Continue reading "VIDEO: A Truly Shocking Truck Accident" »

In this products liability case, a 32 year old firefighter, was on the job, operating pumper truck controls at a barn fire, was severely injured when she was pinned between the vehicle and a fence. The truck began to move forward, with no one at the wheel, when the water pump was turned on. According to experts, the truck was defectively designed because it could unexpectedly shift power from the pump to the vehicle - thereby causing the truck to move.

The heroic young firefighter had tried to use the "kill" switch to stop the vehicle, before it crushed her. She ended up being paralyzed from the waist down. The truck crushed her pelvis, broke her ribs, and completely removed the skin from portions of her back and thighs. She underwent numerous surgeries and treatments, including skin grafts and debridements (where the dead skin is scrubbed off with a brush by nurses - one of the most painful procedures for any patient to undergo). All of these injuries forever changed her life and profoundly lessened her ability to perform the basic tasks of caring for herself.

At trial, the jury found her injuries totaled $8,750,000, but she could only recover $1,531,000 of that from the manufacturer of the fire truck. She could not recover from the fire department she worked for because state law prohibited her from suing it. Another defendant, the designer of the pump system, reached a confidential settlement with the injured firefighter after two days of trial.

Continue reading "Defective Fire Truck Verdict in New Mexico" »

In this case, a family of four was stopped at a red light at the ramp to the toll road in Gary, Indiana, when a fully-loaded moving van ran over their vehicle. The moving van driver, employed by Bekins Van Lines, was apparently distracted by smoke coming from the trailer of his vehicle and didn’t notice the vehicle stopped ahead of him.

One woman in the car was killed instantly, while her daughter suffered brain injuries and her infant grandson was seriously injured when thrown from the vehicle. The moving van also struck another car, injuring two more people. Subsequent investigation by the state police revealed mechanical problems with his vehicle that should have put the vehicle out of service. The driver of the truck had 21 moving violations on his record.

At trial, considering only the injuries to the survivors (the wrongful death matter was resolved elsewhere), the jury reached a $16,145,000 verdict: $1,020,000 for the woman with brain injuries, $25,000 for the injured child, $100,000 for the husband for loss of his wife’s companionship, and $15,000,000 in punitive damages. (The punitive damages award was later overturned by an appellate court).

Continue reading "Large Verdict in Indiana Moving Van Case" »

In this case, a tractor-trailer driver, high on methamphetamines, tried to pass a van that was making a left turn. The driver of the rig slammed into the left side of the van. The driver had been driving for many hours, as he was on his way back from a run to California. One of the passengers in the van was a 14 year old cheerleader on her way to a national cheerleading competition. The trucking company blamed the driver of the van (!) for not keeping a proper look-out for the tractor-trailer approaching from the rear.

The young lady in this collision was flown by helicopter to the hospital after sustaining closed head injuries. She spent nine days in the hospital, six of those in ICU. CT and PET scans revealed brain damage after she was released. She required 4 ½ months of physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Her personality changed and she suffered from mood swings and depression (a common occurrence after such injuries).

At trial, the defendant truck company and driver argued that the young lady had made a full recovery, and that she was exaggerating her injuries. The jury rejected these arguments and awarded her 5 million dollars: $1.6 million for her past damages, $214,000 in future medical expenses, and $3.4 million in punitive damages.

Continue reading "Truck Accident Verdict in Missouri for Negligent Passing Case" »