Posts Tagged ‘Trucking Companies’

An east Tennessee car crash involving a tractor trailer has left 4 people dead including two children and two adults, one who was pregnant. The accident happened on Tennessee Highway 68, and county road 292.

The Tennessee Department of Safety is including the woman’s unborn baby as a victim in the case. The driver of the big rig escaped injury even after the cab of his truck caught fire, but all of the people in the car that was hit, were killed.
Our condolences to the family and loved ones for this terrible tragedy.

The facts we have are scant – and certainly trucks are entitled to be on the roadway, but what happened here?  Truck drivers are supposed to be professional drivers, and they are legally required to limit their driving time so they can be alert. That’s a rule that is often violated. Was that rule violated here? Was the car not visible from any of the truck’s mirrors? Did the driver look?
It can be scary out there. If you are around large trucks, don’t assume they are paying attention (as they should be) or using their mirrors (as they should be).

To learn more about transfer truck accidents, please click here.

1-800-377-HURT (4878)

www.seriousinjury.com

Tennessee truck accidents are just like car wrecks, right?  Well they do involve vehicles on roadways, but that is where the similarity ends.

Finding out what happened and how in any truck accident can be very difficult. The truck driver almost always denies liability, and digging out the important information requires a lawyer to understand the documentation required of all trucking companies, and the regulations that apply.

Trucking accidents are more common than you might believe.  380,000 trucks were involved in crashes in 2008. Over 4000 people were killed.

As an example, the hiring and supervision issues in a trucking case don’t exist in a typical car accident. The trucking company is required to investigate the driver, including their driving history. This means the lawyer in a Tennessee trucking case must understand and pursue all the things that the trucking company was required to do, as well as those things they should do if they want to operate safely.  ”Hours of Service” and driver logs can provide insights on what the driver really had been doing in the hours before the truck accident, and disclose the kinds of information the trucking company had but did nothing with.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Nashville truck accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Nashville  personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Tennessee tractor trailer wrecks often have driver fatigue as a factor. There are lots of reasons why truck drivers experience fatigue, but there is no legitimate excuse for a tired truck driver to be driving a tractor trailer in Tennessee, or elsewhere.  Sometimes it is clearly the fault of the trucking company, sometimes clearly the fault of the driver.

A new bill has been proposed  in Congress that might reduce the number of tired truckers on highways. “Jason’s Law” would provide funding to increase the number of rest stops for truckers nationwide.

If they build or expand rest stops, will it decrease truck accidents in Nashville or truck accidents in Tennessee?

Recent truck wrecks I have reviewed don’t point to that, but if even one wreck is avoided isn’t it worth the cost?

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Nashville tractor trailer accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Tennessee tractor trailer attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee from a Tennessee tractor trailer accident must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Tennessee motorcycle accidents often result in serious injuries. When a tractor trailer is involved, the motorcycle and rider rarely have a chance.

I recently reviewed a case involving the death of a Tennessee motorcycle rider who seemed to be doing everything right. He was wearing a full face helmet. He was traveling at the speed limit. He had a green light for the intersection ahead. It was daylight and there were no obstructions to view. What happened? A local Nashville tractor trailer driver turned left in front of the oncoming motorcycle.

There was a green arrow for left turns, but the truck driver didn’t want to wait. Or maybe he didn’t see the motorcycle. The driver had thick glasses, and hadn’t driven a tractor-trailer in more than 30 years.

It takes a tractor trailer as much as 20 seconds to make a left turn – and during that 20 seconds someone on a motorcycle, or in a car, can travel hundreds of feet. We have lots of information about Nashville and Tennessee truck accidents as well as Nashville car accidents.

If you or anyone you know has been injured or killed in a Nashville motorcycle accident, please contact Nashville injury attorney Phillip Miller and the Nashville personal injury attorneys at Phillip Miller and Associates at (615) 356-2000, or contact our office online here.

One last thing: If you are hurt and have any questions at all, contact our office at (615) 356-2000. Don’t delay. Cases involving personal injury or death in Tennessee must be acted on quickly. Time is running. Call for an appointment, if it’s bad enough that you need to read this far into a website blog, it’s bad enough to get an attorney involved.

Trucking Industry Priorities

The American Trucking Association (ATA) is the national voice of the trucking industry, including their employment of lobbyists in Washington. In a recently released survey of trucking executives (click here), the ATA has published the top 10 issues (according to trucking industry executives) for the trucking industry.  Number 1 was the economy and the first item under the issue “economy” was “tort reform”.  In other words, “Don’t hold us responsible for injuring and killing people, it’s expensive.”  Or maybe “Don’t punish us for doing a lousing job hiring and supervising our employees, it’s expensive”.  The second “issue” for the trucking company execs was government regulation. It can be argued that government regulation is the primary reason that the  trucking industry pays attention to such things as hours of service, drug screening, driver safety, or engine emissions. Tennessee and Nashville truck wrecks are more common because of the interstate system and Tennessee being between destination population centers in the North and South. Certainly when a trucking company is sued, their violations of safety regulations are always important issues for us to talk about and for juries to consider.  As Tennessee attorneys who handle cases against trucking companies, we are constantly surprised at how little real attention is paid to safety. We all have to follow rules, the trucking industry is no exception – even if it’s not one of the top issues for trucking company execs.