The Semi Truck Accident Victims Center says, “Our biggest worry is always trying to get an immediate response for the innocent victims of an accident involving a semi truck, or commercial vehicle, or their family members, especially when it involves an accident in Florida.” They say, “If an innocent driver, or occupants of a passenger vehicle get involved in a semi truck or commercial vehicle accident anywhere in the US, we will respond instantly. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These types of horrific Florida accidents involving a semi truck, and a passenger vehicle frequently happen at night, or on weekends, or out in the middle on no where, and we are always ready to provide a family, or loved ones with instant help.” For more information victims of an accident involving a commercial truck or semi truck can call the Semi Truck Accident Victims Center anytime at 866-714-6466, or contact the group via its web site at www.SemiTruckAccidentVictimsCenter.Com.

“Every fatality on our highways is a tragedy, and the uptick in the 2010 preliminary report concerns us deeply.  Without more information and analysis, though, it is difficult to draw conclusions about what this preliminary data means,” Graves said. “We would hope that policymakers will avoid the ‘error of recency,’ by overemphasizing the newest data at the expense of the overall, long-term trend, which has been overwhelmingly positive. We look forward to seeing further analysis from DOT on crash types as well as how many miles American motorists and truck drivers traveled last year.

“Even with this increase, 2010 was the among the safest years on record for the trucking industry thanks in large part to the good faith efforts of America’s truck drivers, vehicle manufacturers, truck fleet safety directors, law enforcement officers and true safety advocates, rather than due to economic hardship or other ancillary factors,” Graves said. “By remaining vigilant and focused on the true causes of crashes, I’m confident that we will be able to continue the marked declines in the number of truck-involved crashes and fatalities on our highways that we have seen in over the past decade.”

The full and complete data from DOT for the last decade shows improvement in overall highway safety, and clearly shows trucking’s marked safety improvement.

Over the past 10 years (1999 to 2009) the number of large trucks involved in:

Fatal crashes dropped by 35%;

Injury crashes dropped by 48%.

Over the past 10 years (1999 to 2009), the number of registered large trucks grew by more than 3 million, or 41%.

Over the past 10 years (1999 to 2009), the number of passenger vehicles involved in:

Fatal crashes dropped by 24%, 11 percentage points lower than the change in the truck numbers;

Injury crashes dropped by 29%, 19 percentage points lower than the change in the truck numbers.

Over the past 10 years (1999 to 2009), the number of registered passenger vehicles grew by more than 17%, 24 percentage points lower than the truck growth.

Over the most recent years of economic growth (2002 to 2007 – using the base recession year of 2001):

The truck-involved fatality rate dropped by 35%;

The truck-involved injury rate dropped by 47%;

The passenger vehicle fatality rate dropped by 11%, 24 percentage points lower than the change in the truck rate;

The passenger vehicle injury rate dropped by 23%, 24 percentage points lower than the change in the truck rate.

Over the economic growth years of the 1990s (1992 to 2000 – using the base recession year of 1991):

The truck involved fatality rate dropped by 20%;

The truck-involved injury rate dropped by 8%;

The passenger vehicle fatality rate dropped by 19%, 1 percentage point lower than the change in the truck rate;

The passenger vehicle injury rate dropped by 18%, 10 percentage points higher than the change in the truck rate.

During the recession (2008 and 2009 – using the base year of 2007):

The truck-involved fatality rate dropped 26%;

The passenger vehicle fatality dropped 16%, 10 percentage points lower than the change in the truck rate.

ATA looks forward to working cooperatively with DOT leadership to keep the highway and truck safety trends moving in the right direction.

via New Truck-Related Crash Numbers Not Indicative of Truck Safety Trend — ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ –.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2011 — Safety groups, families of truck crash victims, and labor today joined U.S. Representatives Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Jackie Speier (D-CA) at a press conference to support revising the truck driver hours of service (HOS) rule to reduce driver fatigue, a major safety issue.  A House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee hearing scheduled for today entitled “The Price of Uncertainty: How Much Could DOT’s Proposed Billion Dollar Service Rule Cost Consumers?” is stacked with industry witnesses that ignore the true economic, medical and social costs of widespread trucker fatigue.

“This Committee is attempting to drive a Mack truck through the rulemaking process which is moving forward as a result of a legal agreement,” said Representative Speier. “Unfortunately, the Majority has decided to hold a lop-sided hearing that pays little attention to the benefits to jobs and the increased safety of our constituents this rule will create.”

Every year on average 4,000 people are killed in truck crashes and 100,000 more are injured at a cost of more than $40 billion, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Under the current rule truck drivers can drive 77 hours a week and work up to 84 hours a week. Some long-haul drivers can drive even longer hours, up to 88 hours per week, more than twice the 40 hour work week of most Americans.

Agency actions to revise the current HOS rule are the result of a legal agreement between the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and safety and labor groups while a lawsuit is held in abeyance.  The groups have challenged the current HOS rule three times in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.  In 2004, the Court unanimously vacated the Bush Administration HOS rule on the grounds that the government did not adequately consider the effects of longer driving hours on individual truck driver health and safety.  In 2007, the court once more unanimously overturned the rule because the agency did not subject its analysis to public comment.  After issuing the same rule again, as a “midnight” rule in late 2008, FMCSA was sued for a third time which led to the legal settlement.  The revised proposed rule is currently under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

“This Subcommittee hearing is another example of industry’s pervasive and well-funded lobbying strategy in Congress to try to block a Court-ordered revision of the HOS rule,” said Joan Claybrook, Chair of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways. ”Moreover, the hearing is completely biased with special interest industry views.  It is a hearing on cost to consumers, but there are no consumers on the witness panel.  This so-called billion dollar rule is going to save American taxpayers up to $2.4 billion in lives saved, injuries prevented and reduced health and medical costs.  It also has the potential to create nearly 40,000 new jobs in the trucking industry.”

Ed Slattery of Cockeysville, MD, attended the hearing with his 14-year-old son, Matthew.  Ed’s wife Susan was killed last year in a horrific crash on the Ohio Turnpike when a driver behind the wheel of a triple-trailer truck fell asleep.  Matthew and his brother, Peter, were critically injured, and Matthew sustained lifelong injuries that require round-the-clock care.  “This Subcommittee wants to get information about the cost of DOT’s proposed rule to consumers.  My family’s crash alone cost millions of dollars and Matthew’s lifelong medical care is estimated to be more than $18 million,” said Slattery.  “Unfortunately, while there are five industry witnesses there is no one representing the victim’s point of view about how just one crash involving a tired trucker has imposed a severe and substantial economic cost and traumatic disruption to the lives of our family, not to mention the suffering we experience every day.”

“As a mother who lost her daughter in a preventable truck crash I urge Congress not to put the economic interests of the trucking industry before the safety interests my family,” said Marchelle Wood of Falls Church, VA.  “The profession of driving a truck has been turned into a modern day ‘sweatshop-on-wheels’ where drivers are pushed to drive and work beyond human limits.  Changes to the hours of service rule that put safety first are overdue and urgently needed.”  Wood’s daughter Dana was killed when an overly fatigued truck driver who had HOS violations crashed into her car when she was driving on I-95 in Virginia, returning to school at East Carolina University after fall break.

According to DOT surveys 65 percent of truck drivers report that they often or sometimes feel drowsy while driving, and nearly half of truck drivers admit that they had actually fallen asleep while driving the previous year. Additionally, 79 percent of the public supports returning to the 10 hours of maximum consecutive driving time

Jackie Gillan, President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said, “Congress should be focusing on the numbers that show how pervasive fatigue is throughout the trucking industry. If half of the commercial airline pilots admitted to falling asleep while in the cockpit every plane would be immediately grounded, and Congress would take swift action to correct the problem rather than adding more flying and working hours for pilots.”

Fred McLuckie, Legislative Director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters noted, “Our drivers are more stressed than ever because of increased traffic volume, tighter delivery times and deteriorating road conditions.”

The proposed rule would create nearly 40,000 additional jobs in the trucking industry and result in direct health benefits to truck drivers of as much as $1.48 billion.

A group of elite professional truck drivers with millions of accident-free miles are offering advice on how to navigate through highway traffic and arrive at your destination safely. Tips include:

-Prepare you vehicle for long distance travel: Check your wipers and fluids. Have your radiator and cooling system serviced. Simple maintenance can prevent many of the problems that strand motorists on the side of the road before you leave your home.

-Plan ahead:  Before you get on a highway, know your exit by name and number, and watch the signs as you near the off-ramp. Drivers making unexpected lane changes to exit often cause accidents.

-Do not cut in front of large trucks:  Remember that trucks are heavier and take longer to make a complete stop, so avoid cutting quickly in front of them.

-Be aware of truck blindspots:  When sharing the road with large trucks, be aware of their blind spots.  If you can’t see the truck driver in his or her mirrors, then the truck driver can’t see you.

-Check your emergency kit: Contents should include: battery powered radio, flashlight, blanket, jumper cables, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, bottled water, non-perishable foods, maps, tire repair kit and flares.

-Be aware of changes in weather: Weather conditions across the U.S. will be changing – especially during early mornings and evenings with the cold. Watch for ice, snow and other weather related obstacles.

-Keep your eyes on the road:  Distracted driving is a major cause of traffic accidents. Even just two seconds of distraction time doubles the chances of an accident. Use your cell phone when stopped and never text while driving.

-Leave early and avoid risks:  Leave early so you won’t be anxious about arriving late and to accommodate delays. Road conditions may change due to inclement weather or traffic congestion.

-Avoid extreme weather conditions: Ice, hail and snow make roads difficult to travel. Try to avoid driving through extreme weather conditions, and travel during daylight.

-Remove ice and snow from your vehicle:  Clear your windows and roof of snow to insure you have maximum visibility and avoid creating a hazard for the vehicle behind you. Don’t allow ice and snow to create additional blindspots on your vehicle.

-Be aware of the vehicle in front of you: Leave extra room between you and the vehicle in front so you can avoid snow and ice blowing onto your windshield or maneuver around patches of ice.

-Slow Down: With the extra highway congestion due to Holiday travel, speeding becomes even more dangerous. Allow plenty of space cushion and reduce your speed.

-Buckle up: Safety belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 45 percent and are a simple way to increase your safety on the road.

“Thanksgiving is a challenging time on the highways,” said Share the Road Professional Driver Bob Weller (Hahn Transportation).  “Between motorists visiting families or shopping during the start of the holiday shopping season, our highways are busier than ever.  There is nothing better than patience and safe driving practices behind the wheel,” he added.

“Always buckle up,” said Share the Road Professional Driver David Boyer.  “Weather can also be a factor during this time of year so check weather conditions before you get in your vehicle,” Boyer added.

The Share the Road Professional Drivers would like to remind the motoring public that from driveway to highway, safety requires patience and dedication.

“Based on the latest report from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, fatal crashes involving a large truck have fallen 31% from 2007 to 2009 and crashes resulting in injury have fallen 30%,” Graves said following a review of FMCSA’s 2009 Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts, recently posted on FMCSA’s website.

In addition, the report says the large truck fatal crash rate fell to 1.0 crashes per 100 million miles in 2009 from 1.1 crashes per 100 million miles traveled in 2008. Since 2000, the fatal crash rate for large trucks has fallen 54.5% – more than twice as much as the passenger vehicle fatal crash rate, which dropped just 25% – in the same time period.

“These safety gains,” Graves said, “are the result of many things, sensible regulation, improvements in technology, slower more fuel efficient driving, the dedication of professional drivers and safety directors as well as more effective enforcement techniques that look at all the factors involved in crashes, not just a select few.”

Graves also chided FMCSA for not doing more to share this good news about trucking’s safety progress.

“These results deserve to be heralded as tremendous progress and very good news for American motorists, our industry and our industry’s regulators,” Graves said. “However, FMCSA has chosen not to highlight these important results. By not celebrating this success, the agency is doing itself a disservice. These results are as much an achievement for FMCSA as they are for the nation’s trucking industry.  We are at a loss on why FMCSA chose not to communicate this final data indicating great safety progress.”

While the home page of FMCSA’s website makes no mention of the report, a copy of it can be found here.

Highlights of FMCSA’s 2009 Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts

From 2007 to 2009, the number of fatal truck-involved crashes fell 31% to 3,215 from 4,633.

Over that same time frame, the fatal crash rate for large trucks fell 27%.

Since 2000, the fatal crash rate has fallen from 2.2 crashes per 100 million miles to 1 crash per 100 million miles. Due to undisclosed changes the formulas used to calculate miles traveled, the bulk of that decline appears to occur after 2007.

The majority of fatal multivehicle crashes (59%) recorded were the result of a passenger vehicle rear-ending a truck, crossing the median to hit a truck head on or hitting a truck in some other way, as coded in the government’s database. In less than 40% of cases, the crash was the result of the truck striking the car.

In fatal crashes where the database records a “driver-related” factor, 80.5% of the time the factor was assigned to driver of a passenger vehicle compared with just 22% of factors being assigned to the commercial driver.

The most common driver related factors for commercial drivers are speed (7.3%), failure to maintain lane (6.5%) and inattentiveness (5.7%). Being drowsy, asleep or fatigued was the seventh most common factor at 1.4%.

The plurality of fatal crashes – 31.3% – occur between 6 am and noon. Conversely, only 17.2% of crashes occur between midnight and 6 am.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently recommended a complete cell phone ban for commercial truck drivers following a 2010 accident in Kentucky that killed 11 people, according to the New York Times.

The deadly wreck happened when a trucker lost control of his rig, crossed the median and collided with an oncoming van. Records showed that the trucker was talking on the phone at the time of the wreck, the newspaper said.

“Driving an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer requires a truck driver’s full attention at all times, and distractions from cell phones or other wireless telecommunication devices simply pose too great a threat to the safety of other motorists,” said Cuthbert, who practices truck accident law with Cuthbert Law Offices in Petersburg and Richmond.

The NTSB’s proposed ban would include both handheld and hands-free cell phones.

Virginia statutes currently outlaw texting while driving for all motorists and prevent drivers under the age of 18 from using cell phones behind the wheel. School bus drivers are also forbidden to use cell phones while driving.

Bills that would have extended a handheld cell phone ban to all Virginia drivers died in the General Assembly during the last legislative session.

Cuthbert encouraged Virginia’s lawmakers to make progress on those bills in the next session regardless of what the federal government does about cell phone use by commercial truck drivers.

However, he pointed out that commercial trucks pose a unique threat on Virginia’s roads due to their weight and size when compared to other motor vehicles.

“When a distracted or otherwise negligent truck driver makes a mistake behind the wheel, the outcome frequently results in far more serious injuries and deaths than if the driver of a passenger car had made the same error,” Cuthbert said. “That’s why our laws already set tougher requirements for commercial truck drivers — and those rules need to be strengthened by a ban on all cell phone use by truckers.”

Cuthbert Law Offices has established a solid reputation for helping people who have suffered severe injuries because of a truck driver’s negligence, including securing a $1.7 million verdict for the estate of a woman who died after a collision with an illegally parked tractor-trailer in the case of Shepard v. Capitol Foundry of Virginia, Inc., 262 Va. 715, 554 S.E.2d 72.

When the verdict came down in 2001, it was the second largest award ever obtained in Petersburg Circuit Court, and the firm’s lawyers saw the case through to the Virginia Supreme Court, which affirmed the verdict.

(Cuthbert’s law firm also obtained the largest verdict ever obtained in Petersburg Circuit Court – a $2.045 million amount, plus interest, in the 1999 medical malpractice case of Pulliam v. Coastal Emergency Services, 257 Va. 1, 509 S.E.2d 307.)

Cuthbert stressed that anyone who has been involved in a serious accident with an 18-wheeler or other commercial truck should talk to a qualified Virginia motor vehicle accident attorney.

“Trucking accidents are often more complex because of truck-driving regulations and the various parties who could be liable, including the truck driver, the trucking company, the leasing agency and the cargo’s owner,” Cuthbert said.

He also said that law firms such as Cuthbert Law Offices have the means to fully investigate a Virginia tractor-trailer accident and can discover evidence, including records or other indications of distracted driving, that shows who was really to blame.

Truck accidents are some of the most devastating accidents out there, and the reason are fairly obvious. Trucks, and when I say trucks I’m referring to semi-trucks or tractor trailer trucks, are the largest vehicle on the road, outweighing most other vehicles by thousands of pounds. And when one of those trucks hits another vehicle, which most of the time is not another semi-truck, the results are disastrous.

But these kinds of accidents don’t have to happen. We can prevent them by simply preventing one of the most common causes of truck accidents – driver fatigue.

As any truck accident attorney will attest, driver fatigue accounts for an extremely large majority of the causes of truck accidents out there. And, though it will lighten their pockets considerably, any truthful truck accident lawyer will tell you these accidents are completely preventable. Here are a couple of ideas to reduce this tragedy.

First, truck drivers need to be made aware that they may be suffering from sleep disorders and be provided the tools to diagnose and treat any sleeping disorders that may exist. There is nothing worse than an accident that could be prevented by awareness and perhaps medication.

Second, making it okay for truck drivers to stop and rest when they are tired. As I stated in the abstract, truck drivers are pushed to the limits of their abilities when it comes to hours driven. And though there are standards out there, many times drivers will push through to make it to a destination despite their lack of sleep. A cultural shift needs to occur that makes it okay to stop and rest.

Third, the government needs to help out with number two by providing adequate places for trucks to pull off the road to rest. Many truckers have their beds in the cab of their truck so they can sleep anywhere anytime. But if there is no place for them to safely park their vehicle, it is going to be impossible for them to stop and rest.

By adopting these simple solutions we should be able to greatly reduce the number of semi-truck accidents out there. Let’s get to work on this!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_Small

Case name:McMullan v. Permatex, Inc., et al., No. SACV 08-0673 DOC RNBx C.D. Cal. 12/08/08.

Ruling: The U.S. District Court, Central District of California ruled that an employee’s personal injury suit against his former employer was not barred by the Workers’ Compensation Act. It denied the employer’s request to dismiss the suit.

What it means: Under California law, an employee may pursue a claim for personal injuries against his employer outside the workers’ compensation system under the “fraudulent concealment” exception to the WCA. He must establish three essential elements in order to state such a claim: 1 the employer knew that the employee had suffered a work-related injury; 2 the employer concealed that knowledge from the employee; and 3 the injury was aggravated as a result of such concealment.

Summary: The claimant worked as a truck driver for the employer and its predecessors for more than 30 years, transporting, delivering and handling carpeting, carpet padding, and carpet installation products. He claimed that as a result of exposure to hazardous levels of toxins, he sustained injuries, including multiple myeloma. The employer contended that the claimant’s suit was barred because California’s WCA provided the exclusive remedy for his injuries. Siding with the claimant, the court denied the employer’s bid to dismiss the suit.

Read full story via Risk & Insurance Online – Story.