Florida Personal Injury Blog - Tractor-Trailer Accidents

Moving? Safety Tips for Do-It-Yourself Movers.

Jeffrey Meldon — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:41:44 GMT

Tis the season for moving for many Floridians that are heading back to school, or are starting a new job.

When loading and transporting property on trailers there are important safety concerns that can reduce your risk of having a roadside disaster and increase trailer and driving safety. Unless you are a trained moving expert or an experienced big-rig driver, this is a time to make sure you load the moving van or truck properly and proceed cautiously before heading on the highway with a heavy load. As an accident attorney, here are some important tips that may help you arrive safely:

If you are renting a moving van or truck, make sure it is from a reputable company and that their vehicles are in good repair. Check the truck over, paying especially close attention to the tires; worn, damaged or improperly inflated tires, combined with a heavy load is a set up for a blow-out on the Interstate, resulting in loss of control or rolling over.

Do not overload the van or truck, it is suggested that you rent a vehicle that is 10 to 15% bigger than you need for your household goods. If you are loading your own vehicle, double check the recommended weight limit and do not exceeded it; an overloaded vehicle can cause a blow-out or loss of control.

When loading, remember to load it properly and make sure that the weight is balanced and secured. Start with the heavy furniture first, getting it secured and balanced in the front of the box, i.e. if you put a heavy object on one side, balance it with another heavy object on the other side. Then place mattresses along the sides to cushion and secure the load, or use straps to properly secure the load. Remember, gravity is not an acceptable method of securing a load! Unbalanced and shifting loads can cause major accidents on the Interstate due to loss of control and/or roll-overs.

Do not transport flammable materials in the moving van or trailer, such as gas, or propane. In California last month, a moving van exploded when a BBQ and 2 propane tanks ignited. Also, in California, this month a man moving natural gas containers had to jump from his truck when they exploded.

When you finally get on the road give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination; do not rush. Driving a heavy van or truck or even your own heavily loaded vehicle is a different experience. Remember, heavy vehicles take more time to stop, and moving vans or trucks require a wider turning radius, so easy does it!

Safe Moving!

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeffrey Meldon

Florida Trooper Three Others Injured In Pile-Up

Eddie Farah — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:43:23 GMT

A Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) trooper and three others were injured in an early morning crash on Interstate 4 Monday.

Driver Jack Duran, 45, of Orlando, was behind the wheel of a tractor-trailer traveling westbound when the FHP says he approached a construction zone around 2 a.m. His semi hit a construction vehicle which then hit a FHP trooper’s vehicle, which then ran into another construction truck.

FHP trooper Maurice Hensley, 45, was in his car and had his emergency blue lights flashing to ensure drivers slowed down from the road construction ahead.

Hensley’s car was between two construction trucks that also had flashing arrows and all were reported to be moving slowly in the center lane when the chain reaction began. Trooper Hensley was briefly trapped inside of his cruiser.

Duran is in serious condition and so is Hensley of Tampa along with construction workers William Pettet, 43, of Valrico, and Steven Cofield, 18, of Bradenton.

We are very sorry that someone in law enforcement doing his job was hurt in the line of work as were those who work to make our roads better. It is dangerous work and we wish everyone injured a speedy recovery.

Investigators will look to see if Duran applied his brakes at any time as he approached the slow-down. If he had fallen asleep, he will likely lose his commercial driver’s license and could be charged.

Driver fatigue is a major factor in tractor-trailer accidents. The Department of Transportation (DOT) limits the number of hours a driver may be behind the wheel to 11-hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty. The hours must be kept in the driver’s log.

In fairness, truckers tell us all the time that too often motorists do not pay attention to safety when driving around big-rigs. No doubt that is true. Remember they cannot stop quickly and cannot see you if you cannot see them in their rear view mirror. These drivers are vital to our economy and bringing us goods from around the country, so courtesy is appreciated and essential for safety.

But many are pushed to drive extra hours when they have not had enough rest so the trucking companies can maximize their profits. Let’s hope this investigation does not stop with the driver, but goes all the way to the top including looking at the number of hours this driver had been on the road which may be available electronically as well as through a log sheet. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Tanker Explodes into Ball of Fire - Driver of Stalled Vehicle Arrested

Sandy Grinnell — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:30:29 GMT

Authorities have arrested the driver of the station wagon that was abandoned in the middle of I-95 yesterday that caused a massive explosion. A tanker filled with thousands of gallons of gasoline struck the vehicle and the tanker burst into flames but not before the semi driver was able to leap from the cab with only a minor burns on his left arm.

The accident occurred near the Palm Beach International Airport (P.B.I.A.). While there was thousands of gallons of fuel, the huge fire only lasted a couple of hours. It was the firefighting equipment from the airport that enabled authorities to contain the blaze so quickly.

According to the West Palm Beach News, the driver of the station wagon and his passenger were unable to push the stalled vehicle from the highway. The driver told authorities that when they saw the tanker coming, they just ran.

The driver was charged with driving without a valid license and leaving an accident scene without assisting or staying to provide information.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Sandy Grinnell

Asleep at the Wheel?

Jeffrey Meldon — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:14:52 GMT

A big rig driver battles drowsiness on a 40-hour haul, a cell phone distracts him, and a school bus is stopped directly ahead on a busy highway in afternoon traffic.

Such was the horrifying scene in September 2008 when an 18-wheel tractor trailer slammed into the rear of a school bus that was safely stopped on U.S. 301 near Citra, Marion County, Florida leaving one 8^th grade student dead and a school bus in flames.

As an experienced accident attorney (personal injury lawyer) proudly serving Ocala and the surounding area I strongly urge legislative reform to:

Create a zero tolerance policy for truck drivers and cell phone use while driving
Reduce the number of hours truckers can consecutively and cumulatively drive;
Force trucking companies to take responsibility for their drivers; and
Move school bus stops away from highways.

Florida Highway Patrol’s (FHP) final analysis of the tragedy highlights many troubling facts. FHP issued a statement this week, naming sleeplessness as the main culprit. One witness reported that the driver may have been asleep because the truck did not even attempt to swerve to avoid the school bus.

Disturbingly, however, it is reported that only moments before the truck smashed into the school bus, the trucker had finished a cell phone call and placed the phone in the cup holder. FHP’s analysis seemingly discounts the cell phone as a contributing factor, even though it is widely accepted that cell phone use while driving is as bad as driving drunk with a .08 blood alcohol level. Studies show that motorists who are distracted by cell phones are about five times more likely to get in a car accident than undistracted drivers. Plus, drivers who use their cell phones are about 9 times slower to hit their brakes. Big rigs and cell phones don’t mix!

Also alarming is Comtrak, the trucking company, and its lack of oversight of the trucker’s travel log and federal sleep requirements. According to Comtrak’s website, it has more than 650 18-wheel tractor trailers in the Southeast. That is 650 potential accidents waiting to happen because of driver drowsiness. A greater oversight regarding the drivers’ travel logs may reduce the number of fatalities caused by overwork and sleeplessness. It’s time for trucking companies to take responsibility!

More concerning is the failure of Rep. Chuck Chestnut’s bill, filed in February 2009, to prohibit school districts from locating school bus stops on busy highways. Motivated by the death of the 8^th grade student, Rep. Chestnut, Gainesville, lobbied to remove all bus stops from highways by 2011. Tragically, the bill was opposed by school officials and failed in the Legislature this year. How many more lives will we lose before the Legislature takes action to protect Florida’s school children on busy roads? School busses stopped on high-speed highways are sitting targets for semis!

Are truckers the only ones asleep at the wheel?

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeffrey Meldon

"6 Days On The Road" may not be safe for the american public

Jeffrey Meldon — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:15:07 GMT

In light of the controversy over the expansion of the number of straight driving hours permitted truckers in a day from 10 to 11, I have a few things to say. As a truck accident attorney that has helped many clients with the devastating effects of tractor-trailer accidents over 37 years, I can tell you that it does not take a rocket scientist to know when a trucker is driving long hours, it gets monotonous, tiring and dangerous.

A trucker in this condition may do many things to keep alert so they can keep on driving such as taking drugs, taking their eyes off the road to get a CD, change the radio station, or talk on their cell phone or even text message. This can all be a recipe for disaster when a trucker is tired and possibly speeding to get to their destination.

Case on point is the song, Six Days on the Road Six Days on the Road, originally sung by Dave Dudley in 1963, called the definitive celebration of the American Truck Driver. The lyrics of this classic song clearly exemplify a trucker’s life: “6 days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight..”, “I can dodge all the scales”, “taking white pills”, “passing everything is sight”, “log books a way behind”, “I’m a little overweight”, “my rigs a little old but, that don’t mean she’s slow”, “not a cop in sight”, etc.

Interestingly, the truck drivers are against this increase in the permitted number of hours as well, because they more than anyone else know how unsafe this new law is to the American public “on the road”.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeffrey Meldon

NTSB Proposes New Safety Recommendations

Sandy Grinnell — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:41:00 GMT

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has proposed new safety recommendations for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

The NTSB reviewed two separate accidents in which a truck towing a trailer full of acetylene tanks overturned, one in Louisiana and the other in Colorado. In both accidents the acetylene tanks were ejected from their trailer. Then they caught fire due to either the valves were wither broken off when thrown from the trailer, or melted from the resulting fire.

The NTSB has made the following safety recommendation to the PHMSA:

Modify 49 Code of Federal Regulations173.301 to clearly require (1) that cylinders be securely mounted on mobile acetylene trailers and other trailers with manifolded cylinders to reduce the likelihood of cyliners being ejected during and accident and (2) that the cylider valves, piping and finttils be protected from mulitdirectional impact forces that are likely to occur during highway accidents, including rollovers. (H-09-1)

It is somewhat perplexing that these types of safety recommendations are even necessary when you would think that common sense would have prevailed long ago. How can one not know that speeding down the highway with acetelyne tanks on a trailer would be a potentially dangerous situation and that extra safety precautions should be taken?

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Sandy Grinnell

Trucking Regulations Will Keep Drivers On The Road Longer

Eddie Farah — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:17:23 GMT

It was an eleventh hour rule by the Bush administration that does not keep us safer on the highways. The administration in its waning days has decided to finalize rules on just how long truckers can stay behind the wheel.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rule allows drivers of big-rigs to work for up to 14 consecutive hours, including 11 behind the wheel. They must rest ten hours between shifts and may not work more than 60 hours in a week.

If a driver takes a 34-hour break, they can then restart their weekly tally.

The older regulation limited driving time to 10 hours, but also cost the trucking industry an estimated $2.4 billion a year.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has shown that there is an increase in crashes after 8 to 10 hours of driving. The courts have already rejected the rules twice but that didn’t stop the Bush administration which finalized them.

Trucking accidents killed almost 5,000 people last year- mostly people in cars not trucks. And federal records show there were more than 400,000 large trucks involved in accidents in 2007.

The trucking industry says the rules, which have essentially been followed for the last few years, have resulted in fewer accidents. On the other side of the issue is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Public Citizen and the Truck Safety Coalition, a group that focuses on cutting down on truck accidents.

The groups filed a petition for reconsideration of the rules on December 18^th.

Public Citizen even challenged the rule in 2004, citing the government’s own studies that show performance behind the wheel declines after eight hours.

Other studies show that performance does not decline if there is adequate rest in between. More definitive testing is needed, and studies not funded by industry – on exactly how much rest is needed between trips.

The incoming administration may revisit and even overhaul the rule. Otherwise trucking companies may be able to order drivers to work grueling hours that put us all in jeopardy. Public Citizen accurately calls them “rolling sweatshops.”

We have seen too many accidents involving big-rigs that people never recover from physically or financially. Let’s keep sanity on our highways. #

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Chain Reaction Involving Tractor-Trailer Kills One

Eddie Farah — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:58:00 GMT

A driver from Kingsland, Georgia died Friday afternoon after a chain-reaction on the road involving a tractor-trailer.

The tractor-trailer was hauling a load of beer, heading south near Pecan Park Road, when he rear-ended a pickup truck that was pulling a cement mixer. All of this occurred on North Main Street in north Jacksonville, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The 45-year old driver, Tony Baker, was in a truck heading northbound when his truck hit the jackknifed tractor-trailer. Baker was pronounced dead at the scene while the other drivers were okay.

It was just this summer when the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) announced that for the second year in a row, the number of large trucks (greater than 10,000 lbs.) involved in crashes in Florida had decreased and were at their lowest recorded levels since 2003.

Aggressive law enforcement programs have helped.

In 2007, partnered with the Florida Highway Patrol in enforcing programs to target aggressive driving, speeding, and following too closely by not only the drivers of big trucks, but the drivers of passenger cars as well that drive carelessly around these trucks.

But it doesn't sound as though Tony Baker was anything but in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Eddie Farah

Reaction to Ocala Bus Tragedy

Jeffrey Meldon — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:38:54 GMT

Only days after the tragic death of middle school student Frances Schee--caused by an accident between the school bus on which Frances was riding and a tractor trailer--Elissa Schee, the mother of Frances, has publicly declared her intentions to present a comprehensive review of all school bus stops in Marion County to a public safety committee. The tractor trailer driver has admitted to being distracted by his cell phone immediately before the collision occurred.

As part of this review, Ms. Schee advocates eliminating bus stops that are located on major highways. In the alternative, Ms. Schee suggests using public facilities and churches as central bus stop locations for parents to drop off and pick up their kids, with a law enforcement or public safety officer assigned to each designated station. If the bus stops cannot be moved, then concrete pads should be installed on the side of roads for the safe loading and unloading of children. A third option is to relocate the bus stops to side roads that intersect highways.

Ms. Schee admits that she and her fellow group of concerned parents "are not experts in anything, except how to be a parent, so to everyone who wanted to know what expertise we have, none except good old-fashioned North Marion County 'Horse Sense.'" In one of two released public statements, Ms. Schee expressed her frustration with lawmakers and other governmental officials: "No more talk from the people in charge of this process currently of Laws, Rules and Regulations can be or will be tolerated. If bureaucrats get in the way of a solution then they need to seek other employment opportunities."

Ms. Schee's loss is incomprehensible to most of us, and her fervent desire to preclude the occurrence of another tragedy is both understandable and laudable. Notwithstanding these points, one cannot help but wonder whether her suggestions address the broader issue and, more importantly, help remedy it.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeffrey Meldon

Driving While Using a Cell Phone Issue Becomes Reality In Our Community

Jeffrey Meldon — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:38:19 GMT

On September 23, 2008, thirteen year-old Frances Schee was killed while riding the bus home from North Marion Middle School. The school bus made a routine stop on U.S. 301 when a tractor-trailer rear-ended it just outside of Ocala, pushing the stationary school bus forward 294 feet. The driver of the truck, Reinaldo A. Gonzales, immediately jumped out of his cab before the vehicles stopped; shortly thereafter, both vehicles caught on fire. The cab of the tractor-trailer completely burned, while the back of the school bus incurred significant flame damage and the rear seats were crushed. Rescue workers and bystanders rushed into the burning bus and rescued the children from the flames. Sadly, they could not reach Frances Schee in time.

Shortly after the accident, Mr. Gonzales made two significant statements. He told a fellow truck driver that he did not see the school bus. He also stated that he was using his cell phone immediately before impact.

While the facts and evidence are still being collected, it is not difficult to deduce from Mr. Gonzales's own statements that he did not see the school bus because he was distracted due to operating his cell phone. The potential dangers of using a cell phone while driving are far from a recent issue. Furthermore, cell phone related motor vehicle accidents have increased at a frightening rate over the past 15 years.

Yet even with these unavoidable facts staring every cell phone user and motorist straight in the face, cell phone usage in the car is more prevalent today than ever before. How many more tragedies like the one outside of Ocala must occur before this issue is taken seriously?

Currently, only five states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws that forbid using a hand-held cell phone while operating a motor vehicle (California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Washington). And although another 16 states have passed "partial ban" laws, they are mostly toothless, prohibiting a small sect--such as bus drivers or teenagers with learner's permits--from using a cell phone wile driving. Countries such as Brazil, UK, France, Japan, and Australia have passed strict laws forbidding this practice.

The key to safe driving is focus and the avoidance of distractions. In fact, it has been reported that using a cell phone while driving equates to driving after consuming four alcoholic beverages. This statistic begs the following question: Why is there such a disproportionate amount of concern (and laws) pertaining to drinking and driving as opposed to using a cell phone and driving? Frances was tragically killed because Mr. Gonzales was not focused on driving. His lack of focus, however, was not caused by alcohol or another substance; rather, it was caused by his cell phone.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jeffrey Meldon