Virginia Beach Personal Injury Lawyer - Tractor-Trailer Accidents

Trucking Crossroads: Interstate I-81 in Virginia Scene of Spate of Trucking Accidents

Rick Shapiro — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:40:00 GMT

It is a widely-known fact that trucks can be dangerous vehicles, and a recent series of accidents on I-81 in the western part of Virginia (VA) has illustrated this fact in a very grim way:

The first accident involved a tractor trailer full of watermelons that ran off the road and overturned in the median. As you can imagine, it made a big mess in the highway and traffic was detoured onto US Highway 11, causing a back up that stretched for several miles.

About three hours later the worst of the series of crashes happened when a tractor trailer did not slow down in time for the detouring traffic and struck a car. The impact forced the automobile underneath a tractor trailer in front of it and caused a chain reaction of several trucks hitting each other.

One of the tractor trailer’s fuel tanks ruptured and caused a fire that spread rapidly and destroyed the passenger vehicle. The occupants of the car died at the scene.

Horrible accidents like these occur all-too frequently, and serve as reminders for the dangers of trucking accidents. The American Association for Justice (AAJ) has determined that over 28,000 trucking companies are operating with safety violations, some of which are intentionally ignored by the company to cut costs. Such violations may include hiring drivers with shady backgrounds, not keeping the trucks running safely, or overloading the trucks. This means many unqualified truck drivers whether on Virginia's interstate highways or others are driving damaged trucks, some of which are loaded with more goods than they can safely carry.

Since trucks are larger and heavier than most passenger cars, they are inherently more dangerous than passenger cars. They take longer to slow down in an emergency stop; they can impact vehicles with a lethal force from a much slower speed; and the truck drivers often feel protected from danger.

As a car driver, you need to be very cautious around 18 wheelers and semi-trucks. True, there are many well-trained truck drivers, and many trucking companies are honest and safety-conscious. But you usually can't tell the difference between a relatively safe truck and a relatively unsafe truck until it's too late, so it's always better to err on the side of caution. Obviously, it's a good idea to always be a safe driver, but since most of injuries and deaths in trucking accidents are the people in the other vehicle, your safety is more at stake than ever when you are driving near a tractor trailer or semi.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm (VA-NC law offices ) edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers. We also host a YouTube injury law video library with more than 50 videos covering many FAQs on personal injury subjects. Lawyers with Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton are licensed in VA, NC, SC, WV, DC and KY. They handle car, truck, railroad, medical negligence cases and more.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

Commercial vehicles being stopped in Virginia Beach

Jim Lewis — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:51:00 GMT

Police in Virginia Beach stopped commercial truck drivers on Interstate 264 this morning as part of a concerted safety effort, The Virginian-Pilot reported.

The Virginia Beach Police Department's Motor Carrier Safety Unit is in charge of the effort, which was scheduled for 8 a.m. until noon Wednesday. The checkpoint was planned for the old toll plaza near South Rosemont Road.

Officers were expected to check driver log books, qualifications and hauling permits. Officers are also be checking for overweight vehicles.

Large trucks - including tractor-trailers, single-unit trucks, and certain heavy cargo vans with gross weight of more than 10,000 pounds - account for a disproportionate share of traffic deaths based on miles traveled, according to Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. The fatal crash rate for large trucks is 2.4 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled - more than 50 percent greater than the rate for all vehicles on the roads. People in passenger vehicles are especially vulnerable in collisions with large trucks because of the great difference in weight between cars and large tucks. In two-vehicle crashes involving passenger vehicles and large trucks, 98 percent of the fatalities were occupants of the passenger vehicle.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm (VA-NC law offices ) edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, as well as the Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY, who handle car, truck, railroad, and medical negligence cases and more.

(MM)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Lewis

Tractor-Trailer-Bus Accidents-Danger on the Highways

Rick Shapiro — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:28:12 GMT

Note: see also the automobile accidents category.

Big rigs, large trucks, semis, tractor trailers, and 18 wheelers are some of the ways that we refer to the giant, automotive machinery that runs 24 hours a day on our highways in Virginia and throughout the United States.

The trucking industry earned 610 billion dollars last year. Commercial trucking is critical to move goods to and from our region's cities including Chesapeake, Virginia (VA), Suffolk, Virginia (VA), Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), Hampton, Virginia (VA), Norfolk, Virginia (VA), Williamsburg, Virginia (VA), and Newport News, Virginia (VA). One of the costs to society of all these big rig trucks are accidents that kill or injure 1 person in the U.S. every 16 minutes. When a tractor trailer hits someone in a passenger vehicle and a wrongful death occurs, it is nearly always the person in the car, van, or SUV that gets killed, not the tractor trailer driver. As the demand for tractor trailer drivers goes up, the industry is forced to overwork its existing truck drivers or take less qualified truck drivers into the commercial trucking industry.

The causes of truck accidents include drivers who were tired and those who are abusing alcohol or drugs when on the road. Traditionally many companies look the other way as their drivers cut corners, including speeding or improper maintenance of vehicles, in order to improve their bottom line. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations of semi trucks and big rig operators have a hard time to keep up with huge volume of freight moved on the highways by truck. Even though then the Federal Motor Carrier Administration put in new hours of service regulations to prevent sleepy drivers on the road, driver fatigue is still the likely cause of 20-40% of truck crashes.

If you or a loved one is hurt by a tractor trailer accident you should contact an attorney who has experience in dealing with the complicated legal issues involved in trucking accident litigation. These cases involve lots of specialized issues and rules. You should hire an attorney who focuses his or her practice on the biggest transportation cases. There are all sorts of specialized laws including insurance law, which governs interstate commerce with trucks that don't apply to regular passenger vehicles. [Although many lawyers think they can handle a car accident case even though that is not what they regularly do, an attorney should not dabble in a trucking wreck case. If you Google an attorney and he advertises that he also does divorces, wills, contracts, and traffic court, beware.] More importantly, the personal injury lawyer handling tractor trailer accidents must know all of the special factual and evidentiary issues that come up in the context of these high stakes cases.

At Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis, and Appleton, we do nothing but injury/death cases and emphasize in our practice the worst injuries and wrongful death involving trucks and trains. We are used to dealing with the Federal Safety Regulations that apply in the transportation industries for railroads and trucking companies. We hold licenses from various states including Virginia (VA), North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Washington D.C., and Kentucky. We are used to handling cases that involve multiple state's federal law, and complicated semi truck issues. Take a look at our real case results section on our website which is www.hsinjury.com. I certainly hope that no one in your family ends up being one of the statistics about trucking accidents. However, if you do, I hope that you will consider us to be your experts in the field of trucking and tractor trailer collision accident litigation.

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Tractor-Trailer Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

Truck Accident Leaves One Dead

Shannon Weidemann — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:42:25 GMT

A Swift Transportation Company truck and a Philip Sims Trucking truck collided in an accident that caused a multi car pile up on Interstate 80 west of North Platte, Nebraska. The accident occured on Monday February 12th.

Slick roads and poor visibility led to hazardous road conditions and at least three tractor trailers and two passenger cars were involved in the accidents in the eastbound lane of Interstate 80 near Hershey.
North Platte Fire Captain Dennis Thompson said when he and his crew arrived on the scene, they were on the east side of the accident and their primary concern was a man they presumed to be the driver of the Swift truck.
"When we got there, we had one victim who couldn't speak English and couldn't tell us if there was anyone else in the truck," he said. "He was considered a rapid transport so we got him to the hospital."

One person died. Two cars and another semi-truck were involved in the accident. One of the trucks was hauling 150 pigs and they ended up all over the road.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann

What Makes Trucking Injury Claims Different?

Rick Shapiro — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 09:38:58 GMT

Due to the huge size, weight, and speed at which trucks and tractor-trailers travel on our nation's highways, accidents involving motor vehicles, cars, trucks and trailers can be catastrophic or even fatal. Tracking down the proper entity, or just the proper insurance sources, can be frustrating. Also, there are numerous federal and state regulations that govern trucking activities and motor vehicle operation-often experts must be retained to properly discover the relevant violations. It is important to act quickly to secure and preserce evidence in a trucking related case, because the trucking companies collect evidence immediately and seize the advantage against unsophisticated consumer injury victims.

In 2003, 457,000 large trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating greater than 10,000 pounds were involved in traffic crashes in the United States. That year, 4,669 trucks were involved in fatal traffic accidents resulting in 4,289 deaths. That statistic is similar to ten Boeing 747 jets crashing in a calendar year, killing all passengers.

Of the deaths that resulted from truck accidents involving large trucks, 78 percent were occupants in another vehicle, 8 percent were non-occupants, and only 15 percent were occupants of a large truck. Therefore, the majority of deaths as a result of fatal traffic accidents are the non-truck operators. Nonetheless, truck driver fatalities are also a significant safety concern.

The common causes of trucking wrecks are:

Driver fatique

Deficient training of the driver

Overloaded trucks

Oversized trucks

Improperly maintained brakes

Driving in poor visibility or traction conditions

Lack of driver experience

Speeding or Speed in excess of safe driving for conditions

Failure to yield the right of way

Aggressive driving behavior

Driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol

Improper required safety systems, reflectors, lights, and other warning devices

Failure of truck to install have under-ride protection or an under-guard.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro

State Rejects Memorial At Site of Trucking Accident

Staff Writer — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 07:12:21 GMT

The state of Virginia recently struck down proposed memorials at the sites of three fatal trucking accidents. While this might sound ridiculous - that the state wouldn't allow memorials at the sites of fatal crashes - the catch is that the memorials were proposed by People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The animal rights group had proposed memorials at sites in Suffolk and Isle of Wight County, where hogs had died in truck crashes on their way to slaughter.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

The signs were to read: "99 pigs died here because of driver negligence" and "Please drive with caution. PETA."

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Staff Writer