› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
As of January 30, 2012, a new federal mandate requires all commercial driver’s license holders to provide information to their state driver licensing agency regarding the type of commercial vehicle operations they work for or expect to work for. The new federal requirement is intended to make U.S. highways and roads safer by restricting certain drivers who may be considered medically unsafe.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has announced its final rule on hours-of-service (HOS) regulations that govern work and rest periods for commercial truck drivers. Trucking companies and drivers have until July 1, 2013, to comply with the rule changes, which Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said “will help prevent fatigue-related truck crashes and save lives.”
The first lawsuit against a commercial carrier blaming sleep apnea for contributing to a fatal highway crash was settled earlier this month in Texas. Wanda Lindsay, who became an activist against sleep apnea in the trucking industry after her husband was killed in a May 2010 crash, settled with Celadon for $3 million.
Considering all the efforts the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is giving to restricting hours-of-service rules and drivers with sleep apnea in the name of safety, the loopholes in federal laws that allow unsafe commercial drivers with a history of violations to stay behind the wheel seem all the more outrageous.
A Kentucky trucking company must pay $7 million in damages for hiring an unqualified driver and pushing him to drive an excessively long route, which resulted in a crash that killed another commercial truck driver, a U.S. District Court jury in Harrison, Arkansas, ordered.
Throughout the Midwest, farmers are harvesting their final crops of the season, which means more large farm trucks laden with grain are out on the roads, hauling their produce to suppliers. Here in the Deep South, the story is much the same; big rigs carrying tons of cotton and other harvests to market share the roads with other motorists.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood sent a letter last week to Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire asking her not to obstruct his agency’s proposed hours-of-service rule changes. Secretary LaHood, himself a Republican, has been a strong advocate for better motor carrier safety and strongly endorses the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s proposed HOS changes, which are aimed at further reducing the number of fatigue-related commercial vehicle crashes and deaths on U.S. roads and highways.
Several people were injured early Thursday morning when a commercial bus and semi truck collided with another commercial truck that had overturned on Interstate 80 in Gibbon, Nebraska. Police investigating the crash say that Mohamed Arguini, 39, of Antioch, Tenn., was hauling a truckload of dry cereal when he veered onto the median and then overcorrected, causing his semi truck to flip and splay across both westbound lanes.
“I am on a mission. I am going to wage a war against sleep apnea in the trucking industry,” says Wanda Lindsay in an introductory video for a foundation she started to raise awareness about the dangers of sleep apnea and to honor the memory of her husband John.
A commercial truck driver lost control of his five-axle dump truck on a U.S. highway in North Carolina Wednesday and crashed into a ditch. Authorities responding to the scene told Eastern North Carolina’s ENCToday.com that the 53-year-old driver, who received some minor injuries in the crash, dozed off behind the wheel and drove off the right shoulder of U.S. 70 in La Grange, NC. Fortunately, no other vehicles were involved, but the driver was cited for reckless driving.
