Trucking safety best practices and processes, truck crash prevention
During my legal career of over 30 years, I have seen and handled a countless number of jackknifed tractor trailer crash cases. Nearly all of them have involved life altering or fatal injuries. Big semi-trucks are a common sight on our public roads. Although they are a vital part of our transportation system, they can [...]
Train traffic near Lacey, Washington was stopped for several hours on Tuesday after a semi-truck crashed into a train trestle . Last month, a dump truck weighing approximately 15,000 pounds vehicle collapsed an "old, rickety bridge" in Snohomish County. Neither of those crashes should have happened. More and more often, I am seeing these reports [...]
Recently, I read about the truck driver that ran into several stopped vehicles in Colorado. People described the crash scene, where 4 people were killed, as “true carnage.” Many were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. The descriptions reminded me of a 2017 rear-end semi crash in Illinois, where 1 man was killed and [...]
There has been an "unprecedented uptick in fatalities" associated with recycling and garbage truck accidents crashes in 2019, according to the Solid Waste Association of North America. That's alarming, even as a preliminary number, because garbage trucks are already among the most dangerous heavy trucks. They are often out very early in the morning, when [...]
Whether you are for or against the legalization of marijuana—and I am not taking a position here— no one can dispute that driving a car after the use of marijuana is dangerous. Which means it's even more dangerous to drive a big rig while under the influence of marijuana. How do you identify a stoned [...]
Truck deadheading is the practice of driving a semi-truck with an empty trailer. It happens when a trucker drops off a load but has to drive elsewhere to pick up another load. Those deadhead miles can be extremely dangerous. A truck deadheading is 2.5x more likely to crash than a truck carrying freight. The weather has more effect [...]
The ELD Law An Electronic Logging Device (ELD) is a computer record of the truck's mileage and time on the road. As of December 18, 2017, long-haul commercial truckers are required to use an ELD instead of a paper log. What does that mean for truckers? The new law means their time will be tracked by [...]
Sharp-eyed Seattle residents may notice something different about SDOT trucks. Earlier this month, the Seattle Department of Transportation started installing side guard panels on city-owned heavy trucks. Seattle's Department of Transportation has started installing the side guards on the city-owned fleet. (Photo: Seattle DOT) Why truck side guards matter This may not seem like [...]
Preliminary statistics for 2016 indicated that there was a 7-8% increase in fatalities in crashes involving trucks and buses. It’s easy to focus on the multitude of available safety systems for commercial truck fleets. But, there is much more to safe trucking than an electronic logging device and a crash mitigation system. The key element [...]
What is FCAM? We throw around a lot of trucking safety terms. The talk can get very technical. For example: NHTSA identifies forward collision avoidance and mitigation technology (FCAM) technologies as the systems that combine forward collision warning alert signals with collision mitigation braking. There's a much easier explanation. 1) Radar detects a pending crash; and 2) Automatic braking prevent it. [...]
