Articles Posted in Truck Accidents

This is unbelievable. A U.S. Court of Appeals twice struck down the Bush administration’s regulation giving truck drivers more time behind the wheel. But last week, the Department of Transportation (DOT), a federal agency paid for with our tax dollars, decides to reinstate this regulation, which is controversial because it doesn’t make sense.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) not only brought the regulation back, but in the process increased truck drivers’ Hours of Service (HOS) to 11 continuous driving hours and 88 hours in an eight-day period (http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2007/12/17/073670.html). The new rule significantly increases truck drivers’ workdays by 40 percent, more hours over an eight-day period and allows them to drive 28 percent more hours over the same eight-day time period.

This beats logic because it is a known fact that tired truckers cause a majority of big rig crashes around the nation. These are crashes that mostly result in fatalities or catastrophic injuries and 97 percent of the time, the people in the other vehicle (not the big rig) are the most injured or affected.

Fatigue is known to be a major contributor to fatal truck crashes. The National
Transportation Safety Board and other safety research groups all over the world, have found that nearly 40 percent of big truck crashes are caused by driver fatigue. After 17 to19 hours without sleep, a driver’s reaction time is up to 50 percent slower, which is apparently the same as having a .05 percent blood alcohol level.
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The parents of two young girls who were killed in a big rig crash in Madera County last year, have reached a $9 million settlement with the trucking company, the Fresno Bee reported. The accident occurred June 9, 2006 when a concrete pumper truck rear-ended the family car on Highway 41, the article said.

The sisters – Korren Radke, 7, and Chloe Baker, 2, died in the chain reaction crash. The speeding big rig hit the family’s car, which was among several stopped for a disabled vehicle on the freeway. Chloe’s parents – Charles Baker and Amber Allen-Baker — will receive $7.5 million in the wrongful death lawsuit while Korren’s dad, Craig Radke, will get about $1.5 million. Amber is also Korren’s mother.

Another woman, whose car was hit by the big rig after it hit the Bakers’ car, will get $75,000 from the settlement, the newspaper reported. A settlement usually means that the trucking company pays without admitting fault. But California Highway Patrol officials reportedly said that the driver employed by Brundage-Bone Concrete Pumping was driving at an unsafe speed and was not able to stop.
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A 2006 Honda Civic collided with a Freightliner tanker truck on Highway 37 Friday morning killing Micheal McIntosh, 24, of Travis Air Force Base according to Vallejo, California fire officials, as reported on the Times-Herald website.

The big rig accident occurred at about 2:30 a.m. when the Honda spun into the path of the oncoming Freightliner tanker truck, just west of the Mare Island Bridge the California Highway Patrol said. The driver of the Honda, Hannah Johnson, 20, of Fairfield allegedly lost control while traveling about 60 mph, east bound on Highway 37. Johnson sustained moderate injuries.

Jonathan Dinisio, 27, of Solvang, another passenger in the Honda, was airlifted to John Muir Medical Center with major injuries. According to the Times-Herald news report, fire officials said it took 19 minutes to extract Dinisio from the Honda after the 14 minutes it took to get McIntosh out. McIntosh died on the way to the hospital from major head injuries, fire officials said.
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An Arizona jury awarded $36.5 million this week to the family of a man who was killed in a Kansas big rig crash. According to an article in the Arizona Republic, the four-week trial ended the way it did because the trucking company did not want to hand over driver logs that the company is required to maintain under federal regulations.

The verdict included more than $13.5 million in punitive damages. The logs, which Swift Transportation Co. said it could not produce, would have helped plaintiff’s attorneys and jurors determine whether the big rig driver was driving more hours than he was legally permitted or whether he was fatigued at the time of the crash. The jury not only considered the truck company’s attitude in this case but also the fact that the accident victim, 57-year-old Thomas Steven, was survived by his wife and eight children, ranging in age from 13 to 26, the newspaper reported. Steven was reportedly the owner of a plumbing supply business in Wichita.

The crash happened in April 2004 when the big rig driver did not slow down on a Kansas highway intersection. He reportedly cruised over three sets of rumble strips meant to caution drivers about an approaching stop sign. Then, he drove right through the stop sign and slammed into Steven’s Chevy Suburban, killing him. Steven’s two passengers suffered serious injuries. After the crash, the big rig driver, Kevin Jones, was not able to explain why he did not stop.
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The driver of a Ford F-150 that collided with a CalTrans vehicle Thursday morning on Interstate 5 died at the scene and his passenger was transported to a nearby hospital by ambulance according to an article on The Signal’s website. The Signal is a Santa Clarita newspaper.

According to the newspaper, the accident occurred at about 10:15 a.m. on southbound I-5 before the Parker Street overpass in Castaic. A CalTrans signal vehicle that was following a street sweeper was struck from behind by a white Ford F-150 pickup truck. The Ford pickup sustained severe damage. The signal vehicle’s collision impact cushioning device was only grazed. The street sweeper was working on the shoulder of the far left lane of southbound I-5.

The report did not mention any injuries to any CalTrans employees.
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A five-vehicle injury crash snarled traffic on the 5 Freeway in Santa Ana during rush hour traffic Friday morning, according to a news article in the Los Angeles Times. Officers who arrived at the scene found a pickup truck wedged under a big rig’s trailer, the newspaper reported.

Firefighters had to extricate the car’s occupants from inside the pickup and then remove the vehicle, which was pinned under the big rig. The freeway was completely closed as firefighters and Caltrans crews embarked on the cleanup. Passengers were taken to the hospital. It took firefighters about an hour and a half to extricate them and there is no word yet on their condition or the extent of their injuries.

Both Los Angeles and Orange counties saw a multitude of accidents Friday morning, most of them caused by rain-slicked roads, officials said. The Times also reported a big rig accident on the eastbound Foothill Freeway in Pasadena and three crashes on the Pasadena Freeway.
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Recent deaths on our highways have highlighted the danger of big rigs out of control on California’s freeways.

According to an article in the Orange County Register, on Oct. 30, Jorge Romero entered a not guilty plea to three counts of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of Chris and Lori Coble’s three young children-Kyle, 5, Emma, 4 and Katie, 2. I am certain that Chris and Lori Coble, of Ladera Ranch, do not consider what Romero did to their family a misdemeanor!

Romero, a big rig truck driver, whose speeding was determined to have caused the deaths of the Coble’s three young children when he slammed into the back of their minivan, apparently had been cited two other times for speeding while driving a heavy truck — in both 2002 and 2006.
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October was a horrible, nightmarish month when it came to fatal big rig crashes in California. The fiery Santa Clarita multi-big rig crash topped all others as the most horrific one, killing three people and injuring more than a dozen people. Then, there was the most recent one last week when a speeding big rig driver slammed into two cars on Pacific Coast Highway. Two people died in that crash.

Here is a list of truck and big rig accidents this month from around the country although an overwhelming majority of recent truck accidents seemed to be in California:

Fiery Westchester Crash: One person was killed in this explosive crash this morning that snarled traffic for miles during the morning rush hour. It blocked several lanes on the 405 Freeway in Westchester near LAX. The driver of the truck reportedly died in the crash. No other fatalities or injuries were reported.
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A trucking company in Montana reached a $1 million settlement with a driver who was severely injured in an accident involving one of the company’s dump trucks. According to the article on Lawyers USA’s Web site, the accident occurred on April 30, 2004 when Lucy Jones-Parker, 54, was driving with her 10-year-old daughter, Arianna, asleep on the front passenger seat.

Jones-Parker’s attorney said that two dump trucks operated by Dave’s Trucking tried to cross a highway at an intersection and when one of the trucks pulled directly in front of Jones-Parker’s van, she hit the truck’s rear axle. She was pinned against the steering wheel with her chin on the dash, unable to breathe until a passer-by helped extricate her. Her daughter fortunately suffered only minor injuries.

But Jones-Parker suffered a fractured pelvis. She needed to undergo a lot of surgery, which put her out of a job. The trucking company claimed that their driver stopped at the stop sign at that intersection. But the plaintiff’s attorney cited eyewitness reports, which stated that the dump truck driver did not stop at the posted sign.
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Two people were killed and a firefighter was injured in a fiery three-vehicle collision caused by a big rig that was traveling illegally on the Kanan Dume Road in Malibu, which is usually closed to truck traffic. According to an article in the Los Angeles Daily News, the crash occurred at Pacific Coast Highway at Kanan Dume and both victims died at the scene.

Officials told the newspaper that this was not the only big rig driver who used that route illegally during last week’s wildfires that shut down Malibu Canyon Road. But this truck driver, it turned out, was speeding downhill at 70 mph, hauling his load of gravel and then ran through the red light at PCH and crashed into two cars.

The truck driver was struck by the gravel in his own big rig, causing his death. The driver of a Mercedes was killed on impact and a county firefighter, who was in another vehicle on his way to work, suffered a broken ankle. Fortunately, he was pulled out of his car by a passer-by before the vehicle burst into flames, the newspaper reported.
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