Young Law Blog

Watch for Truck Drivers on Amarillo's Interstate

Tougher regulations are needed in the notoriously dangerous trucking industry.  Often paid by the mile or by the load, truckers are pressured to drive as fast and as far as possible, often going many hours without rest and doctoring log books to show only a fraction of the actual hours spent behind the wheel. 

Anyone who has driven on Interstate 40 in

Amarillo

has undoubtedly had “close calls” with a truck. According to industry analysts quoted in the March 13, 2007

Wyoming

,

Arkansas

and

Oklahoma

were the deadliest states for truck crashes in 2005.

5,380 people died in 1999 in crashes with big trucks. In 2005, that figure remained almost the same at 5,212 deaths.

The Truck Safety Coalition and Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways have called on the Motor Carrier Safety Administration to reduce the number of hours that truckers may drive without rest, increase safety inspections of big trucks, require onboard electronic monitors to ensure compliance with hours-of-service rules, and train drivers better.

Trucking Companies Destroy Logs to Avoid Liability

Trucking companies often destroy or falsify their logs in order to hide the fact that their drivers were exhausted at the time of an accident.  This according to an article in the Dallas Morning News on September 17, 2006. 

"The trucking industry appears to spend more time doctoring records, falsifying logs and covering up fault than they do screening drivers and training drivers," said Frank Branson, a nationally prominent Dallas plaintiffs' attorney who has handled truck accident cases for 37 years. "The end result is a lot of catastrophically injured and killed Texans."

Lawyers representing victims who have been hurt or killed by a truck driver often subpoeona these logs to show that the drivers were on the road for many hours, often days, without rest.  Faced with having to produce damning evidence, many trucking companies choose simply to shred the evidence rather than face the consequences of their action.

Under Federal law, truck drivers must keep a log of time spent driving or resting during a day.  Interstate truckers are limited to 11 hours of driving in a 14 hour period and are supposed to rest for 10 hours straight. 

Because of the risk of destruction of evidence, victims of trucking accidents must act quickly to make sure the evidence is preserved.