Perlmutter & Schuelke, LLP, Austin Attorneys » Trucking Accidents

Trucking Accident Danger: Sleep Apnea

brooks — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:42:39 +0000

One of the hot topics in trucking news for the last few years has been that of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a medical condition that prevents its victims from getting a good night’s sleep, ensuring that they are drowsy all day long. You can imagine the dangers that truck drivers with sleep apnea might pose to themselves or others. Estimates are that sleep apnea contributes to 100,000 trucking crashes and 1,500 trucking accident related deaths each year.

Yesterday, a Wilwaukee TV station had a nice little story on these sleep apnea problems. The story cites one study that finds around 50% of all truckers suffer from sleep apnea. (Other studies find that number closer to 70%, and at least one study found the number to be as low as 17% — about the same as the general population.) Generally, truck drivers are at a higher risk for sleep apnea problems. One of the risk factors for development of sleep apnea is irregular sleep hours. Since a large portion of truckers prefer to drive at night or at least wake up very early in the morning to beat rush hour traffic, this risk factor clearly hits truckers. Another risk factor is obesity. Unfortunately, if a truck driver is driving ten or eleven hours a day, he or she doesn’t leave a lot of time for exercise so a number of truck drivers are victims of this risk factor.

Fortunately, sleep apnea can be detected through medical tests, and there is some movement by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to require that truck drivers be screened for sleep apnea issues. And, as the news story notes, some trucking companies are already screening for apnea issues.

For those interested in safe roadways, this is certainly one item to keep an eye on.

New York Times Speaks Out On Work Zone Car Wrecks and Accidents

brooks — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:36:54 +0000

One of the most dangerous parts of any drive — for both motorists and for construction workers — are highway work zones. Unfortunately, the dangers posed by construction zones do not receive a lot of publicity. Maybe that is changing. Yesterday’s New York Times contained a feature article: Efforts Lag at Making Highway Work Zones Safer. Some early take-aways from the article:

1. Work zone wrecks are a huge problem in Texas. Many of the example accidents that the article discussed occurred here.

2. Work zone dangers come in any number of forms. Some of the more popular problems that people need to look for are improper pavement drop-offs, barricades set up the wrong way, improper traffic stops, parking construction vehicles too close to the roadway, improper marking of construction.

3. There is no nationwide standard for work zone safety, and most regulations are left to the states. This poses a problem. For example, the article mentions that in one state, pavement drop-offs need to be addressed when the drop-off is three inches or more while in another state, the drop-offs only need to be address if more than five feet.

4. The problem is only going to get worse. As a result of the Obama Administration’s stimulus plan, billions of dollars are being pumped into roadway construction projects.

I’m convinced that this is such a problem that I’m going to devote a few posts to it over the next week or so. In the meantime, I’d love to hear comments or suggestions from any of you that have experienced close calls in construction zones.

Dangers of Loose or Stray Tires

sbrennan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:08:28 +0000

Earlier this week, Pedro Garcia, a state worker who had stopped on the roadway to pick up trash, was killed when he was hit by two loose tires that had come off of a passing tractor trailer. This may seem like a strange fact pattern for an injury, but it’s not.

Earlier this month, a police offier in Texas was almost hit by another loose tire from a tractor trailer. The tire, going approximately sixty miles per hour, just missed the officer. At that speed, I can only imagine the injuries the officer would have sustained. You can watch amazing home video of the incident below.

And though I can’t find a link to a story, two summers ago, an Austin woman was killed on I-35 when a stray tire from a tractor trailer crossed the median and slammed into her car.

These wrecks raise interesting questions when you stop and ask who is responsible. Obviously, if you can track the offender down, then you may have a claim against the owner and operator of the vehicle and the company charged with maintaining the vehicle. But many times, tires come loose, truck drivers never know it, and they simply continue on down the road, and the victim can’t identify the responsible party.

That’s when things get interesting. It makes sense that a victim could make an uninsured motorist claim against their automobile insurance carrier. But that’s not the case.
The uninsured motorist statute and most, if not all, of the Texas uninsured motorist policies contain a requirement that there must be “actual physical contact” between the uninsured vehicle and the injured person or their property. This provision was understandably adopted to prevent fraud. There were numerous uninsured motorist claims based on one-car wrecks whose drivers suddenly claimed that their wrecks were caused when phantom cars ran them off the road. The physical contact requirement was added so that insurance companies had a way to confirm that other vehicles were actually involved. Based on this provision, numerous courts of appeals have held that when a vehicle looses part of its cargo that the cargo wasn’t part of the uninsured vehicle so there was no physical contact and no coverage was available.But what about when you’re hit by the tire or some other part of the uninsured vehicle? Unfortunately, the Texas Supreme Court has rejected those claims. In the March 28, 2008 opinion of Nationwide Insurance Company v Elchehimi the court was faced with a wreck was caused when a tractor-trailer lost an axle and two wheels that hit the plaintiff’s vehicle. Rigidly applying the statute, the supreme court said that an axle and two wheels are not a vehicle so no coverage is available.The dissent, by Justices O’Neill and Medina, took the much more sensical view. They argued that (1) the axle and wheels were an integral part of the other vehicle, and (2) there was no risk of fraud because it was clear that the claimants were hit by a part of another vehicle. As a result, they would have allowed coverage in this case. They further argued that the purpose of the UIM statute was to allow people to protect themselves, and the court’s strict interpretation of the statute frustated that purpose.Unfortunately, we’re now left with the situation that if the injured person can’t specifically identify the vehicle that lost its cargo or parts of its vehicle then no claim can be asserted.

To contact Austin Personal Injury Lawyer, Austin Personal Attorney, Austin Accident Lawyer, Austin Injury Lawyer Perlmutter & Schuelke, LLP or to learn more about Austin Personal Injury visit http://www.civtrial.com/.

In Study Of Truck Drivers, Texting While Driving Proves To Increase Risks Of Wrecks By Large Margins

sbrennan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:57:44 +0000

Today’s New York Times released a study finding that texting while driving greatly increased the risk of collision. The study, performed by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, put video cameras in the cabs of long-haul trucks and watched the drivers and the road. The study found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting. (Maybe what should be surprising is that the drivers would be willing to text while driving even knowing that they were being videotaped.)

This is the first real study that has looked at actual drivers and not lab research. But the findings are consistent with those found in labs. The University of Utah, which has been a leader in this area, has tested teen drivers in simulators and, as mentioned by the Times, in college students, each finding that texting while driving is horribly dangerous.

But there might be a glimmer of hope in all of this. On the same day that the texting while driving study was released, a new study, reported in the Austin American Statesman, found that Texas leads the nation in cutting teen traffic deaths. A key component of the improvement appears to be a new education program teaching teens about the danger of texting while driving. Instead of just talking about the problem, the program has interactive exercises, such as one that calls for a student to push another seated in the chair. The driver is required to go around and through a series of cones while texting. The predictable results may form a strong lesson for the teens.

If you read my blog regularly, you know that texting while driving is a constant theme, and I’m happy to see any progress, even small, in decreasing the risk that we all face on the road. I also wanted to give kudos to the New York Times. In addition to the facts, they created their own interactive game to show the dangers of texting while driving. You should try it out.