Yesterday, December 2, 2015, Congress released a report detailing the results of the bicameral agreement reached concerning the terms of the surface transportation reauthorization bill commonly known as the “Drive” Act or the “FAST Act” (“Fixing America’s Surface Transportation”). The original House and Senate proposals for the Act included a number of anti-safety provisions which […]
12/3/15 Update: “The FAST Act” Still Contains Anti-Safety Provisions Members of the United States Congress are currently negotiating the final language of a transportation bill known as “the DRIVE Act.” This legislation will have a major impact on everyone using our nations’ roadways in the years to come. The terms of the Act have been […]
How many times have you been driving on the highway and been passed by a Tractor Trailer that was going 75-80+ mph? It probably happens more frequently than you think. Why should you care? Well, beyond the obvious dangers presented by a truck moving at that speed, there is a hidden danger as well – and […]
On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, five nursing students from Georgia Southern University were tragically killed in a crash with a tractor trailer just outside of Savannah.Unfortunately, the investigation into the accident has revealed that the trucking company involved has a questionable safety/violation history. John Wayne Johnson, the 55 year old trucker from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was recently confirmed […]
Trucking companies now have access to technologies which can dramatically improve the safety of their operation, safe on fuel costs, and provide accurate feedback concerning the conduct of their drivers. For example, products like “Smartdrive” utilize a multi-camera computer interface to simultaneously capture video footage of the driver’s actions within the cab of the truck […]
The trucking industry is heavily regulated. Unfortunately, those very regulations, which exist to insure the safety of the motoring public (that’s you, me and everyone else on the road), are frequently ignored by trucking companies, large and small, often with devastating results. When a person is injured in a crash with a tractor trailer, the […]
Data reflecting a motor carrier’s safety history is presently available to the general public by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The FMCSA generates a carrier’s score through this data, compiled in its “Safety Measurement System” (SMS), which incorporates the results of roadside inspections and other safety-based violations – also known as “Compliance, Safety, […]
As a trucking attorney and consumer safety advocate, I am pleased to report that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) has recently announced that it is considering a rulemaking to increase the minimum levels of financial responsibility for interstate motor carriers, as well as rulemaking pertaining to broker and freight forwarders, trip insurance, bus […]
Local news here in Mercer County has been filled with reports of a tragic accident which claimed the life of James McClean, 59, a resident of Trenton, NJ. The crash occurred on July 17, 2014, when a dump truck driven by Daniel C. Everett, 38, of Westampton slammed into the rear of McClean’s Nissan Altima, […]
Despite federally mandated limits on the number of hours commercial drivers are permitted to work on a daily/weekly basis, impaired driving, including fatigue-related impairment, continues to be a principal cause of serious accidents. In fact, driver impairment was specifically identified as a factor in more than 15,000 truck/bus crashes in 2012 alone. Commercial drivers are […]
