Trucking Injuries
Injuries caused by Colorado truck drivers present special issues to be handled by the Colorado Springs law firm of Sears & Swanson, P.C. for their clients. The biggest problem in a car-truck collision is that the car always loses. When a truck and car collide, the occupants of the car are often killed or seriously injured, while the driver of the truck will usually be uninjured or may not even know he made contact with the car. One study showed that trucks are involved in 58 percent of fatal car accidents.
So, our injury attorneys look at the role that the truck, and truck driver, played in causing the collision. First, we look at the reality of the trucking business. Truckers are paid by the mile. They do not make any money unless their truck is moving. With a sleeper rig and two drivers, the truck can be on the move constantly. Thus, there is a lot of motivation for drivers to drive too fast or too many hours without rest or sleep. Federal regulations require all interstate truck drivers to keep daily logs that track their activities for every 24 hour period that they are actively employed as a truck driver. Trucking companies must maintain copies of the logs for six months. Some drivers keep two sets of log books–one for their income and one for the authorities which shows the required time off and rest and sleep. Federal studies have shown that truck drivers falling asleep at the wheel is the number one reason for truck accidents.
One of the most serious issues in truck-car collisions is the problem of under ride. This occurs when a small car collides with the rear, or the side of the trailer, and rides under the trailer, often taking the roof off the car and inflicting catastrophic injuries on the occupants. In the mid-1990's the government and industry arrived at standards for a rear under ride guard on trailers, but often the guard is of insufficient strength to withstand a collision with a car. There currently are no government requirements for under ride guards on the sides of the trailers, although other countries do require them on trailers operating within their borders.
Of considerable assistance in trucking cases is the "black box" that all trucks now have. In the early 1908's manufacturers of heavy-duty diesel engines began to install electronic fuel controls on engines in place of mechanical ones. Initially, these were designed solely to monitor the top speed and revolutions of the engine but in the mid-1980's new electronic troubleshooting features diagnosed and monitored engine functions. By the mid-1990's most engine manufactures began installing electronic control modules (ECM’s) that could program a truck’s operating parameters, trouble shoot malfunctions and monitor operating conditions. Most ECM’s also record operating data such as fuel consumption, average mileage per hour, total miles, number of brake events and maximum speeds recorded in a given period. There is no government standard for ECM’s, so the recording capacity of each device varies by trucking company involved. Nevertheless, on trucks which have these black boxes, the data is extremely useful to correlate with the driver’s logs, allegations of when the driver put on the brakes before the collision and the speed the driver was going immediately prior to the collision.
If you are injured, or have lost a loved one due to a car-truck collision, please contact Sears & Swanson, P.C. Our firm will work to get the compensation necessary to protect long-term interests and we will also protect your privacy. Our attorneys will work to protect your rights.