Dangers of Big Trucks on the Roadway

Transcript:

Cindy Speaker: What are some of the dangers associated with big trucks on the road way?  That’s our topic on this episode of Main Street Law.  My guest is North Carolina Personal Injury Atty. Michael A. DeMayo of the Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo. So, Michael, thanks for being here today.

Michael DeMayo: Thank you for inviting me Cindy

Cindy Speaker: Well, Michael, what are some of the dangers associated with these big trucks on the roadway?

Michael DeMayo: Well, Cindy, there are number of different issues that occur when we deal with tractor trailers on the roadway.  Unfortunately, one of the biggest ones is that a lot of the industry standards are meant to or designed to push some of these drivers pass there limits of physical ability because they have certain deadlines.  As you know, tractor trailers account for a significant majority of the vehicles on the roadway.  And from a practical standpoint, there are a number of things that we should be concerned about.

If you are involved in an accident with the tractor trailers, statistically, you are going to be either severely injured or killed, and that is just physics 101.  Because from a practical reality, no matter how big your vehicle, you are actually going to be up against a vehicle that outweighs you 50 to 60 to 70 times, depending on the load that they are carrying. So from a practical standpoint, if you have any kind of interaction with a tractor trailer on the highway, and as a general rule, you are going to come in contact with a tractor trailer on some sort of interstate.  So generally you are going to have speed as a factor of 70, 65, 55 miles per hour. You combine all those factors, there is a potential for very, very significant injuries and/or death when we are dealing with tractor trailers.

So there is a number of different issues, different than just a regular personal injury claim dealing with an automobile that you have to be aware of.

Cindy Speaker: Okay.  And along those lines, I believe there were a number of federal regulations that govern big trucks, is that correct?

Michael DeMayo: Well, federally there are, there is an entire booklet.  They are called Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations that govern interstate tractor trailers or trucking vehicles on the roadway.  A number of issues are they regulate the amount of time that a driver can be in service.  You will have to keep what is called drivers’ logs to specifically delineate when you have been on duty, when you have been off duty.  There is a number of different maintenance issues that you have to have regular inspection much more so than an automobile.  And obviously, the very common one is you can’t be over loaded or overweighed.  Sometimes when you hear about tractor trailers jackknifing or sliding around, sometimes the load has been inappropriately or improperly loaded on the tractor trailer.  So there are serious regulations that are mandated by the Federal Government that are supposed to insure the safety of consumers out there that are innocent—consumers that are traveling up and down the road ways.

Cindy Speaker: And if someone is hit by a tractor trailer, who is it that is held responsible?  I mean, is it the truck driver himself or the trucking company, the manufacturer of the product the truck was carrying?  Who would it be?

Michael DeMayo: In a typical scenario when we handle a fair amount of tractor trailer cases, the coverage is going to be derivative from both the carrier, the owner of the vehicle of the tractor trailer, it could be the shipper and as a general rule, if it is a big corporation, there are layers of insurance or umbrella coverage.  In a commercial environment, which is what you’re dealing with from an insurance standpoint on a tractor trailer, there is usually layers of coverage that would cover that individual, depending on whether or not the tractor trailer is empty, that is called deadhead where they are actually traveling to go pick up a load.  So usually, you do need a fairly sophisticated, experienced personal injury attorney who specializes in tractor trailer accidents to get to that information because it is not something that is going to be readily apparent or available to you just by perusing the accident report.

Cindy Speaker: That is so clear.  This is obviously a very complex area of law.  Now, if someone wants to reach your office, how would they do that, Michael

Michael DeMayo: Well, what they would do is they would contact us by phone, toll free (877) 333-1000 or if they would rather contact us through the internet or at least look at our firm’s qualifications for these type of cases, they can go to www.demayolaw, that is a one word, D-E-M-A-Y-O-L-A-W dot-com and someone they can actually look at our qualifications and some of the checklist items that we have, specifically for tractor trailer cases.  Also, there is an ability, while they are on line, if they want to engage with one of our employees, or a subsidiary of our employee to get some basic information to see if it is something we can help them with.

Tractor trailer accident cases need to be investigated immediately, because right after the incident occurs or the accident occurs, you better believe they are flying down their lawyers, their accident reconstructionist and a team of investigators to, if you will, solidify and secure the accident scene.  We have seen in every single case where there have been significant injuries.  And even though we get hired, sometimes a week or two weeks after the incident, sometimes we are still behind the eight ball because they’ve already had so much lead time with regard to getting facts and information about the incident.

Cindy: Excellent information.  Michael, thank you for being with us today.

Michael DeMayo: My pleasure.

Cindy Speaker: This is Cindy Speaker from State Law TV.