US accidents involving heavy duty trucks have steadily risen over the past two decades.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a division of the federal Dept. of Transportation, there were 126,274 accidents involving commercial trucks and buses in the US in 2020. Of these accidents, 3,870 resulted in fatalities, while 63,007, or about half, involved injuries.
Supply Chain Digest Says...
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| The rise in insurance costs not only is causing many carriers to walk away from their businesses, others are only able to afford more risky policies. |
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It’s huge issue for carriers and private fleet operators. A 2020 report from the analysts at the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), for example, found that large legal verdicts, sometimes called "nuclear verdicts," have been rising sharply since 2006. These are awards to injured plaintiffs of sometimes more than $10 million, usually the result of serious crashes involving significant injury and death.
The massive verdicts against trucking companies can occur even when passenger car drivers are clearly at fault for the accident.
In fact, rising insurance costs, stemming from the rise in the number of accidents and the growth of award levels is is a key factor in pushing many trucking firms out of the industry. The research found that the large lawsuit awards against trucking companies are having a growing impact on the industry and will drive costs and capacity issues for shippers as well.
ATRI also found that states with what is called joint liability (any liable defendant can be required to pay the entire damages award) may result in plaintiffs placing the entire burden of the damages onto a carrier or fleet operator, despite the carrier or fleet operator being less negligent than other defendants, such as the driver or a parts company such as a tire maker.
“In most states there’s a disconnect between your level of negligence and your level of liability,” says Dan Murray, senior vice president at ATRI.
A Lawyer’s View
Writing on the Lawyers.com blog site, New Jersey attorney Herbert Ellis wrote an interesting post that looked at the causes and liability that, while targeted at those injured in an accident involving a heavy duty truck, provides some food for thought for carriers and private fleet operators as well.
Ellis says with truck drivers, there are a number of factors that can cause accidents. Those include:
• Distracted driving, such as talking or texting on a cell phone, watching videos,
• Driver fatigue
• Lack of training and experience.
• Poor weather conditions
• Poor truck maintenance: Lack of inspections and maintenance can result in brake, engine, and other failures and lead to accidents.
• Shifting or uneven cargo: Improperly loaded or overloaded cargo is a common cause of truck accidents.
• Driver carelessness: includes excessive speed
• Impaired driving: drugs or alcohol
• Bad road conditions: even potholes can cause a truck to veer or even rollover.
• Medical issues
• Bad parts: part failure of items such as tires and brakes.
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Ellis says in many cases, a truck driver may be the only person liable in an accident. But carriers and private fleet operators can also be found liable in accidents involving their trucks. While Ellis say company liability can be challenging to prove, but Ellis says plaintiff lawyers can find evidence of trucking company or fleet operator liability, including the following:
• Delayed maintenance or no maintenance
• Missing or incomplete inspections
• Safety violations under the law
• Illegally requiring the driver to make unreasonable deadlines
• Hiring unlicensed drivers
• Knowingly allowing drivers to drive unsafe vehicles
Rising Insurance Costs are a Huge Issues for Truckers
The rise in insurance costs not only is causing many carriers to walk away from their businesses, others are only able to afford more risky policies.
For example, Mike Card, president of carrier Combined Transport, recently told CNBC that “If someone wins $20 million from the jury, my insurance companies only pay the first $5 [million]. I would have to pay the next $15 million. We couldn’t afford that. We’d have to shut our doors.”
What is your takee on rising trucking accidents and insurance costs? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
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