How weather affects tractor-trailers and crash risk, and how truck drivers and motor carriers compensate
Last week, I was in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The weather was mostly nice and comfortable, but one day, a thunder storm warning was issued. The warning stated that 70 mph winds were expected, with hail the size of marbles and both lighting and thunder. Sure enough, the storm came through as predicted. As I watched the [...]
It's a complicated question. As a lawyer, my first response is often "it depends." When a semi-truck tips over, it's certain that something has gone wrong. We need to determine what exactly went wrong in order to order to understand who is at fault, and what should have been done differently. When a semi-truck tips [...]
Winter Storm Diego flooded parts of California last week. It dumped rain and snow across Texas, breaking snowfall records in several cities. As it moved over the Appalachian mountains, the snow and ice knocked out power for about 300,000 people, and in some areas, left nearly two feet of snow. There were more than 700 winter storm [...]
People think of the Pacific Northwest as a rain-drenched forest. But driving the high-desert climate of eastern Oregon and Washington is a very different experience. This is I-84. It is the main route through Eastern Oregon, and into Idaho—especially for semi-trucks. On a November afternoon in Eastern Oregon, meteorologists predicted wind gusts at 55-60 mph. The wind kicked up dust [...]
Earlier this month, a Texas jury issued an 89.6 million dollar verdict against Werner Enterprises, a Nebraska-based trucking company. The case involved a 2014 crash that killed a 7-year-old, paralyzed a 12-year-old girl, and resulted in a traumatic brain injury for a teenager. The verdict has been controversial because of the unusual facts of the [...]
The images are shocking. The first collision was between a jackknifed semi-truck, and a passenger truck driven by Kaleb Whitby. His vehicle spun around and flipped upon hitting the semi-truck, and he could see another tractor-trailer coming directly at him. Saturday’s semi-truck pile-up in Eastern Oregon involved between 50 and 70 cars, according to Oregon [...]
Today with snow all over the roadways here in the Pacific Northwest, roadway travel was limited. Those that had to go out faced conditions of icy roads, continuous snow flakes or ice rain and side roads that were difficult to navigate. Out there, crazy drivers went too fast, followed too close and tried to go [...]
