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 [...]
For several hours yesterday, a rollover truck crash on I-5 resulted in the closure of all the southbound lanes, and part of the northbound lanes. The crash occurred between Tumwater and Maytown near 113th Avenue, but affected drivers from Portland to Seattle. The Thurston County Sheriff reported that a second crash - a hit-and-run on [...]
It was this I-90 crash, with five semi-trucks and three cars in a pile-up, that brought attention to an ongoing problem. Photo from Washington State Patrol; police reported no one in the 3 cars or 5 trucks sustained serious injury. This is one of several recent I-90 crashes involving semi-trucks. Reportedly, a semi-truck [...]
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 [...]
Have you wondered if there have been more semi-truck crashes than usual in Washington State? In 2017, after a spate of high-profile semi crashes in Washington that resulted in serious injuries and/or closed major highways for hours, we looked into this question. The Washington State Patrol's Collision Analysis Tool shows 1087 semi crashes met the damage threshold for reporting in 2017. [...]
Commercial truck drivers and motor carriers have stringent rules and regulations they must follow; because of the damage that can be caused by their errors, they are subject to greater scrutiny. In the many years I have handled trucking cases, I have seen many careless acts by professional drivers and motor carriers. But mistakes like this one are truly [...]
A motor carrier in Yakima, Diamond Freight, has been tied to another serious truck crash* in Central Washington. Yakima trucking company involved in second fatal crash, via Yakima Herald The local news outlet reported that "The Washington State Patrol confirmed that both drivers worked for Diamond Freight Systems — which also goes by NW Freight Inc. — based [...]
Update: As of October 16, there has been 798 semi truck crashes* in Washington State. At the same time last year, there had been 661. Just in the last few weeks, there have been several major collisions that caused severe injuries—and kept thousands stuck in traffic for hours. June 9: Three semi trucks collided in Blaine, Washington, just south [...]
This past week, a semi-truck flipped over on I-405 in Bellevue around 5 a.m. Amazingly, no one was seriously injured … but traffic was backed up for hours, at one point stretching 7 miles down the highway. The Washington State Patrol (WSP) later cited the trucker for driving too fast for rainy conditions. At 4 [...]
