Family Safety - Avoid Highway Dangers Driving Near Large Trucks - March 2007

Federal Highway Agency Fails to Enforce Truck Safety Rules

Ever increasing deregulated federal safety standards in the trucking industry continually jeopardize the safety and lives of innocent, law abiding citizens on the road, as well as tipping the scales in favor of the trucking manufacturers in court after a serious accident.

In 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported a staggering 442,000 crashes in the United States involving large trucks, which resulted in 5,212 fatalities and 114,000 injuries. Unquestionably, more severe safety laws and regulations over the trucking industry would lower these numbers, and hold the already resistant trucking industry more accountable in law suits and court.

Rather relaxed federal safety standards assist truck manufacturers well in law suits involving truck crashes, stating that their vehicles are “safe” because they obey government standards and haven’t been recalled by the government.

With the law favoring the trucking manufacturers and industry, the difficulty for the injured -- or sometimes, the surviving family members of the victim – is to prove that the federal standards represent only the lowest level of safety, and that the absence of product recall in no way signifies the truck was safe or without defect. This crucial fact, a convenient loophole for the trucking manufacturers, is often a critical detail that jurors fail to recognize in bringing justice to a case.

To make matters worse, under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, the manufacturers themselves self-certify that their new vehicles and equipment fit the relevant federal standards, but are not required to test them before certifying them.

With the scales already tipped in favor of the trucking manufacturers and industry, it is critical to realize how the system and its disregard to protect the rights of the innocent driver on the road, indirectly, but very effectively can poison the juror’s decisions and conclusions in court. Seldom do they recognize the very damaging belief that the truck would have been recalled if it indeed had been defective—a false idea based on too much faith in our industries and government regulations, and not enough on information and the law.

It is critical to note and recognize the limits of government regulations and investigations. In an industry which is self regulated, and only held accountable too little too late, people have been victims of a trucking accident must have a clear, active and fair representation. It is our job at our Michigan law firm to go before federal and Michigan courts on behalf of Michigan truck accident victims and their families involving trucks.

Since 1968 our Michigan personal injury law firm, the Sam Bernstein Law Firm, has helped over 100,000 people injured in Michigan truck crashes and other personal injury accidents, and has recovered over $500 million in damages.