Articles Posted in Motor Vehicle Cases

A recent study reports about the risk of lack of sleep on commercial drivers.  In an article entitled "Impaired Performance in Commercial Drivers: Role of Sleep Apnea and Short Sleep Duration" researchers from the University of Pennsylvania  "examined 406 truck drivers and found that those who routinely slept less than five hours a night were likely to fare poorly on tests designed to measure sleepiness, attention and reaction time, and steering ability. Drivers with severe sleep apnea, a medical condition that causes a poor quality of sleep, also were sleepy and had performance impairment," according to a summary of the article at Insurance Journal.

The Penn report indicates that 5600 people per year are killed in wrecks with commercial trucks and that many of them involve drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

The Penn report is published in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.  The article can be accessed here.

Motorists Beware!   A new study reports that 21% of drivers in Tennessee are uninsured.  Read about the study here.

I would love to know what percentage of the drivers that have insurance have only the minimum limits ($25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident). 

Use this information to educate your clients about the need to purchase adequate levels of uninsured / underinsured motorist coverage.  I have always thought it was an outrage that an agent could persuade a person to waive UM / UIM limits equal to that of their liability limits.  While I agree that the limits purchased should be a made of choice, I also think that the agent should be required to say, in writing, what it would cost the customer to have UM / UIM limits equal to their liability limits.   Such a rule would ensure that the consumer made an informed decision about what to purchase.  I also think that the customer should be required to waive equal limits in writing every year, not just once during the life of the relationship.

Allstate is notorious for its hardball approach to handling claims. Now, Business Week Online tells about a new book “From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves” that will reveal the role that the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. played in changing the business practices of Allstate.

An excerpt from the article: “Collectively, the documents (obtained by the author of the book) present a portrait of business strategies that are at odds with the insurer’s carefully cultivated public image. Rather than simply rushing to the scene of an accident and doling out cash, Allstate deploys a variety of systems set in place by McKinsey to make sure it pays the minimum necessary — and it plays hardball with those who seek more.”

Another: “One of the key elements of McKinsey’s plan was reducing the number of claimants who turn to attorneys after an accident for help in collecting on their insurance. The consultants even forecast what the potential gains in this area would mean for Allstate’s stock. A 25% drop in attorneys appearing in several categories of cases could add $1.60 to Allstate’s share price, one slide states, according to [book author David] Berardinelli’s notes.”

The FMCSA has a new study out that “[d]rivers of large trucks and other vehicles involved in truck crashes are ten times more likely to be the cause of the crash than other factors, such as weather, road conditions, and vehicle performance ….”

A quick summary from the press release: “The study, conducted with the help of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, investigated a national sample of fatal and injury crashes between April 2001 and December 2003 at 24 sites in 17 states. Each crash involved at least one large truck and resulted in at least one fatality or injury. The total sample of 967 crashes included 1,127 large trucks, 959 non-truck motor vehicles, 251 fatalities, and 1,408 injuries. Action or inaction by the driver of either the truck or other vehicle was the critical reason for 88 percent of the crashes.”

Here is the study.

Here is another decision that makes it reversible error to show photos of vehicles involved in a wreck, point out minor property damage, and then argue that the plaintiff could not have been injured.

The New Jersey Appellate Division said this:

“Given the narrow field of dispute, the photographs served no apparent purpose other than to suggest the accident was low-impact and minor and, therefore, not the cause of plaintiff’s condition. For reasons already advanced, we find this inference impermissible absent an expert foundation. And lest there be any doubt as to defendant’s real purpose, counsel referred to the accident as a “fender bender” on three separate occasions in her opening and closing remarks. Clearly, this argument played a prominent role in the defense, especially in light of the polarity of medical views on causation, and was identical to that found objectionable in Davis. By the same token, nowhere in her argument did defense counsel explain to the jury how, based merely on the extent of property damage, a fact finder could assess the origination of plaintiff’s injury or whether any pre-existing condition she may have had was exacerbated by the impact. In any event, defense counsel’s argument clearly transgressed what was to be, at least according to the trial court’s tacit understanding, the limited use to which the photographs would be put. Even more significant, however, counsel’s commentary contradicted her own medical expert who opined no such connection or correlation between impact and injury exists. Under the circumstances then, we conclude that the introduction of the photographs without appropriate limiting instruction, when considered together with counsel’s uncured comments thereon, allowed the jury to speculate, unguided by any expert basis, as to the cause of plaintiff’s injuries, and thus created a clear capacity for an unjust result.”

Sorry for the delay in posting today. I caught a red-eye flight last night and spent 12 hours traveling.

Public Citizen and four other entities have launched another court challenge to the hours-of-service rules that have been promulgated by the FMSCA.

From Public Citizen’s press release: “More than 5,000 people are killed each year in large truck-related crashes and more than 110,000 are injured,” said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. “That FMCSA chose in both rules to expand driving hours is astounding given its statutory mandate to make safety its highest priority and Congress’s specific directive to the agency to reduce fatigue-related incidents. We fully expect the court to find once again that this rule violates the agency’s clear assignment to put safety first.”

Read here about the indictment the executive of the charter company that operated the bus that exploded Sept. 23 on Interstate 45 in Texas, killing 23 residents of a Bellaire nursing home who were fleeing Hurricane Rita.

If he is found guilty, what will his punishment be? Will it be the nine years that Anna got for extortion? Should it be less? Should it be more?

Here is some interesting information on the realtionship between where people live and their tendancy to be involved who tend to be in car wrecks.

A sample: “People who live within one mile of a church are 10 percent less likely to have an accident resulting in a property damage claim than if they lived one more than one mile from the church.”

My daughter is 14 and is very excited about getting her driver’s license. The idea terrifies me like it does most parents.
Here are some statistics about car wrecks and teenagers that will not do you much good at the office but may help you talk about safe driving with your teenager.

Do you want to know how many people died in traffic wrecks in Tennessee? In North Dakota? On two-lane roads? On interstates?

If so, see this report from NHTSA and the United States Department of Transportation.

An excerpt:

“In 2004, the Nation’s crash fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles of travel was the lowest (1.46) since record keeping began 30 years ago and remained below 1.50 for the second consecutive year. 2004 was also the second year in a row that fatalities from motor vehicle crashes declined. The number of police-reported motor vehicle crashes occurring on our highways dropped to
under 6.2 million from over 6.3 million in 2003, and persons injured in these crashes continued a steady decline. On average, a police-reported motor vehicle crash occurred every 5 seconds, a person was injured every 11 seconds, and someone was killed every 12 minutes.”.”