Trucker who killed cop in wreck was disqualified from driving truck
A Continental Express truck driver whose negligent driving in July 2004 killed a Nashville, TN, police officer may have been legally disqualified from driving due under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations due to prior incidents of speeding and reckless driving. See news story.
The Shigley Law Firm represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a "SuperLawyer" in Atlanta Magazine and one of the "Legal Elite" in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks).
Wanke v. Lynn's Transp. Co., 836 F.Supp. 587 (N.D. Ind. 1993) is a case in which the issues of lax CDL requirements and a failure to check the driving records of new drivers come together in a tragic scenario.
In that case, the plaintiff's husband was killed in a vehicular collision between his car and a truck driven by the defendant for Lynn's Transportation.
The company's conduct when hiring the driver was frightening.
At the time the driver was hired, the Safety Director for Lynn's Transportation falsely certified to the DOT that she had given a driving test to newly hired drivers when in fact no test was given. In addition, she would provide answers to the written test. The defendant had been arrested three times in two years for driving with a suspended license, but Lynn's failed to do any check of his driving records. Moreover, Lynn's violated it's own internal policy which requires drivers to have at least two years experience in operating semi-tractors. In fact, during an 18-month period surrounding the accident they hired seven drivers, including the defendant, with less than one year experience. The company's new Safety Director stated that he never would have hired the defendant.
Federal regulations do not require a road test in all instances and, instead, allow motor carriers to accept a valid operators license that a state issued to them after the successful completion of a road test (49 C.F.R. § 391.33). The defendant had a valid drivers license issued by another state. As such, the court ruled that "even if his out-of-state CDL did not meet federal testing regulations, the failure to administer a road test to a driver who possessed a valid CDL does not show an intentional violation of federal regulations or a heedless disregard for the safety of others."
As for the written test, the court found that it's an instructional tool only and a person's performance on the examination does not affect his qualifications under the rules to drive a motor vehicle (49 C.F.R. § 391.35). Giving the answers away, in the court's opinion, did not support an inference that the defendants consciously disregarded public safety.
Moving right along, the court found that the company's failure to check the defendant's driving record did not support an inference of heedless indifference, even if it did violate federal standards (49 C.F.R. § 391.23). It was simply a misunderstanding of applicable regulations rather than a conscious disregard to obvious safety hazards created by truck drivers with bad driving records.
Lastly, the company's laxity in not following it's own internal policies in the initial hiring & training of the defendant did not rise to the level of reckless or outrageous conduct.
It must be noted that the trial court was ruling on motions for summary judgment and various motions in limine by both parties. The issues above only defeated the plaintiff's ability to collect punitive damages.
Nonetheless, it paints a disturbing picture of those "who pilot forty ton rockets down the Interstate" and the one's who hire them.
