Alabama deals with truck safety on two fronts: securing steel coil loads & lack of enforcement
In my native state of Alabama, two areas of trucking safety are making news.
First, recurring problems with heavy steel coils coming loose and dropping onto highways pose threats to both public safety and damage to roads. The Birmingham News reports that "Steel coils weighing tens of thousands of pounds falling off trucks with enough force to punch holes in interstate bridges have become an all too common occurrence in the Birmingham area." Over the past three years, eight trucks have spilled heavy steel coils on Birmingham interstates. While no one has been killed, and there's been only one serious injury, the threat is a disaster waiting to happen. Moreover, falling coils have knocked holes in interstate bridges, causing road repair costs of $200,000 to $300,000 each time. Industry officials and Alabama legislators have called for action to step up penalties for truckers and companies that lose these loads. Let's hope they get it done before a steel coil lands on a family car and wipes out a family, perhaps something will be done.
Second, Alabama has only one permanent weigh station and inadequate mobile truck inspection teams. According to the Decatur Daily newspaper, "large trucks often travel undetected with faulty or improper equipment because Alabama has few facilities and staff to catch the violators. The state has one permanent inspection station on Interstate 20 near Heflin and 15 mobile stations that travel as needed. DOT maintains weight equipment designed to stop overweight trucks that damage roads while state troopers with the Alabama Department of Public Safety conduct the inspections. The Alabama DOT director said that weigh stations cost about $10 million to get up and running. "Which program do I not do in the meanwhile to make that happen?" Alabamians compare their state to Mississippi on many fronts. Mississippi had 22 permanent inspection stations last year; while Alabama had one. Alabama made about 1 million truck inspections; while Mississippi did more than 8 million. In addition, Alabama's enforcers say a shortage of state troopers makes enforcement difficult. Trucking experts say the visible presence of a trooper causes motorists to drive safer.
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.
Surprisingly, these steel coils are the subject of a wide variety of cases from personal injury & wrongful termination, to the criminal and even mildly amusing.
A five-year-old child had his spine broken and became paraplegic when the vehicle he was riding in struck a 15-ton steel coil that fell off the back of a tractor-trailer and into the middle of a California Interstate. The accident happened when the driver of that tractor trailer dozed off and rear-ended a truck in front of him. Karlsson v. Ford Motor Co., 140 Cal.App.4th 1202, 45 Cal.Rptr.3d 265 (Cal. App. 2006).
In Perrysburg v. Miller, 795 N.E.2d 690 (Ohio App. 2003), the driver of a tractor-trailer was convicted for, among other things, operating a commercial vehicle in violation of an out-of-service order issued by an enforcement inspector after a random stop. He was driving a tractor-trailer combination, with two trailers, carrying loads of steel coils that were improperly secured. Incredibly, the driver managed to drive his rig out of the impound lot and onto the Interstate without making the necessary corrections.
The ridiculously low fine and jail sentence in this case â€" part of which was reversed on the appeal - are an outrage considering the damage that these coils can cause. Unfortunately, the offenses were only misdemeanors.
At the other end of that spectrum, in Haas Carriage, Inc. v. Berna, the appellate court upheld a verdict against a trucking company brought by a former employee for wrongful discharge. The driver claimed he was terminated because he refused to transport a load of steel coils that was improperly secured. The trial court found that the plaintiff would have violated any of several statutes by transporting the load in question and concluded that while the employer did not expressly request that the plaintiff commit an illegal act, it knew or should have known that it was requiring its drivers to commit illegal acts.
In State v. Newton, 492 N.E.2d 455 (Ohio App. 1985), the court upheld the conviction of a trucker for vehicular homicide when he failed to adequately secure three coils of steel weighing almost 48,000 pounds. The court found that regulations for transporting steel coils and the defendant's violation of those regulations were relevant in determining negligence under vehicular homicide law.
In Vulcan Freight Lines, Inc. v. South Carolina Ins. Co., 446 So.2d 603 (Ala. 1982), a tractor-trailer was carrying five 1,000 pound steel coils. The coils shifted and broke loose from the pallets to which they were attached as the driver was making a sharp turn at just 15 m.p.h. The coils were reloaded and secured with chains. For some unknown reason, one of the coils came loose again and rolled off the trailer into the woods. The coil was stolen before the driver could return with help to reload it onto the trailer, and it was never found.
