Yesterday in the Savannah area, heavy rain led to two hydroplaning crashes involving tractor trailers.

According to a report by Tuyaquen Mach on WSAV, In one crash on I-95 at Jimmy Deloach Parkway, a UPS truck pulling two trailers hydroplaned and hit two vehicles. One of the trailers, reported to be carrying hazardous materials, flipped over a guardrail. A Hazmat team was called to the scene and found the cargo was freon, a chemical coolant often used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

I don’t have details beyond what was reported, but interstate tractor trailer crashes in rainy weather often involve Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, 49 C.F.R. § 392.14, which requires:

Extreme caution in the operation of a commercial motor vehicle shall be exercised when hazardous conditions, such as those caused by snow, ice, sleet, fog, mist, rain, dust, or smoke, adversely affect visibility or traction. Speed shall be reduced when such conditions exist. . . .

 Commercial Drivers License manuals advise truck drivers to reduce their speed by one third in heavy rain.

 

 

 

Ken Shigley is a truck and bus safety trial attorney representing seriously injured people and families of people killed in tractor trailer, big rig, semi, intermodal container freight, log truck, cement truck, dump truck, log truck and bus accidents statewide in Georgia.  He has extensive experience representing parties in interstate trucking collision cases, He served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute and is a national board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice.

Mr. Shigley is currently treasurer of the State Bar of Georgia, of which he has been elected to become president-elect on 6/19/10 and president on 6/4/11. A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he has been listed as a "Super Lawyer" (Atlanta Magazine), among the "Legal Elite" (Georgia Trend Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale). In addition to trucking litigation, he has broad experience in products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, spinal cord injury, brain injury and burn injury cases.

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