According to a report from the General Accounting Office, states fail to report one-third of commercial trucking accidents that they are required to report to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Large trucks make up 3 percent of the nation’s registered vehicles, but they were involved in 11 percent of all fatal crashes in 2003. To reduce the truck and bus accident fatality rate, the FMCSA sets national safety goals and works in partnership with states to reach them. Crash data collected by states and submitted to the FMCSA is key to these efforts, and to be fully useful, this data must be complete, timely, accurate, and collected in a consistent manner. However, with one-third of truck crashes unreported, the crash data does not meet general data quality standards of completeness, timeliness, accuracy, and consistency. See 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).