FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas attorney who specializes in trucking safety says he’s worried about the uptick in 18-wheeler accidents, claiming that the pandemic is only making matters worse.
Over the past year, the number of trucking accidents has been steadily increasing nationwide, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of serious injuries.
Although winter weather conditions can be blamed for a portion of these incidents, some legal experts point the finger elsewhere.
Fort Worth attorney Seth D. McCloskey of the Law Offices of Steven Laird PC attributes the surge in commercial truck accidents across the country on supply chain pressures created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the way, he claims, that the major trucking companies have “mishandled the worker shortage.”
The number of fatalities from truck crashes increased by 10.5 percent in the first three months of 2021 alone, according to the Associated Press.
“We’ve seen an increased demand placed on commercial drivers as a whole,” McCloskey said. “Motor carriers and trucking companies are having a very difficult time keeping up with demand. The pandemic has really played a huge role in this labor shortage.”
Because of the sheer size of 18-wheelers, truck crashes often result in serious injuries and deaths. A recent fiery collision in North Texas involving a fuel tanker not only caused major delays but resulted in one death and others injured.
“The trucking industry is quite frankly allowing some of this to take place, putting profit over safety,” McCloskey said. “Safety is taking a backseat at this point in time. That’s the reason we are seeing more and more fatalities and serious injuries on roads in Texas and across the country.”
McCloskey warns the end might not be near.
“It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. We are reading reports, we are seeing the studies. Everyone needs supplies,” he said. “The trucks are going to keep rolling, the danger is going to continue to be there as long as the pandemic is surging.”
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Some of the upswing could be do to the ruling that causes drivers to run even if heavy fog, ice or traffic because they are not allowed to split logs and take a break during those times without losing hours. It should be up to them to judge when they need a couple hours off without losing whole day.
You are right these companies don’t give a crap about the drivers but then again most of these drivers think they know everything out here and they don’t everyday is a new day and every day presents an issue or a problem after on the road so no you don’t know everything with today’s society got their nose is buried into their phones while they’re driving they have headsets on their both ears or in there both ears how the hell are you going to hear anything if you got both ears covered up and if you take it survey I bet you 99% of the truck drivers out there do not have a CB or don’t run with the CB on cuz I said they don’t want to hear the b******* out there well you know what there’s always been b******* on there you just got to learn how to tune it out and these companies are hiring people that do not know how to read write or speak English that is another problem in this country between the companies and the government they hand out driver’s license and CDLs like it’s f****** candy as long as you can push a button or turn the key you could drive anything or if you have a license from another country and you come here you’re allowed to drive a truck or car you don’t need a regular American driver’s license or a CDL as long as you have yours from your country you can drive and that ain’t right and now the government wants to let 18 year olds and 20 year olds go across state lines half of them don’t even know how to drive a damn car let alone a truck and then you get these companies that have trainers that only been driving for a week a month okay maybe I’m exaggerating a few months and then they start letting them train and none of them has been trained properly they’re only looking at the money because the company isn’t paying them enough to be a regular driver so they’re looking at the extra money they’re getting to train somebody and they don’t care about safety or common courtesy respect in a truck stop so until you get these companies and the government to start caring a little bit more and actually putting your foot down and being more responsibility in the problem they’re causing the problems will continue out here and the driver needs to take and stand up against these companies that will force you to run out your 14 hour clock which is wrong I don’t know how many times I had to argue with my companies and I’ve been on electronic logs way before they were mandated that when you only have 3 hours and you have to go from Plano Illinois to Milwaukee and you have Rush hour traffic to deal with you’re not going to make it so until you get the companies to stop running these 14-hour clocks completely out or driver starts standing up against them like I did you’re going to continue to have issues companies like Swift Warner Schneider and any other big major trucking company you’re going to continue to have these issues and a lot of the smaller ones or even worse because they have limited trucks limited drivers so they definitely going to run that 14 hour clock out the electronic log is part of the problem because the fact that now these companies can actually see what you have and they take advantage of it so until you get the government and these trucking companies to take their part in the issue of what’s going on and teaching is drivers that you can shut down and bad weather cuz that’s another thing these drivers do not shut down about weather like they did back when I first started driving and I’ve been out here almost 20 years and I’ve watched this industry go to hell especially when the electronic logs came into play because these companies now to control you and work you like a f****** dog and you know the government isn’t going to take a blame for it even though they are part of the problem and. So are these trucking companies and me personally I would hit these companies with the biggest fine meaning hurt their pocket a little bit for a lot of problems out here that they are causing by letting these drivers one drive on bad roads when they should not be and two stop running the 14 hour clock down to the last second and so that works oh and also having drivers run with a CB on or in their trucks to help with any problems up ahead and get these drivers stop wearing headphones on both ears then I can see you having eliminating a lot of the problems that’s why they are trying to push these animatronic trucks but nobody in them because in the companies are like movie we can keep these trucks running all the time and we don’t have to stop them but then they’re creating another problem like the government has it already done with this pandemic taking jobs away from people so once they start doing that then you’re going to have people losing their homes and their businesses like they are now because of government is sitting up there on their high horse with their fancy homes and they’re f****** jobs where the rest of us is suffering over this b******* pandemic branches there is something going on which I wouldn’t doubt the government had a hand in it and I will not put it past them cuz I have never trusted our government and I never will because the people have given them too much power and control but as long as our government has their house and their businesses and everything else they don’t care about the rest of the country so you think we got the problem of homelessness and it’s getting worse on that too it’s going to continue to keep getting worse cuz the government don’t care and neither does these trucking company it is very very very very very sad how are country went from the number one country down to nothing cuz we are definitely not number one in the world anymore we were the PowerHouse at one time and we are not now China is or Tokyo because we made them who they are today that’s why we are so far behind on technology don’t get me wrong technology is nice but it has put a hundred on the US because of everybody’s relying on technology more and it’s making people lazy