Central New York Injury Lawyer Blog

Hope you all enjoyed your pumpkin pie. I sure did. And have you examined your waist line recently? If you're like many Americans, it's expanding. But not as fast as American truck drivers, according to a NY Times article I read last week. And then just today I read an article about how trucks are getting heavier, too. It seems everything in America is super-sized these days.

But let's just talk trucks for now. Officially, the national weight limit for freight trucks on interstate highways is 40 tons (80,000 lbs). But in almost half of the 50 States, Federal laws now allows for trucks weighing more (not yet in New York). Last week, Congress added Maine and Vermont to the list, allowing trucks up to 100,000 pounds there.

So what's the BIG deal? (pun intended). Big trucks make for big accidents, as this Central and Syracuse NY trucking accident lawyer knows all too well. And they also make for more frequent accidents because they are harder to control and stop. And they also chew up our roads and bridges faster, which chews up your tax dollars faster.

Are trucks done getting bigger? Fat chance. The American Trucking Associations is already lobbying to raise the national weight limit to 97,000 pounds.

So why does Congress keep passing laws allowing steroid-enhanced trucks to roam our intrastate highways? If you ask them, they will say bigger trucks hauling more mean fewer trucks on the road, which lowers congestion and increases national fuel efficiency. But if you ask me, the reason is that money trumps safety. The trucking industry is not just growing its trucks, but also its friends in Congress' campaign wallets. In America, everyone thinks big . . .

Keep safe!

Mike Bersani

Email me at: bersani@michaels-smolak.com I'd love to hear from you!

Michael G. Bersani, Esq.
michaels-smolak.com
Central NY truck accident Lawyer
Michaels & Smolak, P.C.

1-315-253-3293 Toll Free 1-866-698-8169

The tractor trailer driver knew he was in trouble. He was blearing his horn as his tractor trailer careened out of control down the West Seneca Turnpike hill the other day in Syracuse. The brakes on the truck had failed. Six vehicle collisions later, three people were taken to the Community General and Upstate University hospitals with, fortunately, non-life threatening injuries.

Too many tractor trailer air-brake failures have taken too many lives. Faulty brakes contribute to about a third of all truck crashes in the United States. Very few trucks on the road are checked for brakes as well or as often as they should be. Brake inspections require time and labor, and trucking companies often choose not to spend the time and money doing them.

In other words, truckers and trucking companies cut corners to reap bigger profits, putting all of us at risk.

This West Senecca Turnpike disaster is the end result of such selfish decision making by truckers. Yesterday a DOT inspection of the truck found - surprise, surprise - that it had inadequate brakes, which was determined to be the cause of the crash.

And they wonder why New York truck accident lawyers love to sue them!

Keep safe!

Mike Bersani

Email me at: bersani@michaels-smolak.com I'd love to hear from you!

Michael G. Bersani, Esq.
michaels-smolak.com
Central NY Personal Injury Lawyer
Michaels & Smolak, P.C.

1-315-253-3293 Toll Free 1-866-698-8169

At about 1:30 a.m. last night, a Canadian tour bus and a tractor trailer collided and erupted in fire in the eastbound lanes of the New York State Thruway, in the Town of Junius, Seneca County, between exists 41 and 42. This is very close to where I live (Geneva) and work (Auburn). The tractor trailer driver was killed and about 35 of the 50 or so bus passengers were injured. Many of the victims were transported to area hospitals, including Geneva, Auburn and Newark-Wayne Hospitals, and some were brought to Rochester and Syracuse.

This tragedy comes on the heels of another deadly bus accident in Steuben County less than a week ago, which killed two and injured 35. That Steuben County accident appears to have been caused by a blown out tire. This most recent bus accident appears to have been caused by driver error.

Some folks might say that the Steuben County was no one's fault --- the tire just blew. Not so fast! From my experience as a New York bus accident lawyer, blown tires can be caused by, among other mistakes: (1) failure to inspect or change the tires on a regular basis; (2) placing improper tires on the bus; (3) a product defect for which the tire manufacturer can be held liable. Also, the driver may not have been trained to properly control the bus with a blown out tire, or may not have reacted properly.

As for this most recent Thruway truck-on-bus collision, it is almost inconceivable to a New York bus accident lawyer like me that no one was at fault. Except in the rarest of circumstances, when two vehicles collide, driver carelessness or error is the cause. It is not yet clear whether the tractor trailer or bus driver, or both, were at fault.

Our heart goes out to the victims and their families. If there is a silver lining, it is that, from my experience, both the bus and the tractor-trailer probably have $2 million or more in insurance coverage. And they'll need it, too, because the victims, whose lives will be forever changed, will need to be compensated. And insurance companies don't hand over money without a fight. The victims will need to hire an experienced New York bus accident lawyer to fight for their rights.

Mike Bersani

Email me at: bersani@michaels-smolak.com

Michael G. Bersani, Esq.
michaels-smolak.com
Central NY Personal Injury Lawyer
Michaels & Smolak, P.C.

1-315-253-3293 Toll Free 1-866-698-8169

Wednesday, on Route 5 in Elbridge, a tractor trailer rear-ended a stopped car so hard that the car, a Kia, burst into flames, killing its driver and passenger. The Onondaga County deputy sheriff's office says the tractor trailer left no skid marks at all, which means its driver did not apply the brakes. And what does that mean? That the driver did not even see the stopped car. And what does that mean? One of two things: Either he was sleeping, or he was distracted.

Most likely distracted. I have blogged about this before: distracted driving is become a HUGE problem on our roadways. More and more Central New York car accident lawsuits against distracted drivers are being filed. As a Syracuse car accident lawyer, the volume of car accidents cases I handle where the at-fault driver was distracted because he was using a cell phone, texting, and using some other electronic device has increased dramatically over the years.

Typically, distracted driving causes crossover accidents (the texting or dialing driver slowly drifts across the centerline without noticing) and rear-end collisions (the distracted driver does not notice that the vehicle in front of him has stopped). But distracted drivers also tend to run red lights, blow past stop signs, and run into utility poles or other roadside structures.

Combine distracted driving with tractor trailer driving and what do you get? A bad situation made worse. Tractor trailers are so heavy compared to cars that a collision between the two is no contest; the car's driver and passengers are more often than not killed (as they were in this accident) or seriously injured. That's why commercial trucks and drivers are subject to so many State and Federal safety regulations. By the way, these regulations come in handy in preparing a New York commercial truck accident lawsuit.

Don't get distracted while you drive. If you are the victim of New York disctracted driving accident, call or email me for free information on what to do about it.

O.K., the headline is funny, but the story is very sad. How sad? How about a one- and two- year old who are now motherless.

Today news sources report that the driver of a tractor trailer, who was streaming porn on his laptop while he drove his rig into the back of a disabled car on the New York State Thruway (near Pembroke, about 20 miles east of Buffalo), pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter. The disabled vehicle had run into a deer, and was waiting for a tow truck. Its driver, a mother of the one- and three- year olds, was killed by the impact from the tractor trailer.

Sure, watching porn while driving is what made the headlines. (Sex sells, even when it kills!). But this driver was guilty of other important violations as well. 395.3 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations mandates a driving/rest ratio for "commercial carriers" (essentially, tractor trailer drivers). The hours a commercial driver can drive within periods of time are strictly limited. Here, the driver didn't get the required rest. He had only 4 hours of sleep in a 27-hour period. Worse still, the driver had "cooked the books" (actually, his driver's "log") in an attempt to dupe the authorities into believing he had followed the required rest/drive ratios. The authorities unearthed his lies by looking beyond his self-recorded "log", and into his E-ZPass records and the GPS tracking for his 18-wheeler.

The commercial carrier driver's log I mentioned above is mandated by §395.8 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations. And it is often a treasure-trove of important information for people like me who sue commercial truck drivers and their commercial carrier employers for truck accidents causing personal injuries in New York State. In the log, the driver has to state whether he was "on" or "off" duty, whether he was driving, whether he was in the "sleeper booth", etc., as well as the name of the city, town or village, etc. where he started, stopped or rested. The total miles during each leg of the trip are also recorded. I personally have spent hours scouring these log entries - not exciting work, but very revealing --- in my New York tractor-trailer accident cases.

So far I have never found an entry that says, "driving while watching porn". No one's that honest, and let's hope none (except this one) is stupid enough to try that.

New York car accident lawyers like me are taking in more and more car crash cases where our clients were struck by a "texting" driver.

Why is texting while driving so dangerous? Research shows that texters take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds. At 55 miles per hour, that means a driver is traveling the length of a football field without looking at the road! Studies show that drivers who text while driving get into 20 times more accidents than non-distracted drivers.

Sure it's dangerous for a car driver to text while driving, but think how much more damage a distracted tractor trailer driver can do while texting from his big rig. And that's precisely why today U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a regulatory guidance that expressly outlaws "texting" by drivers of commercial vehicles such as tractor trailers and buses. The prohibition is effective immediately. Under the new rule, truck and bus drivers who text while driving commercial vehicles can get slammed for up to $2,750 in civil or criminal penalties.

This won't be the last measure the federal government takes to combat distracted driving. During a September 2009 "Distracted Driving Summit", Secretary LaHood announced his goal of reducing the risks posed by distracted driving. President Obama has also recently signed an Executive Order directing federal employees not to text while driving government-owned vehicles. More to come. You can follow the progress of the U.S. Department of Transportation in combating distracted driving www.distraction.gov.