The 18-wheeler, marked with the company name Texas International Express LLC, was traveling north about 5 miles north of Pearl River when its front left tire blew out, said Trooper Nick Manale, spokesman for State Police Troop L. The driver, Juan Torres, 37, of Montgomery, Texas, lost control of the rig, and the tractor-trailer rumbled across the median and struck the southbound pickup nearly head-on, police said. After impact, the pickup and 18-wheeler slid off the highway, coming to a halt in the treeline on the west side of the interstate, Manale said.

Troopers specializing in vehicle inspection were brought in to determine whether the 18-wheeler had all of the required equipment and whether that equipment was properly installed, police said. Federal Motor Carrier SafetyRegulations require an 18-wheeler driver to perform a pre-trip inspection and a end of the day report. A driver cannot operate a commercial motor vehicle until he has inspected his equipment including the tires for good working order.

§392.7 Equipment, inspection and use.

No commercial motor vehicle shall be driven unless the driver is satisfied that the following parts and accessories are in good working order, nor shall any driver fail to use or make use of such parts and accessories when and as needed:

Service brakes, including trailer brake connections.
Parking (hand) brake.
Steering mechanism.
Lighting devices and reflectors.
Tires.
Horn.
Windshield wiper or wipers.
Rear-vision mirror or mirrors.
Coupling devices.

[33 FR 19732, Dec. 25, 1968, as amended at 60 FR 38746, July 28, 1995]

The bill that passed in the House amended the decades-old Death on the High Seas Act to allow families of the deceased oil workers to recover non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, loss of care, comfort and companionship. The bill, known as the Securing Protections for the Injured from Limitations on Liability (SPILL) Act, passed the House by a voice vote. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce oppose the change, arguing that it would expose maritime industries to new costs and legal burdens. The SPILL Act also updated another maritime liability law by repealing the Limitation of Liability Act, the 1851 law that allows Transocean to limit its liability to the worth of its now-destroyed rig. The bill now moves to the Senate.

• Amend the Death on the High Seas Act (dating from 1920) to permit recovery of non-pecuniary damages (e.g., pain and suffering and loss of care, comfort, and companionship) by the decedent’s family, as well as standardizing the geographic threshold for its application, and permitting surviving family members to bring suit directly rather than through a personal representative.
• Amend the Jones Act (dating from 1920) to permit recovery of non-pecuniary damages by the families of seamen who are killed.
• Repeal the outmoded Limitation on Liability Act (dating from 1851) which limits the liability of vessel owners to the value of the vessel and its cargo.
• Clarify the class action rules so that impacted States can seek effective legal remedies in their own courts.
• Render unenforceable restrictions on disclosing information about offshore spills of oil and other pollutants.
• Strengthen bankruptcy rules to prevent corporations responsible for widespread damages under the Oil Pollution Act from seeking to sever their assets from the legal liabilities they owe to innocent victims.
• Apply these changes to pending and future legal claims.

This legislation allows a spouse, child and/or parent to potentially recover “non-pecuniary” damages in maritime death cases. Currently, the law only permits pecuniary damages and pre-death pain and suffering, if any, as legal elements of recovery. This change is necessary to bring these types of claims in line with modern day recognition of injuries associated with the loss of a close family member.

Since then, the Interior Department has stopped approving any new drilling permits and suspended drilling at 33 wells already exploring for oil in the gulf. The government has said it needs time to do a thorough safety evaluation to ensure that disasters like BP’s blast don’t happen again. But Hornbeck Offshore Services, an oil services company based in Louisiana, filed a lawsuit challenging the moratorium. It argues that there’s no evidence that continued drilling poses any threat of future oil spills, and that halting such operations could cost Louisiana thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost wages. The lawsuit is backed by oil companies, Louisiana’s governor and other state officials.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman heard testimony from both sides in a two-hour hearing on Monday. He ruled that the Interior Department failed to give adequate reasoning for the moratorium, according to the AP, saying the department assumes that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deep-water drilling are an imminent danger.

“The safeguards and regulations in place on April 20 did not create a sufficient margin of safety,” Justice Department stated at the hearing Monday.

Asked by Feldman why the U.S. government didn’t implement a similar moratorium after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, the Government called the Deepwater Horizon blowout a “game changer.”

Feldman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, has called the case by Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC and other marine service and shipyard companies against the Interior Department a matter “of national significance” and that the case will proceed on a “highly expedited basis.” A federal judge from Houston with a similar case brought June 17 by rig operator Diamond Offshore Co. listened by telephone.

Government lawyers said the Interior Department has demonstrated industry regulators need more time to study the risks of deepwater drilling and identify ways to make it safer. “The safeguards and regulations in place on April 20 did not create a sufficient margin of safety,” argued the Justice Department.

During Monday’s hearing, Feldman asked a government lawyer why the Interior Department decided to suspend deepwater drilling after the rig explosion when it didn’t bar oil tankers from Alaskan waters after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 or take similar actions in the wake of other industrial accidents. “The Deepwater Horizon blowout was a game-changer,” said the Government. “It really illustrates the risks that are inherent in deepwater drilling.”

The U.K.-based oil company said it is able to generate $30 billion in cash flow from its global operations above and beyond the Gulf oil spill costs. BP said it will create the $20 billion claims fund over the next three and a half years. BP will pay $3 billion into the fund in the third quarter of this year, and another $2 billion in the fourth quarter. These will be followed by payments of $1.25 billion per quarter until the $20 billion has been paid in, BP said. The fund will be available to satisfy legitimate claims including natural resource damages and state and local response costs. Fines and penalties will be excluded from the fund and paid separately, BP said.

BP agreed to set aside an additional $100 million for workers who lost their jobs as a result of a deep-water drilling moratorium imposed by the President. The size of the spill was again revised upward, as the latest government figures released estimate 35,000 to 60,000 barrels is gushing from the mile-deep well in the Gulf daily. The rate of oil spewing out daily was originally estimated in April at 1,000 barrels and has been updated several times.

These will be followed by payments of $1.25 billion per quarter until the $20 billion has been paid in, BP said. The fund will be available to satisfy legitimate claims including natural resource damages and state and local response costs. Fines and penalties will be excluded from the fund and paid separately, BP said. BP agreed to set aside an additional $100 million for workers who lost their jobs as a result of a deep-water drilling moratorium imposed by The President. The size of the spill was again revised upward, as the latest government figures released estimate 35,000 to 60,000 barrels is gushing from the mile-deep well in the Gulf daily. The rate of oil spewing out daily was originally estimated in April at 1,000 barrels and has been updated several times.

The semi was driven by Joe Anderson, 26, of Ennis, Texas. Anderson was charged with careless operation of a vehicle. The semi was hauling 42,000 pounds of adhesive. The flipping of an 18 wheeler is usually the result of the negligence in the handling of the truck and the trailer by the driver, operating at an excessive, dangerous, and unreasonable speed under the circumstances and in failing to reduce his speed in obedience to the warning signs posted. Also fatigue of the truck driver from exceeding legal hours of service can result in this type of collision.

Congressional investigators have found that the BOP suffered from leaking hydraulic fluid, a dead battery and an inadequate design. “The answer is no,” Salazar said in response to a pointed question from about the government standards on the device. “I think there is additional work that should have been done on blowout preventers.”

Blowout preventers are massive devices that sit at the top of a well and are designed to slam pipes shut in the event of an emergency. However, they cannot shear thick sections of pipe.

A House investigation found last week that the device on the Deepwater Horizon suffered from multiple problems that may have prevented it from working correctly a mile beneath the Gulf. The U.S. Government is now a defendant in the oil spill litigation. The National Law Journal reports, “As lawsuits over the BP oil spill mount, a group of conservationists and fishermen have a new target: the US Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service. A lawsuit has been filed in federal court against the federal agency.

The suit — Gulf Restoration Network and Sierra Club v. Salazar — charges that the agency violated federal law by exempting oil companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico from disclosing blowout and worst-case spill scenarios as well as plans for dealing with them before approving the companies’ offshore drilling plans.

Preliminary investigation suggest that an 18-wheeler with a flat bed trailer was pulled over onto the shoulder of the road out of the lanes of traffic when an SUV that was proceeding east bound on the outside lane drifted off onto the shoulder and rear ended the 18-wheeler. The two occupants inside the SUV sustained life threatening injuries. The female passenger was airlifted to LSUMC where she was later pronounced dead. Her name has not yet been released pending notification of her family. The driver of the 18-wheeler was not injured.

The investigation should include why the 18 wheeler was on the shoulder of the interstate. Was it creating a danger for motorist? Did the 18 wheeler driver properly display warning devices for a his tractor/trailer on the shoulder? The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation Part 392.22: “Emergency signals; stopped commercial motor vehicles”  require the 18-wheeler driver to take immediate steps to protect the motoring public. .

An explosion and fire on an oil drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, 2010 and the subsequent sinking of that rig have resulted in a major oil spill, known as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, in the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting oil slick has damaged or is threatening the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Emergency measures are underway to respond to the oil spill and slick.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said that a 2001 report by Transocean, which made the device, indicated there can be as many as 260 failure possibilities in the equipment. “How can a device that has 260 failure modes be considered fail-safe?” asked Stupak. Stupak said BP confirmed in documents that a leak had been found in the hydraulic system that provides emergency power to a part of the blowout preventer. When a remote underwater vehicle tried to activate the safety device a loss of hydraulic pressure was detected, said Stupak. When dye was injected “it showed a large leak coming from a loose fitting,” said Stupak, citing BP documents. Also reported, BP confirmed that the blowout preventer had been modified so that one of its ram drivers could be used for routine testing and was no longer designed to activate in an emergency. He said after the spill BP “spent a day trying to use this … useless test ram.

Rep. Waxman said in a hearing that the investigation also discovered that the well had failed a negative pressure test just hours before the April 20 explosion. He cited BP documents received by the Energy and Commerce Committee that showed there was a breach in the well integrity that allowed methane gas and possibly other hydrocarbons to enter the well.

DPS reports that the driver of an 18-wheeler approached the construction zone and failed to slow down and ended up barreling through six vehicles before running off the road. Was the 18-Wheeler exceeding hours of service? Fatigued? Texting or email?

A total of 10 people were reportedly involved in the accident and 3 of the 10 were taken to an area hospital with what’s being described as serious injuries. Texas DPS reports that the three transported were in the first vehicle hit by the 18-wheeler.

Reasons for Louisiana’s increase may include the brief absence of a motorcycle safety program offered by the state. An estimated 2000 people took the course when offered by the Department of Education. Other reasons include a longer riding season than states with harsher seasonal weather and a higher number of alcohol-related motorcycle deaths.

Motorist also have to keep a vigilant outlook for the much smaller motorcycle. Increased awareness of approaching motorcycles and the elimination of distractions such as text messaging and cell phone will help the driver of a car visualize the motorcycle before it is too late to avoid a crash.

News reports say the oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn’t have a remote-control shut-off switch, which is required in other major oil-producing nations as a last-resort protection against underwater spills. U.S. regulators don’t mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs, and Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig didn’t have one. With the remote control, a crew can attempt to trigger an underwater valve that shuts down the well even if the oil rig itself is damaged or evacuated. Nevertheless, regulators in two major oil-producing countries, Norway and Brazil, in effect require them.

On all offshore oil rigs, there is one main switch for cutting off the flow of oil by closing a valve located on the ocean floor. Many rigs also have automatic systems, such as a “dead man” switch as a backup that is supposed to close the valve if it senses a catastrophic failure aboard the rig. As a third line of defense, some rigs have the “acoustic trigger.” It’s a football-sized remote control that uses sound waves to communicate with the valve on the seabed floor and close it.

If we have learned anything from this disaster, it is that Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida must pass laws along with Federal legislation to provide a true fail safe backup mechanism to shut oil wells to prevent the uncontrolled gushing of crude in our Gulf of Mexico water.