The crash left one 18-wheeler demolished, the second 18-wheeler was pushed into four-wheel vehicles and the third 18-wheeler exited the highway and ended up in the woods. One 18-wheeler driver had to be cut from the cab of the wrecked big rig.

Eastbound lanes of I-20 were closed while crews cleaned up the debris and leaked diesel fuel. The wreck caused a huge traffic back-up on both the eastbound and westbound lanes of I-20 near Shreveport.

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]

Reid’s wife was a passenger in her daughter’s van and suffered a broken neck, back and nose requiring surgical intervention. The crash occurred on a heavily traveled section of Interstate 95 in Fairfax County, VA, just South of Washington, D.C. According to a statement by the Virginia State Police, as Sen. Reid’s daughter was driving a 2005 Honda Odyssey, she began breaking for traffic, and the 18-wheeler struck the rear of her van and forced her into the rear of the car in front pushing the vehicle into the next lane, where it struck another vehicle.

P.A.M. is short for the company founder’s initials, but has also been reported to stand for “Pretty Awesome Mileage.” It has a fleet of about 1769 tractors and 4,500 trailers.

The FMCSA is currently holding public sessions regarding the hours of duty and drive time of an 18-wheeler driver on our highways. The result of these 80,000 pound big rig collisions, in the greater percentage of time, the people in the car are going to be seriously injured or killed.

Here the 18-wheeler took out 3 vehicles. The number of 18-wheelers on our highways seems to be increasing. Every time you are on the highway you find yourself next to an 18-wheeler. Safety of the motoring public require limitations on the duty and drive time hours of these big rig drivers to prevent fatigue, falling asleep at the wheel, and traveling to close between the car in front to stop and prevent a rear-end catastrophe.

We wish the Senator’s wife a speedy recovery.

Their minivan was rear-ended by an 18-wheeler, which according to an eyewitness, was speeding at the time. The minivan was pushed off the highway. The two vehicles got entangled and plowed through trees and ended up in a swamp.

When an 80,000 pound speeding 18-wheeler crushes a passenger vehicle, the truck just has too much size and weight. The Motoring public beware, the trucking transport industry wants to increase 18-wheeler’s size and weight to 97,000 pounds across the country.

The defendant driver had admitted his liability for colliding with the plaintiff which resulted in multiple injuries including a shattered pelvis, fractured forearms, broken leg and vision loss.

Jury verdicts such as these send a clear message to bar owners they will be held responsible for injuries to innocent victims of drunk drivers who drink to excess and are allowed to leave the bar and drive. Bar and tavern owners can no longer turn a blind eye to the obviously intoxicated patron who continues to want to buy drinks. The number of drunk driving accidents resulting in serious injuries and death are rising. We must all do our part in stopping this activity. Patrons must know the amount of alcohol they can consume and legally drive or designate a non-drinking driver. Bars must be vigilant about their intoxicated patrons and refuse to serve them and make sure they are not driving.

The good news is that older drivers tend to wear seat belts more often than younger drivers and are involved in less drunk driving situations. They also are less aggressive, obey speed limits and are generally more courteous than younger drivers. However, as people age their reflexes, vision and hand-to-eye coordination lessens. To keep on top of their driving game elderly drivers should be encouraged to keep up their driving skills through these type of programs and of course, to have regular physical and vision checkups.

The plaintiff was a newlywed with a 25-year old wife who was 3-months pregnant. A witness, who happened to be another 18-wheeler driver behind the defendant, testified that the defendant driver never slowed or swerved before crushing the Tollway truck. He also told the jury that the left lanes were free and clear, so the accident was entirely avoidable.

The defendant admitted negligence, but contended that Illinois Tollway was also negligent in the accident for not protecting the plaintiff’s decedent. Illinois Tollway denied any negligence in this case. After a trial that lasted 6 days, the jury found the defendant and their semi-truck driver at fault. The jury found Illinois Tollway not guilty.

As a result, multi-task driving has become commonplace and hundreds of lives were unnecessarily lost. Several efforts were made during the time of the study to limit cell phone use while driving. Had the research been made public, the legislation which was killed by opposition from the cell phone industry might have passed.

Public safety is supposed to be the paramount concern of the NHTSA but during the Bush administration, political considerations held sway. Cellphone use, and especially text messaging has exponentially increased since the 2003 study so it is even more important that restrictions be passed and enforced to keep drivers from distractions and on the road ahead.

Now the National Highway Safety Administration is slamming Toyota for its “inaccurate and misleading” statements asserting that no defect exists in the recalled cars. The NHTSA issued a statement that the recalled vehicles do have an underlying defect I the design of the accelerator pedal and the driver’s foot well. It is believed the accelerator becomes stuck after the gas pedal becomes entrapped in improperly installed floor mats.

Toyota’s formal recall notice asks customers only to remove the driver’s-side mats but Toyota said that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured. NHTSA immediately issued a clarification emphasizing that safety is the No.1 goal and until the defect is effectively addressed by Toyota by providing a suitable vehicle-based solution, the matter would not be closed. This public lamblasting of the automaker by the regulatory agency is unusual and may affect Toyota’s credibility about the safety of their vehicle. Kudos to the NHTSA, it is high time the federal regulators stop cozying up to those they regulate and keep consumer safety as its No. 1 priority.

The recall affects the 2006-2010 model year Lexus IS 250 and IS 350, the 2007-2010 Lexus ES 350, Toyota Camry, Toyota Tundra, the 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, and the 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon and Tacoma.

The current rule allows 18-wheeler drivers to drive 11 hours within a 14-hour work day, coupled with a 60-hour driving limit in 7 days or a 70-hour limit in 8 days. The driver can restart the 60 or 70 hour clock after having 34 consecutive hours off duty. The previous rule had allowed for 10 hours of driving in a 15-hour period, but allowed drivers to log on and off duty whenever they wanted.

According to the FMCSA statement, the terms of the settlement require the FMCSA to begin a new rulemaking process and submit within nine months, with the current rule to remain in effect during the rulemaking proceedings.

For 60 years, truckers were allowed to drive a maximum of 10 hours at a time. The Bush administration and the trucking industry wanted to let truckers have an extra hour of driving time. The rule also cut rest and recovery time at the end of a work week from 50 or more hours off duty to as little as 34 hours off-duty. A federal appeals court struck the rule down twice, saying the government did not adequately explain its reasoning for adding the extra hour. But the Bush administration reinstated the rule each time. Public Citizen, Parents Against Tired Truckers, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sued to get the rule thrown out.

FMCSA officials said that this settlement “resolves potentially lengthy and contentious litigation and gives the FMCSA the opportunity to reconsider its current rule with an eye towards developing a new rule.” Safe driving, driving while not fatigued can save lives. It protects the 18-wheeler driver and the motoring public in the passenger vehicle from unsafe and unhealthy driver conditions.

2) Alter our drive times to avoid the worst traffic congestion and areas of slowdown.

3) If you are a frequent passenger with a particular driver, make sure they are not tired and preferably not listening to antagonistic talk radio.

4) Report incidents of road rage you witness. It is likely that driver has done this before and will continue to do so until stopped.

5) When driving be courteous and obey the rules of the road.

6) Slow down! Everyone seems to be in too much of a hurry. You’ll get there and get there safely.

The irony is that Louisiana just enacted tougher seat belt laws which require all passengers, both front and back, as well as the driver to be belted. Time after time, sad story after sad story, the importance of learning the value of wearing a seat belt has come too late for too many.

While we all get distracted by many things that cross our line of vision while driving, there are some things people intentionally do that cause major distractions. Texting while driving is one such distraction. Texting has grown from nearly 10 billion messages a month in 2005 to more than 110 billion in 2008 according to CTAIA-The Wirelesss association, the cellular phone industry’s trade group.

Unfortunately, as texting increases, so do texting related vehicle accidents. We are reading about more and more cases where people are seriously injured or killed as a result of a driver texting while operating a vehicle. These accidents include everything from passenger cars to trains to air disasters caused by texting air traffic controllers.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater. A separate report by Car and Driver magazine found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there are currently 18 states and the District of Columbia that have passed laws making texting while driving illegal. I am proud to say that Louisiana is one of the 18 states that have passed laws making it illegal to text while driving. If we used common sense, we would not have to rely upon our legislatures to make it illegal to text while driving. However, when we look at the statistics, we know that the bottom line is that all states should get on board and make texting while driving illegal.

When commercial vehicles, such as 18-wheeler and tour buses, collide with passenger vehicles the result is a deadly and costly mix of injuries, property damage and death. In an effort to reduce crashes involving trucks, buses, and passenger vehicles, the CVSA in partnership with the FMCSA are sending out the message: “Cutting it close can cut your life short.” This year’s campaign kick off event is at a High School to educate teens about safe driving practices of drivers who share the road with larger commercial vehicles to improve road safety and save lives.

Motor vehicle crashes kill more children ages 14 and under than any other cause. 1,800 deaths and over 274,000 injuries involving children occur each year. The majority of those crashes occur within 25 miles from the victim’s home and on roads with posted speed limits of 40 mph or less. That means that children are either not sitting in a properly belted safety seat or not in one at all.

This LHSC/HCS program is much needed and hopefully will provide crucial education to reduce these appalling death and injury statistics involving the Hispanic community.