Public officials told NBC News that the 18-wheeler sideswiped one school bus and hit another head-on, though an official report has not been released.

The buses were transporting high school seniors from Choctaw County, Mississippi on a class trip to Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi.  Two teachers and the driver of the 18 wheeler are believed to have been killed in the wreck.

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]

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.

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.

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.

“Motor carriers and drivers transporting (i) specialized equipment to seal the ruptured well head and to effect other immediate and necessary repairs of the oil well and/or adjacent pipelines, (ii) booms, skimmers, chemical dispersants, flammable liquids and other oil containment equipment, or (iii) other equipment, supplies and materials used to provide direct assistance for emergency relief efforts related to the above oil spill are exempt from 49 CFR Parts 390-399 from 2:00 p.m. EDT, April 30, 2010, until 11:59 p.m. EDT, May 14, 2010,” the declaration said.

Emergency rescuers could not get close because the flames were too hot. The police officer and his cousin who was also killed were in the SUV. Investigators also mistook the SUV for a small car. Also killed were the drivers of the 18-wheelers. The driver of the broken down 18-wheeler on the shoulder was asleep in the cab and not injured. He was cited for failure to properly display warning devices for a disabled vehicle on the shoulder. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations require the 18-wheeler driver to take immediate steps to protect the motoring public. Part 392.22: Emergency signals; stopped commercial motor vehicles.

To understand what an injured victim may have to undergo, it may be easier to first understand the simple basics of the spinal cord and nerve roots. Envision the spinal cord as a highway that runs its entire course within a tunnel. The tunnel is the spinal canal formed by the rings within the bones of the spine or vertebrae that are stacked one on top of the other from the skull all the way down to the pelvis. The nerve roots are the exits from the spinal cord highway that need to be able to emerge from the tunnel of the spinal canal. These nerve roots exit through foramen, or channels, on both right and left sides of where every two vertebrae come together. A surgeon’s primary goal is to maintain the flow of traffic through this highway and exits to make sure that the spinal cord and nerve roots are not pinched or compressed.

The four most common types of spinal surgery are:

• Laminectomy – Laminae are the flat bone shields that form the back of the spinal canal. Their normal purpose is to protect the spinal cord from being damaged from direct impact from behind. If the disc protrudes beyond its normal location back into the spinal canal, the spinal cord can become compressed between the protruding disc material and the laminae. Removal of the laminae, or laminectomy, can be performed to decompress the spinal canal and give the spinal cord more room to move.

• Discectomy – This is the removal of all or part of the damaged intervertebral disc which is bulging or herniated into the spinal canal. This can be done from the front or from behind.

• Foraminotomy – This procedure is an enlargement of the neural foramen, the channel through which the nerve roots exit the spinal canal. This passageway may be narrowed due to herniated disc material or by degenerative arthritis that results in overgrowth of bone. If the foramen becomes narrowed it can put pressure on the exiting nerve root causing severe pain and neurological problems. To relieve this condition, the surgeon must scrape the foramen out to remove the offending disc or bone material.

• Fusion – The goal of a fusion procedure is to use the power of the body’s healing ability to actually get bone of two fused vertebrae to grow together over time to create a strong connection. If the damage to a disc requires removal or if the interspace between two or more vertebrae is unstable, a fusion can be performed to make a permanent connection between two or more vertebrae. A variety of metal plates, screws and rods can be used to temporarily stabilize the fusion site while the bone growth takes place.

Several other less common surgical procedures include Intradiscal electrothermal (IDET) therapy which is the insertion of a wire into a damaged disc that is then heated to cause the disc material to contract and relieve nerve compression. Somewhat rarer is total disc replacement which placing a mechanical device into the disc space to restore stability without the loss of flexibility caused by traditional fusion. Recovery times vary for all of these procedures. Which procedure is best for each patient depends on his or her particular spinal injury and should only be determined by a qualified orthopedic or neurosurgeon after a complete examination and appropriate diagnostic testing.

Stewart, who reportedly worked at Stewart Auto Sales & Salvage in Zwolle, a business authorized by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety to perform CDL skills testing of CDL driver candidates, faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The case was investigated by the Office of Inspector General, FMCSA, the Southern Service Center, FMCSA’s Louisiana Divisional Office, and the Louisiana Department of Public Safety.

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.

The safety groups have suspended their legal challenge of the hours of service rules which include the number of driving hours and on duty time of a truck driver. The groups, including Public Citizen, Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety and the Teamsters Union, were challenging the rules on several grounds, asserting for example that they permit too much driving time resulting in sleepy and fatigued commercial motor vehicle drivers at risk for wrecks.  Under the agreement, DOT has until next summer to draft a new proposed rule, and until the following summer to publish a final rule.

Tired, fatigued and sleepy 18-wheeler drivers are being looked at by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on behalf of the Department of Transportation. Current rules allow a truck driver to work 14 hours a day. Federal regulators have started hearings on potential plans to reduce the on-duty and drive time of a truck driver. Safety advocates hope that these hearings result in a reduction of the hours-of-service a truck driver can work so he can receive adequate rest and not endanger the motoring public i.e. your family, by not driving tired and fatigued. Proper and adequate rest for a commercial motor vehicle driver is essential considering the 80,000 pound big rigs they operate. This tragic collision can be prevented with adequate rest.

Walker, an attorney and partner with Neblett, Beard & Arsenault, will be one of the featured presenters in the upcoming seminar. The Interstate Trucking Litigation Group consists of talented attorneys who focus their practice on commercial vehicle litigation throughout the country. Walker’s practice focuses on 18-wheeler, commercial bus, heavy equipment and large truck collisions representing victims injured by the negligence of commercial motor vehicles.