At Cogan & Power, P.C., we are dedicated to protecting the rights of trucking accident victims and putting unsafe and illegally operating trucking companies out of business so that they can’t hurt more people. As we recently reported, there has been a surge in trucking accidents and we believe that there are a number of ways to improve trucking safety, including the following:
- Impose heftier fines for certain violations. Studies show that certain safety violations – such as hours-of-service violations – are more likely to increase the risk of severe accidents. By increasing fines for the most dangerous violations, trucking companies and truckers would be further deterred from violating safety regulations. Moreover, the additional funds from the fines could be used to allow the Department of Transportation hire additional personnel to enforce trucking regulations.
- Incorporate electronic logs in commercial trucks and tractor-trailers in order to minimize hours-of-service violations. Currently, truckers who keep manual hours-of-service logs have a greater incentive to falsify the records.
- Make Vorad – a collision warning system – mandatory on all commercial trucks or provide a tax credit for those trucking companies that install it. Not only would this technology provide societal benefits by improving highway safety, but it could also reduce insurance costs for trucking companies.
- Increase background checks, particularly on foreign drivers working in United States in order to minimize the risk of unsafe drivers coming to the country to evade previous safety violations.
- Impose mandatory training standards for tractor trailer drivers before they can obtain a commercial driver’s license.
- Increase continuing education requirements to 35 hours of training over 5 years for truckers.
- Provide commercial motor vehicle training to all branches of law enforcement, rather than just special divisions of highway patrol, so that all law enforcement officers can be on the look-out for safety violations.
- Increase the geographical area of roadside inspections. Unfortunately, a large percentage of trucks are never inspected because they never cross weigh stations.
- Criminalize specific behaviors, such as forced dispatch of truckers who have exceeded hours-of-service limitations, and extend the statutes of limitation for bringing civil and criminal charges against violators.
- Increase mandatory insurance limits. Since there has been no increase in mandatory insurance limits since 1985, the taxpayers are picking up the tab for the injuries, damages, and losses caused by trucking accidents.
Contact a Trucking Accident Lawyer
At Cogan & Power, P.C., our Chicago trucking accident lawyers are dedicated to helping the victims of trucking accidents obtain maximum compensation.
Our unique legal team includes a nationally recognized member of the prestigious Association of Plaintiff Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, whose past trucking successes include a $13,000.000 settlement and other trucking verdicts. Our commercial trucking team is heavily skilled in trucking fundamentals and teaches advanced courses nationwide in trucking litigation, including corporate structures, alter ego liability, piercing the corporate veil, broker shipper liability, chameleon carriers, finding the hidden insurance, and punitive damages. These cutting edge skills separate us from most other law firms and have worked to benefit our clients.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a trucking accident, contact the Chicago trucking accident attorneys at Cogan & Power for a free consultation to discuss your legal rights following a truck accident. If you cannot come to our offices in downtown Chicago, we will come to you. And because we take cases on a contingency basis, you will not pay any fee unless we get you compensation.