Articles Posted in Truck Accidents

My family and I, traveling north on Highway 5, just minutes before you get to El Paso, Arkansas, passed by an accident involving a small passenger vehicle and what appeared to be an 18-wheeler gas truck. There were police and ambulance personnel on the scene when we reached the scene of the accident. The small gold colored passenger vehicle was badly damaged. It was stopped in its lane of travel, the airbags on the front and side had deployed, the windshield was shattered, and there was damage to the front driver’s side and down the whole driver’s side of the vehicle. The gas truck was a few hundred feet from the vehicle it had hit.

I do not know what happened in this accident, but the reality is that these unfortunate types of accidents occur on our Arkansas roads far too often. When you are behind the wheel of a vehicle, especially a large vehicle, you need to be alert at all times of what is happening around you. Drivers of 18-wheeler trucks are asked to drive long hours, causing them to be more of a hazard behind the wheel due to fatigue. Fracking trucks are large and can cause major injuries when involved in wrecks. I pray the people involved in this accident are okay and wish them a complete and speedy recovery.

If you witness a dangerous truck driver, please contact your local police department or Arkansas State Police to report it. Accidents involving big trucks often lead to serious injury or death. We must all be vigilant if we see a truck that is driving dangerously or recklessly.

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness month. A new federal law that prohibits commercial vehicle operators from using handheld cellphones while driving affects about 4 million truck and bus drivers.

Drivers who violate the new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration law could be fined $2,750 for each offense and loss of their commercial operator’s license for multiple violations. Further, companies that allow truck drivers to use handheld phones while driving face a penalty.

Drivers who cause a crash while violating either the new federal law or Arkansas state law involving cell phone can be found negligent and possibly reckless for violating the law. Further, as an Arkansas truck accident law firm, we review the companies policies regarding cell phone use to determine if the trucking company provides a policy and whether the policy and training were followed in each instance. Cell phone records and company policy and procedure manuals are reviewed and if the accident was caused by distracted driving involving cell phone use, the company and truck driver should be held fully responsible.

Big Rigs or 18-Wheelers are enormous, slow to stop and make very wide turns. A truck wreck with a car is usually severe. A new study shows tractor-trailers are more dangerous than previously thought.

In a study released by the Insurance Industry for Highway Safety (IIHS), the report states that “New crash tests and analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety demonstrate that underride guards on tractor-trailers can fail in relatively low-speed crashes – with deadly consequences. The Institute is petitioning the federal government to require stronger underride guards that will remain in place during a crash and to mandate guards for more large trucks and trailers,” IIHS writes in a press release.

Rear guards are important for reducing under-ride deaths and injuries when a car crashes into the back of a tractor-trailer in an accident. “Under-ride makes death or serious injury more likely since the upper part of the passenger vehicle’s occupant compartment typically crushes as the truck body intrudes into the vehicle safety cage,” explains the IIHS.

An Arkansas trucking company, J.P. Hunt Transport Services, joined other trucking companies in endorsing a proposal that is aimed at preventing tired truck drivers from causing serious and catastrophic highway accidents. It calls for in-cab recording devices to track the hours that the drivers are behind the wheel. Currently, truck drivers keep a paper log that tracks their hours. However, the paper log is often manipulated and fraudulently kept by drivers and trucking companies. The truck drivers are under enormous pressure by trucking companies to deliver as quickly as possible. This provides the incentive for drivers to manipulate the logs to keep their employers happy.

Unfortunately, driver fatigue is one of the major causes of catastrophic and serious highway accidents in Arkansas. Truck drivers driving 80,000 pound rigs down Arkansas highways need to be fully alert and awake while driving these massive vehicles. Unfortunately, when an accident occurs involving a large truck, it is often serious and leads to fatalities which could easily be avoided if the driver was not fatigued and tired. All too often, the drivers are told by the trucking companies to drive over the mandated time limits. I am hopeful that this new law will pass and will make it harder for drivers to manipulate log books and force them and the trucking companies to follow the rules. I am hopeful that the federal authorities and trucking companies will try to make the devices as foolproof as possible so that serious accidents involving driver fatigue can be avoided. If you or a family member is involved in a truck accident it is important to get in contact with an Arkansas attorney as soon as possible. An Arkansas truck accident injury lawyer can help those involved make sure their rights are fully protected.

Interstate 30 near Malvern, Arkansas is open after a deadly head on collision involving two semi-trucks Wednesday.

According to several news reports, motorists were stranded on the interstate for hours. Around 4:30 p.m. with many people heading home from work, fire and destroyed trucks stopped drivers along eastbound Interstate 30. Witnesses told authorities that a wrecker headed west blew a tire, lost control, and slammed head on into a tractor trailer. Both trucks burst into flames.

Investigations into serious crashes is very important to determine legal liability in accidents like this. It may be important to get the maintenance records, tire age, tire brand and model to fully understand and determine legal liability. To make sure all information is learned, it is important that legal counsel be involved as soon as possible after the truck accident. An Arkansas accident injury lawyer can help those involved make sure their rights are fully protected.

An 18- wheeler accident in Arkansas at the I-30 , I-440 interchange tied up westbound traffic for hours. Arkansas State Police say as the truck driver taking curve into I- 30 West, his load shifted and the 18-wheeler overturned.

This large truck accident shows how important loading trucks is for driver safety. Truck accidents caused by improper loading can lead to accidents that injure the truck driver and other drivers on Arkansas roads. Thankfully, this Arkansas truck accident did not cause a collision with a car or another truck. However, improper loading can lead to the truck losing control and causing a severe accident. After a truck accident, it is important that a truck accident lawyer be involved as soon as possible so that a proper investigation occurs.

If your loved one have been in a truck or car accident, please contact Paul Pfeifer, an Arkansas truck accident attorney, and make sure your rights are fully protected.

Large commercial trucks are more likely to be in fatal accidents on U.S. and Arkansas Highways. Big rigs represent about 3% of all motor vehicle registrations, but 8% percent of all motor vehicle accidents and 12% of all traffic fatalities nationwide each year. One potential cause of these accidents is distracted driving.

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently banned texting while driving commercial vehicles and vehicles that weigh more than 10,000 pounds. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are three types of distracted driving:

Visual (taking eyes off road)

Four people were killed and two people were injured November 10 when a tractor-trailer crashed into cars stopped in an Interstate 30 construction zone near Texarkana, Arkansas. The Arkansas truck accident caused a severe explosion. Interstate 30 was closed in both directions after the accident. According to published reports, the truck failed to stop and rammed into several stopped cars in the construction zone.

This truck accident has all the signs of being caused by truck driver fatigue. The Federal Government has established regulations that are designed to remedy driver fatigue. However, statistics show that between 20 – 40 percent of 18-wheeler truck accidents are caused by fatigue. A review of driving logs, cell records, fuel receipts, and other trucking documents will often show if truck driver fatigue was a cause of the Arkansas truck accident. A truck accident lawyer can help the accident victims and their families through difficult circumstances after an accident.

Little Rock, Arkansas has been ranked in the top ten most accident prone cities. According to an article in a popular health magazine, Little Rock ranked fifth in the number of accidents that occur each year. This finding appears to be based upon statistics from the Bureau of Labor, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association.

As someone who deals with Arkansas accident victims, this finding is quite troubling. Arkansas accident injuries include car accident injury, on the job injury, slip and fall injury, motorcycle accident injury, truck accident injury, dog bite injury, medical injury, and nursing home abuse injury. Arkansas personal injury victims have a right to have their medical bills paid, lost wages paid, pain and suffering fairly compensated and be fully compensated for their damages.

If you or a family member has suffered a personal injury in Arkansas, please contact an experienced Arkansas personal injury lawyer to make sure your injuries are fully and fairly compensated.

A recent article in the New York Times was disappointing. The story outlined problems with Courts getting enough people to show up for jury duty and the resistance to people wanting to serve on jury duty. This problem has a negative impact on people who suffer a personal injury or car accident in Arkansas. Jurors must be reminded that the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution states:

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

The article points out that angry jurors are a concern for plaintiffs in civil suits because the plaintiff brought the suit and is more likely to be blamed by the jurors for any inconvenience that jury duty caused them. I often remind jurors about their civic duty and thank them for their service. The right to a jury trial should always be cherished.

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