Kansas Trucking Accident Lawyers

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Shipping & Trucking

Freight Trucking - Loads, Equipment & Long-Haul Trucking Regulations

While we cannot present every rule governing the legal standards of the shipping and trucking industry, there are some very important truck regulations that truck drivers and trucking companies must strictly follow.

Hours of Operation

Because truck driver fatigue is a leading cause of truck accidents, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Commission revised the trucking Hours of Service rules in 2005 in hopes of promoting safer roads and highways for all drivers. Some rules that remained the same after the revisions were implemented include:

Truck drivers may only drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty.
Truck drivers may not drive beyond the 14th hour after coming on duty, following 10 consecutive hours off duty.
Truck drivers may not drive after 60 out of 70 hours on duty in 7 out of 8 consecutive days. A driver may restart a 7 out of 8 consecutive day period after taking 34 or more consecutive hours off duty.

Believe it or not, despite the fact that common sense would suggest that driving a big rig for hours on end is dangerous, the laws continue to change on this issue. For example, prior to 2005, the hours of operation clause read:

Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers using a sleeper berth must take 10 hours off duty, but may split sleeper-berth time into two periods provided neither is less than 2 hours.

As this was hopelessly vague and lent itself to gross misinterpretation and non-compliance, the FMCSA attempted to clarify their intentions in 2005. The new regulation now reads:

CMV drivers using the sleeper berth provision must take at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth, plus 2 consecutive hours either in the sleeper berth, off duty, or any combination of the two.

Truck Bumper Requirements

Accidents in which vehicles run under the back or front bumper of a tractor trailer are called underride accidents. These accidents occur because the bumper height in semi trucks and 18 wheelers are sometimes too high to prevent smaller cars from sliding under. Regrettably, these types of accidents have a high fatality rate because they often result in serious injury to the head, neck and chest.

Even more regrettable is that some of these accidents could be prevented if truck bumper height standards were uncompromisingly enforced.

For the aforementioned reasons, underride accidents are a major concern for the commercial trucking industry, costing them millions of dollars each year in lawsuits. Although the trucking industry has made strides in curtailing this problem, in our opinion, they haven't done enough.
Current truck bumper regulations simply fail to protect many types of compact passenger vehicles.

Why? Because most underride guards are either too stiff for small vehicles, too weak for large vehicles or aren't present at all. While legal groups such as ours and organizations like the UnderrideNetwork work to improve underride accident regulations, this remains a serious danger in trucking accidents.

Transportation of Hazardous Materials

Commercial trucking companies are required to adhere to strict guidelines when transporting hazardous materials. Failure to follow these guidelines can result in serious injury in the event of a truck accident. A light or moderate accident can easily turn severe when hazardous materials are involved. Many of these materials are explosive, can easily cause a fire, or can cause severe burns or other physical damage.

Other safety regulations specified by transportation law include:

Safety Permits: A motor carrier may not transport certain quantities of hazardous materials, such as radioactive material, explosive material, and poisonous material, without a safety permit. To meet the safety fitness standard, the motor carrier must demonstrate it has adequate safety management controls in place, which function effectively to ensure acceptable compliance with applicable safety requirements.
Operational Requirements: During the transportation of certain hazardous material, the commercial motor vehicle must maintain a copy of the safety permit or another document showing the permit number; a written route plan; the telephone number, including area code or country code, of an employee of the motor carrier or representative of the motor carrier who is familiar with the routing of the permitted material.
Smoking: No person may smoke or carry a lighted cigarette, cigar, or pipe on or within 25 feet of a motor vehicle which contains certain materials or certain flammable materials. Additionally, no person may smoke or carry a lighted cigarette, cigar, or pipe on or within 25 feet of an empty tank motor vehicle which has been used to transport certain flammable materials or certain flammable gases.

There are many classes of hazardous materials. Following the UN Model, the Department of Transportation's Office of Hazardous Materials Safety Administration outlines the policies and procedures for first responders in handling accidents involving hazardous materials.

Who Should You Contact If You Think You Have A Trucking Accident Claim?

If you believe you have sustained injuries as a result of a truck driver or trucking company's failure to comply with any of these regulations, contact the Kansas trucking accident lawyers of Knox, Johnson, Rockwell & Babbit, Chartered to discuss your case.