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#TRUCKING DANGER: SAY NO TO HB19 & SB17!

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Republished from Texas Watch www.texaswatch.org

Large truck danger

Year after year, Texas has the highest number of large truck wrecks in the nation. From 2016 to 2019, the number of truck crashes in our state increased by almost 30%. To protect the lives of Texas families, we need more safety measures, not less. Legislation pushed by trucking lobbyists will endanger all of us on the roads.

HB19 and SB17 will harm families devastated by 18-wheeler wrecks. These bills give trucking corporations less incentive to follow safety measures, which means you and your family will be at greater risk on the roads. The bills will make it harder to punish trucking companies through our courts when they violate safety standards. When bad actors do not follow the rules, they need to be held fully accountable by a jury of our peers in order to help protect us all. And when recklessness causes death, serious injuries, or the inability to work, trucking companies must take responsibility.

Please contact your Texas state legislators and let them know you oppose HB19 and SB17!

Could Trucking Companies Be Liable for Accidents Caused by Snow and Ice in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex?

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The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has seen its share of trucking accidents. And recently, a historic 100+ vehicle collision occurred amid icy road conditions on I-35 in Fort Worth tragically caused large scale personal injury and a number of deaths.  This incident raised questions for many regarding the liability of commercial trucking companies when weather conditions deteriorate.

If a trucking accident occurs, it becomes important to determine who may have been responsible for causing the collision. If a truck driver’s actions or inactions caused the accident to happen, the driver could be held liable for losses. And because drivers act on behalf of their employers, a driver’s trucking company could also be held responsible for compensating crash victims. 

The Role of Weather

One common question victims have is: what happens if a truck accident is caused by bad weather? Snow and ice happen in Texas, and bad weather is certainly not anyone’s fault. So if the truck crash occurs due to a storm or poor road conditions, could the trucking company be held responsible?

In many cases, the answer to this question is yes. If a truck driver causes an accident during bad weather, the trucker and trucking company could still be made to pay victims damages, as long as the victims can prove the truck driver was negligent. An attorney can provide assistance in demonstrating negligence.

Although snow and ice can make roads more dangerous, these bad weather conditions are not always the ultimate cause of truck crashes that happen during the winter. Instead, it is sometimes the truck driver’s actions within the snow and ice that may cause the truck collision to occur.

State and Federal Regulations

The State of Texas and Federal Departments of Transportation have specific safety rules and regulations that govern the operation of commercial motor vehicles when hazardous conditions exist.  These rules mandate that “Extreme caution in the operation of a commercial motor vehicle shall be exercised when hazardous conditions, such as those caused by snow, ice, sleet… adversely affect visibility or traction.  Speed shall be reduced when such conditions exist. If conditions become sufficiently dangerous, the operation of the commercial motor vehicle shall be discontinued and shall not be resumed until the commercial motor vehicle can be safely operated.” Under the federal safety regulations, commercial vehicles traveling in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex might should have been aware of the hazardous conditions, which would have required truck drivers to reduce their speed or pull over and stop until the road conditions were safe.

In other words, a professional truck driver has a legal duty to adjust his or her driving skills to account for snowy and icy conditions. If a truck driver does not change the way he or she drives to ensure safety, he or she can be held liable for any crash that happens as a result. And if a commercial truck driver does not drive with a reasonable level of confidence and make safe choices when it comes to driving in a snow storm, he or she could be held responsible.

Reasonable Precautions

If a commercial truck driver continues driving when conditions are unsafe and fails to take reasonable precautions like slowing down on icy roads, a crash victim might be able to prove the trucker failed to live up to his or her duty to drive in a safe manner. An attorney may be able to provide assistance to victims of winter truck accidents by demonstrating how the crashes occurred determining whether the truck drivers took unsafe risks given the weather conditions during a given timeframe. If a victim can successfully prove a trucking company failed to meet its obligations under the law, the victim may be compensated for both economic and non-financial damages occurring as a direct result of the bad-weather trucking accident.

Less Traffic, More Fatalities

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When the Covid-19 pandemic lock down began in earnest March of 2020, streets took on an eerie emptiness rarely seen in the Dallas area. It would seem to be good thing; in fact, there were fewer accidents and you would expect fewer serious personal injuries. However, an interesting statistic emerged that with less traffic, more fatalities happened.

In the four counties of Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton, there were 72 more fatalities than during the same period in 2019. These totaled 480 deaths from vehicle accidents. Robert Wunderlich with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute said, “It’s a very interesting phenomenon. We were surprised to see that. What you would like to see is a proportional decrease in serious crashes in conjunctions with the decrease in total crashes.”

Less traffic, more fatalities: Why?

A couple of reasons came to the forefront. Speed was number one. With fewer cars on the road, people felt they could exceed the speed limit. Engineers are now studying ways to reduce risks on less congested highways.

Another behavior adding to the deaths is an increased use of alcohol and drugs. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “drug prevalence was high among seriously and fatally injured roadway users before the public health emergency began and was even higher during, especially for alcohol, cannabinoids (active THC), and opioids.” Before the pandemic, 50% of serious or fatal accidents involved these thought-altering substances. Now these account for 65% of serious or fatal accidents.

Are there other factors?

Perhaps not as directly involved with the problem of less traffic, more fatalities, but definitely a contributor, is the condition of streets and roadways throughout the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

In 2017, Dallas had the 5th highest rate of fatal traffic accidents among the largest 25 cities in the U.S. In addition, it has a backlog of $2 billion in unfunded street improvement needs. Not surprising that so many streets are in disrepair. Also in 2017, Ft. Worth had the 6th highest fatality rate of the same study.

Not only are accidents caused by bad drivers, but by poorly marked lanes, illegible or non-existent signage, pot holes and a myriad of other factors. These are not only an on-site problem, but can damage cars leading to brakes needing repair and other vehicle damage.

In a Dallas City Council traffic safety plan briefing, it was noted that half of the serious accidents in Dallas are on just 8% of the city’s streets. At that meeting, the council endorsed a program called Vision Zero, run by a non-profit group. Its goal is to improve safety on those streets desperately needing attention with the target of zero fatalities.

How to stay safe?

Obviously, first is to be a good driver yourself – no speeding, no thought-altering drugs while driving.

If you live or work in Dallas, there is an interactive map showing street status, planned work, and bond projects. A look at this may help avoid an accident or car repair.

Last, remember to be a defensive driver. A long-remembered line from drivers’ training, “You can be right, dead right as you speed along, but just as dead as if you’d been wrong.”

Stay safe.

A Two Wheeled Risk of Harm in Dallas

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In 2018 at the onset of electric scooters in Dallas, this new transportation option was advertised as a boon for commuters and residents alike with little if no mention of safety concerns.

Fast-forward to today and the trendy vehicles are becoming a safety risk and potential source for personal injuries.  According to city officials, scooter companies have not been disabling them late at night when their use is banned.  That has led to a recent explosion of complaints about groups of people joyriding late at night and menacing downtown business owners and residents alike.  Another problem with the scooter companies’ negligence – joy riders discarding scooters in piles on the pavement.

Since COVID-19 has closed many downtown businesses, city officials said that before the pandemic, scooters were used mostly for commuting but that peak use now is between 8 p.m. and midnight — mostly for entertainment purposes.

It is these safety concerns and the possibility of bodily harm to the joy riders and others alike that the city’s transportation department decided to halt the scooter program temporarily so it can work on tightening the rules.  As of right now, scooter operators must remove the approximately 5,000 vehicles that are currently out on the Dallas streets.

The city’s ordinance, tweaked in March of this year, allows scooters to operate until 9 p.m. in Deep Ellum and until midnight everywhere else.  Other regulations include a 20 mph speed limit.  The council lifted a ban on motorized scooters in June 2018 to encourage alternative transportation.

Police report that criminals sometimes use the scooters after hours as a quick getaway, while large groups of young people are motoring around the city to get better views of illegal street races late at night.

Reports have detailed the misuse of scooters.  They are no longer being used mostly for transportation to the bus station or a bar as intended – but rather have become a form of entertainment.  From a public safety standpoint, they have become a problem.”

Unfortunately, the scooters come with a risk of injury and have also been used in connection with crimes such as purse snatchings.  Personal injuries resulting from the scooters and public safety concerns with their misuse are the main reasons the city council has paused their availability.  A Parkland Memorial Hospital spokeswoman said 68 people were treated in the ER over the past year for scooter injuries.

The city council hopes that their temporary ban gives the city a “second chance” to do a better job of regulating scooters.  Five companies have permits to operate scooters in Dallas: Lime, Wheels, Gotcha, Bird and OjO.  The city told the scooter companies about the late-night violations and they vowed to fix it – however that did not happen.

In some cases, up to 40 scooters have been discarded in streets and on sidewalks.  A similar situation doomed the city’s bike-share program, which preceded the scooters but fizzled out in 2018. At the program’s peak, as many as 20,000 bicycles once rolled through the city.

City officials will meet with the scooter vendors and community leaders and come up with recommendations to make the scooters as safe as possible to all, he said. That includes adding corrals where people can leave the scooters.

The Life or Death Decisions of Autonomous Vehicles

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Though not seen often – yet – autonomous vehicles are on the streets bringing the advantages of artificial intelligence (AI). The goal is to make driving decisions without the human tendencies toward distraction or impaired driving. These autonomous vehicles also must make life or death decisions when an unexpected event occurs. On what basis are these critical decisions made? Can this be programmed into a software driven car or truck?

Autonomous Vehicles Making Life or Death Decisions

Can moral decisions be programmed? If a self-driven car judges a potentially fatal accident is imminent, does it choose to sacrifice passengers or pedestrians? Does the number in each group matter; two passengers or five pedestrians? What if the passengers include a child and the pedestrians comprise a group of elderly citizens? Should it endanger passengers to avoid hitting an animal? These and millions of other difficult scenarios have been discussed for years. There is even a website platform, the Moral Machine, created by MIT Media Labs where anyone is invited to make judgements in these situations. So far, people in over 200 countries have contributed.

What does data show?

Interesting data has been uncovered from the Moral Machine regarding the decisions people would make. In general, there is a consensus to save children over adults. Yet, in Far Eastern countries, the elderly would be saved first. So, even areas of the world come to different decisions – Western, Eastern, Southern – especially in complex situations.

Nicholas Evans, philosophy professor at the University of Massachusetts, writes, “You could program a car to minimize the number of deaths or life-years lost in any situation, but then something counter-intuitive happens. When there’s a choice between a two-person car and you alone in your self-driving car, the result would be to run you off the road. People are much less likely to buy self-driving vehicles if they think theirs might kill them on purpose and be programmed to do so.” What people say in surveys versus what they would want to happen if they, or loved ones, are involved varies greatly.

Though extremely difficult to program to fit so many scenarios, there must be moral programming for the AI to make the autonomous vehicles accepted. This is especially true since there is not a global consensus for the morality of any given situation. In addition to life or death decisions, the vehicle is computing routes, traffic, obstacles, speed, condition of vehicle and countless other parameters.

What is next?

The ultimate goal is reducing accidents exponentially. Until almost all vehicles are controlled by AI and can interact, that will not happen. Even then, everyone who has anything electronic knows that there can be bugs and glitches, service going down, hackers, and the unknown.

Once there is an accident, there will need to be a decision on liability. These computer-driven vehicles will be equipped with essentially “black boxes” that record the previous 30 seconds or so of data. This information will make it easier to reconstruct what occurred, but who is to blame? What stage of the vehicle’s development created this accident: software developer, vehicle manufacturer, communication provider, or one of the other multiple vendors supplying parts?

Much is still unknown as this is a huge change in transportation globally. As more and more of these vehicles are introduced to our streets and highways, data collected will lead to more answers and probably more questions as well.