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In the wake of a truck accident, many truck accident victims and their families don't know where to turn for the strong legal advice they'll need to guide them through what can be an intimidates and confusing time. Choices victims make in the days immediately following a truck accident can have a lasting impact on their rights to compensation for damages and injuries. Trucking companies have insurance companies to protect them. To help truck accident victims make the best and most informed decisions about their cases, Peter Everett, Rob Stoney, Leah Garcia, and Chidi James of Blankingship & Keith, P.C. have teamed up to form the Virginia Trucking Litigation Group.
The Virginia Trucking Litigation Group has been established to protect the legal rights of accident victims. We believe that a small team of highly experienced, dedicated and motivated lawyers can level the playing field, uncover violations of the maze of regulations governing truckers and trucking companies, and maximize recoveries for our clients – the victims of trucking wrecks.
These attorneys collectively have considerable experience in cases where truck drivers and trucking companies were at fault. Peter Everett is a member of the Executive Committee of the Interstate Trucking Section of the American Trial Lawyers’ Association. Rob Stoney has lectured to other lawyers on trucking issues and written on emerging technologies in the trucking industry. Over the past seven years, Peter, Rob and Leah have secured recoveries of millions of dollars for victims of catastrophic trucking accidents.
Peter, Rob and Mark are nationally recognized by Martindale-Hubbell for the highest legal ability and adherence to ethical values. They have been honored by being named among the “Best Lawyers in America –2003-04.” Martindale-Hubbell and “Best Lawyers” are both peer-reviewed publications whose membership is determined by lawyers with whom, and against whom, we litigate.
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Trucks are not simply big cars, and a truck wreck usually means far more than just a traffic jam. For the innocent victims of truck accidents -- those in passenger vehicles, on motorcycles, or pedestrians -- life-changing injuries and death are too often the catastrophic results. Many truck wrecks are directly caused by dangerous driving on the part of truck drivers. Because trucking companies often make unrealistic demands on drivers to "make time" and meet unreasonable deadlines, at times truck drivers push their trucks (and their bodies) well beyond reasonable limits of safety and alertness. But regardless of the many pressures they face, truck drivers have just one option when they are in any condition that's less than 100 per cent. That option is get off the road. Whether its because of truck driver fatigue, truck driver drug or alcohol use, truck driver distraction, or reckless driving, when truck drivers fail to make responsible decisions, wrecks that could have been prevented happen and people get hurt and killed.
On today's crowded highways, the margin for driver error is increasingly slim. Many of us have first-hand accounts of close calls and "near-death" experiences involving trucks that were moving too fast, following too closely, or simply coming out of nowhere like freight trains fallen off their tracks. Thousands of trucks of every variety pass through the major arteries of Northern Virginia each day, and too many of those trucks are driven by truck drivers with minimal regard for the safety of others on the road. Truckers are encouraged to speed and drive while fatigued, since trucking companies pay drivers by the mile, not by the hour.
Because trucks and truck drivers are highly regulated, the litigation surrounding truck accidents requires experienced attorneys in what has become a complex arena of personal injury law. A person injured or killed as a result of a truck accident needs lawyers with knowledge and experience navigating the evolving web of federal and state regulations that govern trucking operations, safe driving techniques, and documentation. Knowledgeable attorneys committed to investigating the many possible causes of truck accidents are essential to helping truck accident victims obtain just settlements and verdicts for their injuries.
Since the trucking industry was “deregulated” in the 1980s, trucking companies have put ever-increasing pressure on their truck drivers to drive longer and farther and to work more hours. At the same time, the push to increase profits has led companies to cut corners on training, truck maintenance and safety operations. Consequently, the carnage caused by trucks on the nation’s highways continues to rise. Studies show that truckers who are forced to drive excessive hours are as dangerous as drunk drivers.
In 2001, in Virginia alone, large trucks and buses were involved in 3,452 crashes, killing 111 people. The Insurance Institute for Automotive Safety notes that in two-vehicle crashes involving passenger vehicles and large trucks, 98 percent of the deaths occur to the people in the passenger vehicles. In other words, if a truck hits you, you lose.
Federal law strictly regulates every aspect of the trucking industry, including qualifications of drivers, medical examinations, training, licensing, inspection, maintenance, repair, maximum number of hours a trucker can drive, and a myriad of other issues. These regulations are designed to improve the safety of the roads, but are highly complex and often ignored, abused and violated by trucking companies. A lawyer who is unfamiliar with the regulations and with the various ways companies try to circumvent them may miss important evidence of liability. An experienced trucking attorney should also fully understand commercial insurance, the mechanics of brain injury and other catastrophic injuries and litigation strategy.
