IOWA
TRUCKING ACCIDENT
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Witnesses at the scene removed Ms. Bessey from the car and laid
her on the side of the road, where, upon regaining consciousness
she immediately attempted to climb back into the wreckage to find
her daughter in the crushed back occupant space and the smashed
car seat. Ms. Bessey held the child and prayed during the interminable
wait for emergency help to arrive at the remote rural location.
Depositions of the NAPA Auto Parts corporate officers and Genuine
Parts Company supervisors revealed that the trucking company failed
to follow the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR)
and Genuine Parts Company’s “Truck and Driver Regulations”
and “Fleet
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Safety Program” rules. Plaintiffs alleged that several failures by the defendant demonstrated a corporate culture of lack of concern about safety, supervision and training in the operation of commercial motor vehicles. In the weeks leading up to the collision, the trucking company had repeatedly dispatched the responsible truck driver: in a dangerously fatigued condition; who was unqualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle; who was untrained to operate in dangerous visibility conditions caused by thick fog; and who felt pressured to complete a route in the dangerous fog conditions so he would be available to drive his next shift.
FMCSR Section 392.14 requires a truck driver to discontinue operations if road conditions become sufficiently dangerous. Despite the dangerous visibility conditions caused by the dense fog, the truck was observed by a witness going sixty-three (63) miles per hour in a fifty-five (55) mile-per hour zone, in near zero visibility conditions shortly before the accident.
Plaintiff’s discovery established that the truck driver commuted one hour each way to his place of employment, adding two hours of driving time onto his fourteen to fifteen hour days of driving for the defendant. In the week leading up to the collision, the truck driver’s log book showed that he was incorrectly filling out his log book by recording “off-duty” time for breaks, such as sleeping on the seat of his truck, putting gas in the truck, or stopping for a cup of coffee. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations set forth the requirements a motor carrier must follow to allow the driver to
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record “off-duty” time for breaks (FMCSR 395.2). The four specific requirements that must be met before break time can be logged as “off-duty”. The truck driver and the trucking company violated these federal regulations, allowing a dangerously fatigued driver to be on the road.
After driving for more than 14 hours before the collision, through thick, dangerous fog, the truck driver finally decided it was too dangerous to drive any further and stopped at a gas station about fifteen miles from the collision.
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