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A father and son – Edward Smith, Sr. and Edward Smith, Jr. – were killed when a semi-truck slammed into their Dodge Caravan after the two stopped to help a driver stranded on interstate 81 (I-81) in Wytheville, Virginia (VA).

My deepest condolences go out to the Smith’s friends and family. This is an especially tragic accident considering the father and son stopped on the side of the road to help another driver struggling to travel in the winter weather.

The tractor trailer reportedly swerved to miss the disabled car that was on the road, jackknifed and smacked the Caravan.

Jackknifed tractor trailers, unable to handle the icy roads, caused the biggest problems in Southwest Virginia, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.

“I’d rather drive off a cliff than hit a four-wheeler, cause you know they’ve got families in them, kids inside,” said Joe Soliz, a truck driver. “But when you’ve got 80,000 pounds on your back, pushing you, it’s just hard to stop.”

This is why there are federal regulations specifically dealing with large commercial trucks on roadways during bad weather . Ideally, drivers of commercial trucks like tractor trailers and big rigs would find a place to stop and wait out the storm. Unfortunately, there seem to be many truckers who throw caution to the wind and continue their travels despite icy roads (which could potentially turn to black ice ), high winds and huge amounts of snow.

Truck drivers need to fully analyze the potential consequences of driving in a snowstorm. All of the challenges truckers routinely face (e.g. the sudden movements of other vehicles on the road, poor visibility, etc.) increase exponentially when you add bad winter weather to the mix.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm which focuses on injury and accident law and our attorneys have experience handling truck accident cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office in based in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA) although our lawyers hold licenses in NC, SC, WV, KY and DC. We are ready to talk to you by phone right now—we provide free initial confidential injury case consultations, so call us toll free at 1-800-752-0042. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube . Furthermore, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as a pro bono public information service.

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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found 77 commercial bus and truck drivers, along with 84 carriers, failed drug and alcohol tests administered by a new task force.

The testing focused on commercial drivers who operate school buses, interstate passenger carriers, hazardous material transports and general freight long-haul trucks, according to Automotive-fleet.com.

Every year roughly 85,000 truckers nationwide test positive for drugs and/or alcohol, according to dallasnews.com. Even more shocking is the fact that, once a trucker tests positive, chances are good they do not go into treatment or complete follow-up tests. In fact, less than half of the 85,000 truckers complied with the treatment/re-testing requirements after testing positive for drugs or alcohol.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found 75 percent of drug-testing sites frequented by individuals vying for a trucking license “failed to restrict access to items that could be used to adulterate or dilute the [urine] specimen, meaning that running water, soap, or air freshener was available in the bathroom during the test,” according to MSNBC.com.

As all this goes on, there were over 123,000 truck accidents in the United States last year.

I hope this FMCSA task force continues their testing and roots out habitual drug and alcohol abusers. Though, there appears to be much more work needed in terms of enforcing those positive drug tests and rehabilitating abusers.

This is a public safety issue. Drug and alcohol abusers who fail to stop their reckless behavior have no place operating massive freight trucks or school buses.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm which focuses on injury and accident law and our attorneys have experience handling truck accident cases. Check out our case results to see for yourself. Our primary office in based in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA) although our lawyers hold licenses in NC, SC, WV, KY and DC. We are ready to talk to you by phone right now—we provide free initial confidential injury case consultations, so call us toll free at 1-800-752-0042. Our injury attorneys also host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube . Furthermore, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard and Norfolk Injuryboard as a pro bono public information service.

PA

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