My colleague John Cooper has written a new blog post or our firm’s Carolina persoal injury lawyers’ website about a truck driver who somehow escaped with just a broken leg after being trapped under an 80,000 pound concrete slab following a chain-reaction truck accident on I-85 in North Carolina (NC).

DM

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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A West Virginia (WV) coal truck driver who drove his vehicle into another truck on Cabin Creek Road near Wealthy Acres in Kanawah County on October 20 has admitted to police he was taking the narcotic painkillers Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone from Reckitt Benckiser) and Oxycotin (oxcodone from Perdue Pharma) before starting his shift. WSAZ NewsChannel 3 reported that the driver who caused the head-on collision has been charged with DUI causing injury, driving under the influence of a controlled substance, driving left of center and reckless driving.

As experienced West Virginia trucking accident attorneys, my colleagues and I see a number of trucking accidents caused by alcohol or drug abuse. Impaired driving is the fourth most common cause of wrecks caused by truckers. Also, a study conducted by a Maryland trauma center revealed that approximately 34 percent of drivers involved in crashes admitted tested positive for only drugs, while just 16 percent tested positive for only alcohol.

This accident in West Virginia illustrates the large number of injuries and deaths caused by coal trucks. In December 2010, for instance, we reported that a coal truck driven in a reckless manner claimed the life of a 19-year-old in West Virginia.

If a truck driver who has taken drugs causes an injury, the trucker’s employer may be liable in a personal injury lawsuit. If you’ve have been injured due to a truck driver’s negligence, there are a number of important steps that need to be taken. We recommend downloading our guide to truck accidents.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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My colleague John Cooper has written a blog about a log truck wreck in Petersburg, Virginia (VA). Fortunately, no one was killed, but that is not always the case when a large truck is involved in a wreck. In many tractor-trailer accidents, major damage occurs and people either suffer serious injuries or lose their life. To learn more, take a look at “Truck Hauling Logs Overturns in Petersburg, VA.”

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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Amherst, Virginia (VA) resident Phillip Sparrow, 55, died on impact when a logging truck T-boned his car, according to police who spoke with WSET-Channel 13. Tragic events like this happen all too often with trucks, and I can’t help but wonder what should have been done to prevent such devastating results. Most residents of the area where Sparrow was killed knew that the intersection of Riverville Road and Piedmont Road was a “perfect mix to cause a fatality,” WSET reported.

That perfect mix is a dangerous intersection that makes it hard to see oncoming traffic and that requires drivers to, according to one resident, “pull almost completely out in [the] road … to see if a truck is coming.”  What’s worse, is that sometimes the logging trucks coming down the road are going too fast.  Some locals estimate the speeds at around 75 mph, when the posted limit is only 45 mph for trucks.

The combination of an obscured vantage point and speeding logging trucks make some residents “scared every time [they] come out” of the roadway, and, expressing hopes that this tragedy will not be in vain, they hope it will convince Virginia Department of Transportation to finally make this perfect mix intersection into a 4-way stop.

Trucking accidents such as this can cause life-altering injuries, or worse, can take someone’s life.  Less than a year ago, my colleague, Randy Appleton and I helped the survivors of a 25-year-old man killed in a trucking accident recover $3.5 million dollars in a settlement.  His car was hit by a truck whose driver admitted he did not see the car until seconds before impacting the car and killing the man.  This is why I say this type of accident happens all-too-often, and why this type of accident makes me angry and concerned as a motorist who shares the road with truckers.

As a wrongful death attorney, I not only express my condolences to the Sparrow family, but strongly suggest that they seek the advice of a Virginia law firm who will represent their interests and who will fight to make it known that tragedies like this ought to have been prevented.

Our firm has published a free consumer guide to trucking accidents and has information available for those interested in holding trucking companies responsible for the wrongful death of their loved ones.

AY

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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The 65-year-old driver of a pickup has been killed after his vehicle was hit by a heavy truck in West Virginia. The victim, Garry Smith, from Prichard, WV, was killed on Tolsia Highway/US 52 in Wayne County on the morning of October 6, 2011, WSAZ.com reported.

Investigators said the pickup driver was pulling onto the highway from Centerville Road when the fatal crash occurred. The asphalt truck’s driver had to be cut from the cab by firefighters and was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.

As experienced Virginia (VA) trucking injury attorneys, my colleagues and I see far too many fatal and other serious accidents caused by big rigs and tractor-trailers. Often, the truck drivers are to blame.

Fr instance, in July, 2011 we reported on a case in which a tractor-trailer operator caused an accident on I-95 in Woodbridge, VA, in which he hit another big rig and a box truck. The crash was caused when the tractor-trailer driver failed to slow down when coming up to the scene of an earlier accident near the interchange with US Route 1.

Increasing number of Virginians are dying in accidents caused by distracted driving, according to a new study. And when you become distracted driving several tons of potentially dangerous metal, in the case of a truck, the consequences can be deadly.

It’s not unknown for truck drivers to be drunk at the wheel. Recently we reported on a case in Virginia in which three children on a church bus were injured by an intoxicated driver behind the wheel of a 10-ton truck.

We have handled a number of cases involving truck drivers, including a $3.5 million settlement we secured in 2010 for the family of our client who was killed when a driver in a flatbed truck rear-ended a passenger vehicle on I-64 in Norfolk, VA .

DM

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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My colleague John Cooper has written a new blog post for our Virginia personal injury attorneys’ website in which he notes that federal authorities have approved plans to place tolls on the section of always dangerous I-95 that runs through Virginia. The move is expected to generate monies to fund safety projects on a highway that has seen a number of serious truck crashes.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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Truck accidents tend to be catastrophic when they occur.  What can drivers do to lesson the risk of becoming a victim in a truck accident injury?  An experienced trucking attorney with our law firm, John Cooper, examines a recent West Virginia (WV) tractor-trailer accident.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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My colleague John Cooper has written a new blog on our firm’s Virginia (VA) personal injury lawyers’ website about how the American Trucking Associations has  issued a number of travel tips for Labor Day. The truckers’ advice comes against a backdrop of an increase in road deaths on the Labor Day weekend in Virginia.

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About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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Everyday seems to bring news of another tractor-trailer or tour bus crash on East Coast interstates in which the commercial vehicle’s driver or someone in a car, pickup or SUV suffered injuries or got killed. Too often, the wreck was caused by the big rig or bus. And too many times, the at-fault driver lacked the proper training, license or health — the trucker was sick or impaired by drugs or alcohol. Sometimes, the vehicle itself was unsafe because it had bad tires, inadequate equipment, even a poor hitch between cab and trailer.

Roadside inspections can get potentially dangerous drivers, 18-wheelers and large buses off the road before accidents happen. Recognizing this, trucking and busing groups, state and local police departments, and the Federal Motor Carrier Association have teamed up for years to support random checks of commercial trucks and buses.

A state in which a cooperative random roadside safety inspection program is working particularly well is Pennsylvania (PA), There, according to the Pocono Times, the 2010 Pennsylvania Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program made it possible for “more than 93,000 random truck inspections [to be] conducted across the state, a 14 percent increase from 2009.”

In Virginia (VA), where tour bus crashes on interstates recently claimed several lives and injured dozens more, state troopers participated in Roadcheck 2011 during early June. The goal of that operation was to ensure more than 70,000 truckers, trucks, bus drivers and buses were interviewed and inspected across Canada, Mexico and the United States to increase safety.

Such programs work — up to a point. FMCSA data show that the rate of fatal crashes per 100 million miles traveled by large trucks and buses have fallen consistently from 3.82 in 2008 to 1.17 in 2010. The goal, of course, is 0 per every mile traveled.

Still, as a Virginia-based attorney who has often represented victims of trucking accidents, I’m encouraged by the trend. Unsafe vehicles and drivers have no business doing business on U.S. highways. I’d like to see programs that encourage and support roadside inspections of commercial vehicles extended.

EJL

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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In his latest blog post to our Virginia personal injury attorneys’ website, my colleague John Cooper writes that a fatal accident along the shoulder of I-70 in northwestern Maryland (MD) serves as a reminder of how important it is for all drivers to heed move-over laws. In the deadly rear-end collision, a tow truck driver crashed into a tractor-trailer whose co-driver was doing maintenance on her big rig. Read more about this tragedy by clicking over to “Female Tractor-Trailer Driver Killed in Collision Caused by Tow Truck on I-70 in Maryland.”

EJL

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton is a law firm whose attorneys focus on injury and accident law and have experience handling truck accident cases. Our primary office is in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA), but our lawyers also hold licenses to practice in NC, South Carolina (SC), West Virginia (WV), Kentucky (KY), Florida (FL) and Washington, DC. Rick Shapiro and James Lewis were included in the 2011 issue of Best Lawyers in America. They, along with fellow attorney John M. Cooper, were also named 2011 Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law, an honor which fewer than 5 percent of outstanding lawyers receive. Our injury attorneys host an extensive injury law video library on Youtube. Further, our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard blogs as pro bono public information services. Check out our case results. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free initial consultations so give us a call at (800) 752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call.

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