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. Though not every case meets our criteria, we offer free, initial consultations so give us a call at 1-800-752-0042. If you can’t get through due to high call volume, please leave a message and we will return your call promptly. Our primary office in based in Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA) although our lawyers hold licenses in NC, SC, WV, KY, FL and DC. 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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An Albemarle County jury awarded a bereaved family $5.25 million for the loss of their precious 16 year old daughter who had been killed last year when a tractor trailer ran a red light and slamming into the car she was driving. The jury’s verdict was decided with only 3 hours of deliberation following a 2 day trial in the county’s civil circuit court.

In their decision, the jury found that the Don B. Swisher Trucking Corporation in conjunction with the McCann Delivery Service along with the trucker, Kenneth Barbour, were all negligent when the semi tractor trailer ran the red light and took away the young girl’s life that fateful day of May 9^th, 2008. The video below serve as an example of the devastation a truck can have when it slams into much lighter passenger vehicles:

Tractor-Trailer Truck Collision

The truck driver is currently serving an active 2 year prison sentence from his involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving when he pleaded guilty in a criminal trial that was held earlier this year in Albemarle County. The girl’s parents filed a $15 million civil lawsuit against all of the defendants in October 2008 accusing them of negligence and requested punitive damages.

Openly weeping, the victim’s father, mother and brother listened as Circuit Judge Cheryl Higgins read the verdict:  $5.25 million. The family’s attorney mentioned that the family felt vindicated with the judgment. Also, there were no further comments or speculation of seeking possible appeal from the trucking company’s attorney. We would like to congratulate the winning attorney, J Gregory Webb.

The intent of the lawsuit was to inflict as much financial pain as possible to the trucking company responsible for Barbour’s lack of training as a driver as to effectively prevent the company from  continuing their negligent operations or at least force them to change their safety training protocol, if they even had one.  The lawsuit accused Barbour of not slowing down when he approached the northbound lane of the intersection. The victim was making a left turn onto U.S. 29 southbound when the 1999 Chevy Cavalier was struck by the tractor-trailer. The complaint accused Barbour’s employers didn’t train him properly and did not supervise him adequately by allowing him to drive a rig with defective parts.

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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Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis, & Appleton

A report by the American Association for Justice revealed that more than 28,000 motor carrier companies and more than 211,000 trucks violated federal safety regulations and were still operating on our roads.

A majority of these trucks received a “conditional” grade which means they are operating with one or more safety violations. Many truck companies are based in Texas, but there are plenty in Virginia (VA) and the companies based in the Commonwealth also violate federal safety standards.

The most common violation was defective brakes. Obviously, having functional brakes is essential for safety, but trucking companies simply ignore this requirement and send their employees out on the road with malfunctioning brake systems.

Other violations include:

• Balding tires, retreaded tires
• Truck loads exceeding weight limits
• Inexperienced and untrained drivers
• Drivers working excessive hours
• Drivers with drug or alcohol dependencies
• Falsified trucking logs and other records

In 2007, more than 86,000 people in the United States were seriously hurt after being involved in a trucking accident and over 4800 people died as a result. These statistics are unacceptable and something needs to be done. All of the violations listed above can be corrected with simple responsibility and ethical business practices. It’s shocking that truck companies remain in business even after it’s been discovered they falsify trucking logs and send their employees out untrained or poorly trained to handle such dangerous equipment.

As an injury lawyer who works for a firm that regularly represents people whose lives were changed forever after bring involved in a truck accident, I’ve seen firsthand the devastation these vehicles can inflict. There needs to be a full-scale investigation into the trucking industry and harsh punishments need to be levied in order to send a clear message that safety comes first, not last.

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 victim, Bates, crashed his tractor-trailer into the back of another tractor-trailer causing a rear-end collision at mile marker 141 on Interstate 81 South at approximately 10 a.m. Virginia police reported that the first truck had stopped for an earlier crash.

During the maelstrom both directions of I-81 were closed for almost an hour and Virginia’s Department of Transportation closed the Virginia 419 bridge over I-81 until a VDOT inspector was able to declare it safe.

At one point a traffic backup of nine miles long was reported in the southbound lane as mentioned by VDOT. The bulk of the traffic was detoured off the interstate, diverting a heavy flow of vehicles onto Interstate 581, Peters Creek Road, and West Main Street in Salem.

Danger and trouble rides beside you each day as you share the road with these 18 wheelers. I understand that truckers need to make a living, but it is usually the big companies they work for to blame. A recent official report gathered by just one state’s DOT (Michigan) showed only 2 percent of trucking companies are being inspected routinely. The question you need to ask yourself is: How many more rogue companies and unqualified drivers are there?  Have you stopped to consider that as the economy continues to struggle, the easiest decision for financially strapped trucking operations is to cut costs in safety and maintenance? What will the already overstretched federal and state investigators do to contend with the ever expanding unscrupulous trucking companies trying to get away with these unsafe practices?

Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), with an office also in Elizabeth City, in Northeast North Carolina (NC), practicing primarily in the southeastern U.S. and handles only injury law, including car, truck, railroad, and medical negligence cases and more. Our Carolina injury law website is: http://carolina.hsinjurylaw.com, the firm edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, as well as the Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard and also hosts a YouTube injury law video library covering many FAQ’s on personal injury subjects. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY.

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