Rarely does a week pass without someone forwarding me an email complaining of “frivolous” lawsuits. You’ve probably seen them, too. They usually reference the so-called “Stella Awards,” in dubious honor of 79-year old Stella Liebeck. Stella was severely burned when scalding hot coffee spilled in her lap and she sued McDonald’s for $2.7 million. Most people hear only this…

Speed and driver inattention likely played significant roles in the deadly 18-wheeler crash that claimed the lives of five people in Fort Worth over the past weekend. The fatal collision involved a big rig that burst into flames in the early-morning hours of Sunday near I-30 and Oakland Boulevard. The Ryder tractor-trailer was carrying copies of the Fort Worth…

Even as the most recent data shows a rate of 5.5 percent unemployment in the U.S., a report prepared by The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) for the American Trucking Associations (ATA) shows the industry has some 35,000 unfilled truck driver jobs. It’s likely that the shortage was not as noticeable during the economic recession as trucking volume plummeted….

Each year, the National Transportation Safety Board issues its 10 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements aimed at reducing transportation accidents and saving lives. It’s nice to see that four of the 10 items would impact the safety of commercial trucks. Because of their size and the sheer number of commercial trucks on our roads, 18-wheelers pose a…

It may be hard to believe, but it’s been 30 years since our government has required an increase in the minimum amount of insurance for motor carriers, which includes both large and small trucking companies alike. The federally mandated $750,000 minimum established in 1985 is the same today despite significant price jumps for everything from medical care to postage…

The rising rate of Texas traffic fatalities involving three or more deaths is alarming: 72 such accidents in 2010; 101 in 2012 and 148 last year, according to an in-depth report by the Houston Chronicle. Through mid-July of this year, the newspaper said 81 people had died in triple tragedies on Texas highways, and it points out that Texas…

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the city attorney is suing a leading credit card dispute resolution service, accusing it of favoring industry and stacking the system against consumers in debt collection cases. The suit, filed by the office of City Attorney Dennis Herrera late last month in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that National Arbitration Forum, one of…

A jury in Austin today awarded truck driver Louis Martinez more than $267,000 in a suit arising out of his termination by a trucking company after he refused to drive with an unsafe load. Martinez was terminated by his employer, Safeshred, last year after refusing to haul a load of steel shelves from Austin to San Antonio. He testified…