Plaintiffs’ attorney group urges increase in trucking insurance limits

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By Daniel Arbelaez
Dolan Media Newswires

Federal trucking industry insurance standards from 1980 create safety hazards on American roads and prevent accident victims from being fully compensated, according to a new report from the American Association for Justice, a plaintiffs’ attorneys’ group.

The report, “Truck Safety Alert: Rising Danger from Trucks and How to Stop It,” details how the trucking industry avoids spending money to improve safety and makes it more difficult for victims to recover damages for their injuries. Although a fatal truck crash can cost about $4.3 million in direct costs, the federal trucking insurance minimum has been only $750,000 since 1980, according to the AAJ report.

For example, in 2002, a Virginia state trooper who was responding to a call of gun shots in Washington was killed in a crash with a truck whose driver was talking on a cellphone. While the cost of the trooper’s lost income and services surpassed $2 million, the statutory minimum insurance requirement of $750,000 applied to the case.

”Without adequate insurance limits for the trucking industry, all consumers pay the price when a vehicle and truck collide,” said American Association for Justice President Mary Alice McLarty in a June 11 statement. “Not only are consumers who share the roads with trucks at risk, but so are truck drivers who operate in an industry that incentivizes risky driving.

According to the report, there were 3,341 crashes in 2011 that killed 3,757 people. Nearly three times as many people die in truck accidents as die in aviation, boating and railroad accidents combined. Moreover, about 28,000 trucking companies with safety violations operate on U.S roads.

A recent study by the Trucking Alliance, a coalition of trucking companies, found that 24 percent of truck crash settlements exceed the federal government’s minimum insurance requirement for trucking companies.

“Congress needs to address the antiquated trucking insurance limits,” added McLarty.