When winter weather arrives, roads can become dangerous very quickly. Snow and ice can affect traction and lead to an increase in car accidents. These accidents are even more dangerous when one of the vehicles is an 18-wheeler. The dangers from these accidents are well known in the trucking industry. In 2005, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) reported to Congress the results of an almost three year study of approximately 141,000 truck accidents that caused injuries or fatalities. The study found that adverse weather conditions were present in 13% of the crashes. In order to prevent dangerous trucking accidents in snowy or icy conditions, the FMCSA and states have created rules, regulations and guidelines for truck drivers to follow when weather affects traction on the road.
Section 392.14 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations requires that a driver must use extreme caution when hazardous conditions exist, such as those caused by snow, ice, sleet, ice, mist, rain dust or smoke which adversely affect visibility or traction. If a truck driver encounters these conditions, he or she must:
- Reduce speed;
- Stop driving if the conditions become sufficiently dangerous; or
- Proceed to the nearest point where safety of passengers is assured if complying with the rule would increase the hazards to passengers.
So, a truck driver should slow down or stop driving, depending on the type of weather condition . A experienced truck driver should know when to slow down or stop by being aware of weather forecasts, communicating with his dispatchers about weather along a planned route, or using weather apps to monitor the weather. Sometimes, large trucking companies have the ability to warn their drivers about potential bad road conditions through the use of various communication systems.
There is simply no excuse for a truck driver not to know when to drive safe in winter weather. This is because in order to obtain a commercial motor vehicle license, drivers must become familiar with the rules in the CDL manual for the states where they are licensed. Lawyers who handle truck accident cases know where to find these rules so they can properly question truck drivers who cause accidents.
In Missouri, and other states, the Commercial Driver’s License Manual contains sections on matching speeds to different road surfaces. The different types of road surfaces that can become hazardous include:
- Shaded areas of the road;
- Bridges;
- Roads with melting ice;
- Roads with black ice; and
- Roads in locations where rain has just started
With many of these types of road conditions, the road surface can become slippery which can double the required stopping distance. The Missouri CDL guide recommends driving speed by about one-third on a wet road, by half on packed snow, and to a crawl and stop if roads are icy. With the information available in black boxes, electronic recording devices or from the truck driver, the Missouri truck accident attorneys at Muchnick Haber Margolis can determine how fast a driver should have been going to comply with the CDL guide recommendations. Through the use of experts such as an accident reconstructionist, we can provide a jury with information to determine whether or not a driver was allowing enough stopping distance to prevent an accident. In one such case, we obtained a $1.5 dollar verdict in a case where a truck driver did not travel at the appropriate speed on a wet road in the City of St. Louis.
Trucking companies also have their own policies which require drivers to adjust to weather and road conditions. Some of these policies include requiring a driver not to use a jake brake when roads are slick and to reduce RPMs, to contact supervisors during bad weather, to maintain more seconds of following distance, and not to use cruise control when there are slick road conditions. These policies often track the language of Section 392.14 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations mentioned above.
At the end of the day, the truck driver is the person ultimately responsible for the safe operation of a commercial vehicle and the decision to stop diving if there are hazardous road conditions. If you have a truck accident injury case that happened in dangerous weather conditions, please contact the lawyers at Muchnick Haber Margolis as soon as possible.