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Basically, I’m after the facts of the case or the truth of the matter, not just what one side wants it to be or the other side wants it to be. A lot of times, I tried not to actually think about too much who I’m working for as much as just focus on the inspection of the vehicle.
David Craig – Host:
Today, I’m thrilled to have Gary McMinoway as our special guest. I mean, one of the first things you’ve got to do as a lawyer that represents victims of semi-tractor trailer wrecks is you’ve got to put a team together. So, one of the first and one of the more critical people that you put on your team is a mechanic who understands big semis, big trucks, commercial motor vehicles. And Gary is one of those guys. Gary has been doing this for quite some time and is somebody that both sides, both plaintiffs, and defendants know they can trust to give them an honest opinion. This is After the Crash.
David Craig – Host:
I’m attorney David Craig, managing partner, and one of the founders of the law firm of Craig, Kelley & Faultless. I’ve represented people who have been seriously injured, who have had a family member killed in a semi or other big truck wreck for over 30 years. Following the wreck, their lives are chaos. Often, they don’t even know enough about the process to ask the right questions. It is my goal to empower you by providing you with the information you need to protect yourself and your family. And each and every episode, I will interview pop experts and professionals that are involved in truck wreck cases. This is After the Crash.
David Craig – Host:
Gary, welcome to the show.
Gary McMinoway:
Thank you. Glad to be here.
David Craig – Host:
Well, let’s just start off. Just tell us a little bit about yourself. How was it? How did you become a mechanic and how did you learn to work on big rigs?
Gary McMinoway:
Well, started out as a kid, actually. My dad had a repair shop in Memphis, Indiana, a little town in Southern Indiana. And I would follow him down to the shop and get in his way and bother him, but eventually I got to where I could do some stuff. So, he’d teach me to do little things to start off with and lawn mowers and then went to cars and trucks and farm equipment and all the other stuff. And then worked for him for several years. Actually, had my own motorcycle repair shop for a while. My brother found out that there was quite a bit more money in heavy duty truck repair and he bought a business over in Louisville, Kentucky, and he talked me into going over there and running the shop for him. And that’s when I started doing a lot of heavy duty repair.
Gary McMinoway:
And then he and his wife sort of had some disagreements. He sold the business. I went to a place called AC Brake Company, and they were a brake specialty company. And that’s where I got a lot of formal training from the manufacturers; Bendix, Midland, Meritor, Euclid on brake systems, suspension systems, wheel attaching parts, that type of thing. And that’s when I started doing inspections on vehicles that had been on accidents about 1990.
David Craig – Host:
Okay.
Gary McMinoway:
Did that for several years. That business got purchased by Republic Diesel. I ran the shop for them after they bought it. And then when they sold their business, that’s when my business partner William Dodie and me decided to start our company we have now called Maximum Fleet Service. That was in 2014.
David Craig – Host:
That’s down in Clarksville, right?
Gary McMinoway:
That’s in Clarksville, Indiana. Yes.
David Craig – Host:
And you mentioned previously that you did some forensic work. What we call forensic work, which means you do some inspections after a wreck and I know you’ve been on both sides of cases that I’ve seen. So, talk a little bit about how it is that you got into that and why is it important for you to do both sides?
Plaintiffs means you represent or you go out and do the inspection for the lawyers who represent the victims, the people who are injured or who’ve lost a family member in a wreck, but you also on occasion work for the trucking companies or the insurance carrier, their lawyers. And I always like working with experts who do both. Well, why is that important to you to do both sides?
Gary McMinoway:
Well, I feel like that… Basically, I’m after the facts of the case or the truth of the matter, not just what one side wants it to be or the other side wants it to be. A lot of times, I try not to actually think about too much who I’m working for as much as just focus on the inspection of the vehicle.
At AC Brake, we did a lot of work on fire trucks. The city local fire trucks, all the surrounding community fire trucks. One place was [inaudible 00:05:17] Creek Fire Department. And there was a guy that worked there Phil [Shed 00:05:20]. I don’t know if you’ve ever worked with him or not.
David Craig – Host:
Sure.
Gary McMinoway:
And probably figured you had. He’s a guy that I first started working with. There was a milk truck that was involved in a wreck, a fatality, several fatalities. And Phil was inspecting that and hired me to help him inspect the brake system on that one. That was the first one that I did.
David Craig – Host:
Again, this podcast is really geared towards just average folks, not lawyers, but people who may find themselves involved in one of these cases. And what I have found… Just, actually, someone hired me just the other day. They don’t even know what questions they ask. They have no idea. I mean, the first thing they always want to know from me is, why did this happen? Why did this wreck happen? Why did I lose a family member because the semi-tractor trailer did this or this big gravel truck did that or a dump truck or whatever it is. And that’s always the first question in mind because they don’t know, they don’t understand because they just found out. Okay, they get a phone call, and they get told this terrible news. And that’s always the first thing.
David Craig – Host:
And I don’t think, necessarily, they know what’s involved in trying to find out what happened. That’s not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to do because it could be all kinds of factors and I know that one of the first things we do is we want to try to preserve evidence and I think maybe you could talk about. Why is it important for us to move and hire people like you quickly?
Why Is It Important to Hire a Mechanic Quickly After a Crash?
Gary McMinoway:
Yeah, it’s definitely a big factor because when vehicles sit around, things happen. Even if you’re not using a vehicle, parts can go bad, things will rust up, things can change. So, it’s very critical that we get to them as soon as we can.
Unfortunately, a lot of times that’s not the case. I’ve done inspections on trucks that were in wrecks a year before or two years before. It makes it very difficult to figure out what’s going on, but we just have to do a little more inspecting and more thorough testing.
Like you say, there’s a lot of different factors that can go into it. Brakes are always a big factor because seems like a lot of people that are involved in a wreck, a real common statement I hear a lot is, “Well, I pushed the brake pedal and nothing happened. I wasn’t slowing down at all.” But I’m sure you’ve talked to a lot of people that have said that or heard that, and you’ve probably also heard them say that it was only a few seconds, but it felt like several minutes. We do downloads on the computers on vehicles and it shows the brakes were applied for eight seconds and the people would swear that it was several minutes that they were trying to stop and couldn’t stop.
David Craig – Host:
I mean, from our perspective, what happens is that the trucking industry, they have a need to get their equipment if it’s possible back in service. And they want to do it quickly. I can understand that. On the other hand, sometimes they’re mangled and then they want to… In that case, they typically want to get them out of storage as soon as they can because they’re incurring expenses. And so, there’s a desire to move equipment.
I got hired on a case out in Kansas on a semi-tractor case. And I was hired relatively quickly by the family. Somebody referred them to me. By the time I got out, they had taken them over to Denver hospital. By the time I flew into Denver, the trailer was within a week. That tractor trailer was three states away. And it was before I could get a restraining order to stop it.
David Craig – Host:
And by that time, my mechanic out there looked at it and could tell that there had been some fresh work done on the brake underneath the tractor trailer, but it is… And I’ve had cases here in Indiana where… A snow and ice case and the tractor trailers moved to Texas within two weeks. I mean, it makes it harder for the mechanics and my experts to do their job if they’re not hired quickly. The sooner I can get you to the equipment, the better off we are, right?
Gary McMinoway:
Absolutely. And that’s one of the worst things about taking time. Like I say, the company wants to get that vehicle back and sometimes they want to get it back in service and then sometimes they want to get some repairs done before it gets inspected too.
David Craig – Host:
Absolutely. And I’ve seen that. I’ve absolutely seen that. Well, sometimes people ask me… some clients ask me, “Well, do we actually need to go out and have an inspection done of a tractor-trailer or semi if the state police have done an inspection?” Because a lot of big cases, especially in fatalities, no matter what state you’re in, oftentimes the state police will be involved and they’ll have a DOT inspection done or sometimes it’ll be on a county road and maybe the local police will take a look at the equipment. What do you think? I mean, just because the police do an inspection, is there still the possibility that a person or a family may want to have a mechanic look at the same equipment?
Should a Mechanic Look at the Same Equipment if the Police Already Did an Inspection?
Gary McMinoway:
Well, my dad used to have a saying. Said that two heads were better than one even if one was a donkey’s head. You never did tell me which one I was, but… Yeah. We have done inspections on trucks that have been inspected by the police and everything on their form is exactly what we wound up finding. So, sometimes it makes absolutely no difference.
And again, we’ve had other cases where they’re just one or two things they’re missing. They’ve written down the wrong size brake chamber, for instance. And the bigger the brake chamber, the longer the stroke. Well, if they write down a bigger brake chamber than what’s actually on it, the stroke is actually out of service, but they wrote it down as being in service because they had it listed as a smaller chamber. I had that happen one time.
Gary McMinoway:
Over in Kentucky one time, I think the officer must have inspected a totally different truck than what we were inspecting because there was no measurement, no brake that we looked at, and this is myself and a couple other inspectors in there also, and nothing matched up with any of the measurements that the officer at the scene had taken.
David Craig – Host:
And I’ve seen cases where sometimes I think that… I mean, it’s human nature. I mean, sometimes these wrecks are horrific and there’s a lot of involved and sometimes if a semi runs a red light, for example. And there’s a lot of police or there’s a lot of witnesses. Sometimes I’ve seen in certain states certain inspectors maybe kind of do a lackadaisical. I mean, they kind of think, “Well, the semi ran a red light. This is a clear cut case.” And so, they’re a little bit more relaxed on that inspection because they don’t necessarily think it matters, but it might matter, right.
David Craig – Host:
I know as a lawyer who’s hired by the families, I would rather have it checked because the worst case scenario is you can look at it and say, “Yeah, the police got it right.” But occasionally you’ll tell me or tell us that, “No, the police didn’t get it right,” for whatever reason.
Gary McMinoway:
Right. They miss this or miss that. And like you said, sometimes they’re doing their inspection right after the accident. It might be nighttime, it might be raining. There’s, say, ambulances, fire trucks, all kinds of stuff going on out there. I’m sure that makes it more difficult to get everything exactly right than a calm day in a parking lot or something like that when all that’s over with.
David Craig – Host:
And we had one here recently. I won’t mention the name of the client, obviously, but we had one recently where the state police did a level one inspection of the tractor. And we had you look at it and you found things that were different than what they found. I think you found something wrong with the brakes and they missed that.
Gary McMinoway:
Yeah. We found that it had a severe air leak on one of the brakes and [inaudible 00:14:15] it was an air leak on a system where all four of the biggest brakes on the truck were tied together. So, that basically made all four of those brakes ineffective. And the driver had complained that he [inaudible 00:14:31] the brakes and it wouldn’t stop. And although that most of the time we find is not correct, in this case, it was correct.
David Craig – Host:
So, people who have one of these horrible things happen to them, it’s important for them to understand that they need to get a team. And that team usually has a mechanic. We’ll have an accident reconstructionist. We’ll have investigators and teams go out and look and preserve the evidence at the scene; the skid marks, the [inaudible 00:15:05] marks. All that type of things, but certainly the mechanic is the key part. And I think sometimes people think that we want a certain determination. We want to find something wrong with the truck, but it’s just as important for me to know if there’s nothing wrong with the truck. And sometimes I assume that you go out and you look at trucks and tractors and trailers, and you don’t find anything wrong with them.
Gary McMinoway:
Oh, that’s been the case a lot of times. Me and the other people that work with, we always double-check things and sometimes triple-check things just to make sure that we’re not missing something there, but yeah. Many of the cases, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the vehicle.
Sometimes it’s a driver on his cell phone, sometimes just distracted, sometimes falling asleep. Had one, one time, the driver actually had a heart attack. They found out later on after the examination and stuff. And there was nothing wrong with his vehicle, but had a heart attack, fell back and foot was on the accelerator and just took off from there. [crosstalk 00:16:17].
David Craig – Host:
I’ve got a case out in Iowa. We don’t know why the vehicle crosses through the middle, the median. Every year I get hired by folks that are killed or hurt seriously in construction zones where semis plow into the back of them. And so, you were like, “Well, in order to find out what happened, you have to start eliminating things.” You have to start looking at, “Okay, what are the possibilities here?” And one of the first things I want to know, is there something mechanically wrong with the truck? Because if there is, then that will give me guidance of which way we go. But if there isn’t, then suddenly the cell phone downloads are more important and some other things we want to look at. And so, it doesn’t matter.
Like you, I just want to know what the truth is. And then my job is to figure out, how does that fit the puzzle? How does that help me solve this puzzle on why this semi… I have one down in Bowling Green, Kentucky, right now or somebody plows in the back into three vehicles and kills six people. And there’s mechanical [inaudible 00:17:27]. So, there’s nothing wrong with the semi-tractor or trailer. So, that gives us something to start with.
Gary McMinoway:
Yeah.
David Craig – Host:
And that’s what your job is. I mean, you kind of like a forensic. You’re out there trying to figure out an explanation on why something happens.
Gary McMinoway:
Exactly. And like I say, a lot of times it is a puzzle because you have a lot of different factors and it’s good to look at vehicles on both sides. A lot of times it’s both tractor-trailers or both straight trucks or tractor-trailer, dump truck versus a car or whatever, motorcycle or whatever. And I’ve done inspections on all of those passenger cars, pickup trucks, motorcycles, even motor scooter in one case. Got hit by a dump truck up around Fort Wayne. And we did an inspection on that to try to find out, “Well, what happened to this thing? Why was he doing what he was doing? And was it a problem with the machine or with the rider or what?”
Both Sides Have a Duty to Keep and Preserve Their Equipment
David Craig – Host:
That’s a good point is that I preserve my client’s vehicle. So, we make sure it’s taken from the scene. And then we try to get inspections done wherever it’s taken with the defense. We have them come out with our experts as well because you want them to look at our car. And the other side is going to want to look at your vehicle. And then I preserve it and keep it. Just in case there’s questions down the road, the mechanic says, “I want to go back and look at this or look at that, or maybe there’s a product effect.” And so, I think that both sides have a duty to keep their equipment so they can be inspected.
Gary McMinoway:
I wish it was a lot easier to impound or keep that equipment. I did a couple of inspections last week and one of them in Lebanon, Tennessee, the company had taken the trailer even though they weren’t supposed to be able to. And then had one in Bowling Green and they had taken the tractor. We had the trailer, but had no tractor. So, it makes it pretty tough to do anything with.
David Craig – Host:
Absolutely. Well, over the years, let’s talk about some of the common issues that maybe you have found in a semi-tractor trailer or a dump truck or a big truck, big vehicle. What are kind of some of the things that you look at and have found over the years that’d be a problem?
Common Issues Found in Semi-Tractor Trailers, Dump Trucks, and Other Big Vehicles
Gary McMinoway:
Well, like we’ve been talking, the brakes are a big factor. Also the steering system. If you can’t steer it, it can get you in some very bad predicaments, the suspension. You can have difficulty controlling the vehicle, wear the tires, where that makes it even more difficult. Tires themselves are very critical in wet weather, especially. Tires that don’t have good, deep tread grooves and water or snow. If you don’t have traction, you can’t stop, you can’t steer. Makes it very difficult.
Gary McMinoway:
We’ve had several cases where lighting is an issue where a tractor-trailer is stopping. Had one where he was sitting in this stop light and heavy fog. And he had lights on, had brake lights on, but they were all covered up with dirt and road grime, and in a heavy fog, no way to really see it. It was so blocked.
And I also had one where a tractor-trailer was turning and the trailer is supposed to have conspicuity tape down the sides. And this one had tape, but it was an old trailer and it was worn and very dirty again, and you couldn’t really see the light reflecting off of it. So, that car came along and didn’t see it. Even though it had the marker lights and things working, but they were so far apart, I guess the driver didn’t realize what was going on. Wasn’t expecting it to be across the road. So, that’s the case where just that conspicuity tape could probably have prevented an accident right there.
Gary McMinoway:
I brought a piece of that with me too. I was going to show you in case people don’t know what that is. See if I can get it up here. It’s red and silver tape, and it’s very reflective. And there are areas on tractors, trailers, and straight trucks where this is supposed to be applied. Of course it’s not a cheap product. It’s anywhere from $1, $2 a foot and people don’t like to replace it real often, but there are some times when even just that could have prevented an accident [inaudible 00:22:27].
David Craig – Host:
And I think that’s another… We had a case up Northern Indiana that had tape like that. And obviously the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, they require that the tape be on the side of the vehicle and in certain way. Like you said, if it gets dirty or if it’s an old tractor-trailer or… This one happened at [inaudible 00:22:49]. And so, that was really dirty. And so, that ash would cover it. And if they didn’t clean the trailer, then you couldn’t see the tapes.
Gary McMinoway:
Exactly.
David Craig – Host:
Had made no good. I mean, just because you have the tape on there. If you can’t see it, it doesn’t do any good. But in that case, it was real important too. It was a nighttime. It was dark, it was early morning. It was still dark that nighttime, but it was early morning, and someone was backing their trailer into the facility and my client didn’t see it and hit the trailer.
In that kind of case, you have to go back out and reconstruct it and run out to see how far the headlights go. And boy, it was amazing to me to see you couldn’t see that trailer without that tape, but if you had a clean tape, you could see it from some distance.
Gary McMinoway:
That stuff is very good. Yeah. It really reflects light very well. Another thing on the newer vehicles last 10 years or so, most of them are coming out with LED lighting. And that is way better than our old incandescent lights. They last longer, they are brighter, they don’t even use as much electricity as the older ones did. Again, those are great, but if they get covered up with dirt, mud, ash or whatever, they’re not doing any good. It’s a maintenance thing.
David Craig – Host:
Yeah. You said brakes are one of the common things that we look for in a… There’s a lot more complicated. A tractor-trailer is… The brake system is a lot more complicated than my car or my SUV. Tell us a little bit about what’s involved with the brakes and how does one go about inspecting those?
What’s Involved in the Process of Inspecting the Brakes?
Gary McMinoway:
Well, one of the critical factors on air brakes… Tractor-trailers and large straight trucks use an air brake system. And it’s a very safe system if everything is working right, and it’s even very safe if there’s only one or two defects in it. It can still work very well, but one of the critical factors is what we call the brake chambers, which is where the air goes and the chamber can release the parking brake of the vehicle and it can apply the service brake of the vehicle. And the critical thing that we have there is what we call the applied stroke. And the reason we look at that is any brake chamber has a rod coming out of it and diaphragms inside that push that rod out to apply the brake. That diaphragm can only push that rod a certain distance. And after that distance, it starts losing power and eventually can’t push it anymore at all. And I brought one with me here. I’ll see if I can hold it up and get a position here where you can see it a little bit.
Gary McMinoway:
This is the brake chamber. The part to my right is the parking brake section. And then the other section here right in front of me is the service brake section. And you can see the rod coming out of it here. That’s hooked to the slack adjuster or brake adjuster, as we call it. And if the brakes get worn out, get out of adjustment, something like that, this rod can only push this slack adjuster so far. After it reaches its limit, then you’re not getting any stopping action out of the brake.
Gary McMinoway:
So, what we do is, a lot of times, we have to repair the air system because there’s damage from the accident, something like that, get it to where we can get air to all the chambers. We release this parking brake by putting air to it then we put air to the… We measure, first of all, at that point with the brake release. Then we put air to the service chamber, measure it at that point, and that tells us our applied stroke. That way we can tell whether that brake was in adjustment or not. And if the other factors, the brake shoes, the brake drum are in good condition, it doesn’t have a seal leaking where the brake shoes are all coded down with oil and your stroke is within specs, then you should have good braking action out of that wheel brake.
Gary McMinoway:
Of course, like I say, a lot of times we find out the… Some part of the brake system is worn out. The slack adjuster isn’t set up properly or it’s broken and doesn’t adjust. These are automatic adjusters nowadays for the last 25 years or so we’ve had. So, there’s a lot of different factors that can cause this brake to get out of adjustment and then it can’t actually apply and stop the vehicle.
Gary McMinoway:
Other than that, as long as you have brake shoes, you have a drum that’s not broken or worn completely out, this is an adjustment. It’s really a fail safe type of system because even if it quits pumping air, the compressor brakes or the brake hose blows off or whatever. In absence of air, this parking brake assembly will apply the brake and stop the vehicle automatically. So, that’s the big safety factor on it. Like now on your car, you use brake fluid to apply the brakes and stop the car on that. If you run out of brake fluid, you have absolutely no brakes when you push your brake pedal. Hopefully you have a good emergency brake at that point because it’s a mechanical brake usually worked by cables that applies the brakes on the rear and you can slow it down with it. It doesn’t stop it real quickly, but it will slow it down well, but that’s why they use the air brake system on heavy duty vehicles because it’s a much safer system actually than a hydraulic brake system.
David Craig – Host:
And I think that… And so, one of the first things… I mean, one of the things we do after a wreck is, first of all, you secure the vehicle. So, you get either a court order or an agreement between the parties that nothing’s going to be changed or altered, and it’s not going to be moved until all the people get out there. Then someone like yourself goes out and usually there’s somebody from both sides. They do these inspections of the brakes and check these just like what you just talked about together. And I think sometimes folks don’t understand that, but really you have experts… And sometimes you guys have worked together lots of times.
Gary McMinoway:
Oh, yeah.
How Long Does It Take to Check the Brakes on Both the Tractor and the Trailer?
David Craig – Host:
And so, you’ll go in and look at this. How long does it typically take you all to go check the brakes on both the tractor and the trailer?
Gary McMinoway:
Usually, three hours will cover it. Usually, two on the tractor, about an hour on the trailer. And that gives you enough time to inspect all the brakes for the condition and the air hoses to make sure we don’t have leaking air hoses or worn air hoses and look at the tread depth, make sure the tires are good, and then we… Of course, sometimes, like I was saying earlier, the vehicle… I’ve had [inaudible 00:30:32] they’ve caught fire. They’ve burned all the air hoses off of it. So, we have to go to each chamber on the truck and hook air to the emergency side and the service side and work the brakes that way whereas the steer axles don’t have the parking brake. So, we just have a smaller chamber just a service chamber there, but with no air system, you still have to hook directly up to the chamber. And that can take as much as a couple hours more to do that. Had one last week where we were trying to do that and a fitting broke off in the chamber. We had to remove the fitting from the chamber. So, it can get a little more complicated when you have situations like that.
David Craig – Host:
And it depends on how you guys have been out. I’ve been out of truck inspections and what you guys [inaudible 00:31:16] work in horrible weather; cold, freezing cold, heat, really hot weather. So, I would assume the weather also can be a factor. You don’t always get to do this inside.
Gary McMinoway:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s all different conditions. I always have a rain poncho. If it’s light rain, I have a heavy rain suit. If it’s heavy rain, insulated boots. If it’s cold… One thing you can’t do too much about is… We had one in Paducah here a few weeks ago and it’s 97 degrees, bright sunshine. That was just hot.
David Craig – Host:
Well, one of the other things we talked about is the fifth wheel. You have the kingpins and I’ve had a few cases over the years where the trailer has actually come detached from the tractor. So, a trailer, I had one up Northern Indiana where a guy was pulling out of a facility after dropping his load. He was then pulling out and as he made the turn, his trailer came disconnected. Maybe you can tell these folks a little bit about what a fifth wheel is and how that system works, and what’s involved in inspecting that.
What Is a Fifth Wheel and How Does It Work?
Gary McMinoway:
The fifth wheel and kingpin type of coupler is a very good system. It allows the tractor to turn and also to go uphill, downhill. And the fifth wheel can rock back and forth that way, and it’s mounted in hard rubber bushing so it can take irregularities on the road. It can shift back and forth, and works very well. And it is a double latch system on a fifth wheel.
So, the trailer has the kingpin on it which is a big metal rod basically with a groove cut in it, sticking down out of the trailer. And when that big rod goes into the fifth wheel, it grabs a hold of it. And there’s one bar, slides in behind it to lock it in place. And then there’s another bar, slides in behind there to lock that bar in place.
Gary McMinoway:
So, when you have one that fails like you were talking about, it has had a lot of use in most cases. Probably not very good maintenance and has just outlived its usefulness. The parts are just worn out and can no longer lock each other in place. And I’ve also seen sometimes the kingpin on the trailer which… Above that rod that goes into the fifth wheel, there’s a large plate about the size of a dinner plate, a metal plate. And that is welded onto a big cross member in the trailer in order for that to be attached to the trailer frame and be very solid connection, but after years of banging back and forth, up and down over the road, those can actually crack. That plate can break, and I’ve seen that kingpin plate actually pull loose from the trailer. There again, that’s something that actually should be caught at the DOT inspection. And that’s something that we were wanting to talk about too.
Gary McMinoway:
Every year, every commercial vehicle is supposed to have a complete inspection done of all the safety items. And DOT requires it. The trucking companies have to keep records of when it was done and what was repaired. And they have a form that is filled out and everything is checked off on the form. And then you have a sticker that’s put on the vehicle to show when that was done. And there’s a card from the form that’s supposed to be kept in the vehicle so that if the sticker gets damaged or something, you’ve always got that card inside the vehicle showing when it was done.
David Craig – Host:
I think it’s important. You got 40 tons of steel out there. When they’re in wrecks, people die or get seriously injured. And so, the federal government has said, “We’re going to take extra precaution if you’re involved in interstate commerce. We want to regulate this industry. And we want to make sure these trucks and trailers are safe. And so, we want to have these DOT inspections so that we can catch bad fifth wheels.” For example, you were talking about a fifth wheel. If they’re being inspected, you’re going to catch those things. And so, that’s what we’re talking about, folks, is that the government requires these vehicles to be inspected so that the road trucks are safe that around the roadway. And you do these DOT inspections, don’t you?
Gary McMinoway:
Oh, yes. We do them every day. Not a day goes by, we won’t be doing a DOT inspection on somebody’s truck in our shop. And there are also manuals that the government puts out that have the specifications for everything that you’re supposed to check and what condition it’s supposed to be in. And then they put a little cheat sheet basically on the back of the DOT form that also has a brief description of everything on it. And I was just looking here today. Brakes is the first category on the form when you fill it out here. And also on the criteria section, the first entire column is criteria for brakes. The second entire column is criteria for brakes and ABS. And then part of the third column is criteria for brakes.
Gary McMinoway:
So, that’s why they think it’s such an important thing. They’ve got a lot of different things you have to check on the brake system. And then, of course, the coupling devices is second. Some of these are put in, basically, so everything fits on the form.
Exhaust system is next, then a fuel system, whether or not it’s got any leaks. Lighting devices, safe loading, so that the cargo come off of the vehicle, and then steering mechanism, suspension, the frame itself. I’ve seen trucks that we’ve done inspections and the frame got rusted so bad you could stick your hand through the frame rail. They’re just too old and needed to be replaced or seriously repaired.
And then, of course, tires, wheels, and rims, windshield, windshield wipers. Even the seats on buses is something that’s supposed to be checked when you’re doing a DOT inspection on a bus.
Gary McMinoway:
And then they leave a section at the bottom of that that just says “other” because they know you can’t get everything on that form that you could possibly run into when you’re doing an inspection on a truck. So, they leave you an area there just to write in whatever else you find that might be bad.
David Craig – Host:
And how long does it take you all to do all these [inaudible 00:38:48] or these DOT inspections?
Gary McMinoway:
A tractor inspection, just the inspection, doing no repairs whatsoever, just looking it over, to do a decent job is about an hour. Doing the trailer is usually a little less, half hour to 45 minutes. And like I say, that is just for the inspection. We almost always find something. Even a truck that’s one or two years old, you’ll find something, a light that’s out. A hose [inaudible 00:39:22] somewhere. Something like that. Something that didn’t get greased from the factory and it’s bound up a little bit or something. You always run into more time doing some repairs on them after you do the inspection, and then there’s the…
David Craig – Host:
Like I said, if you find something wrong with it, I mean, they’re supposed to have that fixed to repaired, right?
Gary McMinoway:
Yeah. Of course, that’s the owner’s option. Sometimes they have their own shops. They like to do repairs themselves or just a friend of theirs that does repair if it’s a little… Guys just got one or two trucks.
Most of the time, we do the DOT repairs there. And it’s sort of interesting. We have little fleets. I see guys who just have one truck or two trucks. We have larger fleets that might have 50 or 60 trucks and you tell these people, “Well, this doesn’t pass the DOT regulations and we cannot put your sticker on there and pass it unless we repair it.” “Well, we can’t repair that right now. We’ve got a couple of weeks left on our sticker. We’ll go and get it fixed here the next time it’s stopped.” And at that point, there’s nothing I can do about it. If they aren’t going to pay us for fixing it, I can’t fix it free. So, we just have to write it up that it’s defective, let the thing go. If they have an issue with it, we’ve got documentation to cover ourselves that we told the customer what was wrong. We generally try to email or text customers in that situation. That way we have proof of what we’ve done. So, we have to cover ourselves.
Gary McMinoway:
Most people go ahead and let us fix any type of safety violation. They might not want to fix the radio or something like that, fix the seat, but if it’s brakes, kingpins, lights, something like that, most people will have us fix it at that time.
David Craig – Host:
And that’s a good point too is that… I mean, there’s all different sizes of trucking companies. And the majority of trucking companies are relatively small. And there’s the big ones, but the rules aren’t different. I mean, the truck has to still be safe. It still has to pass the same inspection, whether you have one truck or whether you have 5,000 trucks, right?
Gary McMinoway:
It’s true. Yes. And, of course, the big fleets all have their own maintenance facilities and stuff. If they have something break down out on the road, some smaller shop might have to work on it or a local dealer or something. And they know that they have to comply with all of the regulations. So, they do a pretty good job of keeping up with them.
Now, on the other hand, they are all dollar-driven and they try to get every bit of use out of every component they can, whether it’s the tires, the brakes, whatever. So, they have inspections set up at intervals so that it usually comes out that the brakes wore out at the third inspection or the tires wore out at the fourth inspection. They try to time it that way, but sometimes different drivers drive different ways and things wear out sooner. And sometimes you find issues with the big companies the same as you do the small ones.
David Craig – Host:
All the years you’ve been doing it, have you ever found a truck or a trailer that wasn’t inspected timely that’s passed the inspection?
Gary McMinoway:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I know of smaller fleets, mostly on straight trucks, but sometimes they have some tractor-trailers and something breaks on the truck. They’ll send it in and want us to repair the clutches out of it or the wheel bearing’s bad, but it’s got some other issues. Maybe the ABS light’s on. And that’s a requirement that the ABS system has to work and they won’t let us fix that. And we tell them, “We cannot put a sticker on it. You’re driving in violation. If you get caught in a wreck or in a regular inspection, you’re going to be in trouble.” There are millions and millions of trucks on the road. One time I was at… The Kentucky State Police let me go out to stop on I-64 past Simpsonville. And I was talking to them out there and it seemed like it was not… Some of them are the same vehicles, but there was something like two million trucks that travel east to west through Kentucky every year. They’ve got 60 enforcement agents out there. There’s no way they can stop every truck or even a majority of the trucks.
Gary McMinoway:
So, unfortunately, there are a lot of unsafe vehicles out there on the road. I have actually in a couple of cases where a vehicle I felt was too unsafe called the police and let them know which way that truck was going and what it looked like and what the numbers were on it because it wasn’t safe to be on the road.
David Craig – Host:
Wow.
Gary McMinoway:
We never get those customers back in the shop after I do that, but I don’t care.
David Craig – Host:
Well, they’re not the ones you want, right?
Gary McMinoway:
Exactly.
David Craig – Host:
Yeah. Well, I think that… I mean, people look at the DOT form, and we put it up on the screen. I mean, there’s a lot to just the brake system. I mean, you have a whole bunch of things that you’re checking. I mean, there’s just so many. The steering mechanism. There’s A-J, and there’s so much stuff that’s involved in looking at these trucks and keeping these trucks running. I mean, trucking companies are in business to make money. They’re going to spend as little money as they possibly can, but yet still hopefully, have a safe truck.
Gary McMinoway:
And most of the fleets do very good at that actually.
David Craig – Host:
Yeah.
Gary McMinoway:
Major fleets.
David Craig – Host:
But, unfortunately, you and I have both seen those trucks that are out there that aren’t in good shape and that have not been maintained. And you wonder how long they’ve been running in the condition they’ve been running. It’s a miracle that they haven’t caused a wreck or broke down before they [inaudible 00:46:11].
Gary McMinoway:
It is. Yeah. It’s very scary. When I was teaching my sons to drive and when my wife and I first got together, something that I always told them is, give all these vehicles respect and clearance. Don’t drive right beside them. Don’t drive right in front of them. For God’s sake, don’t cut them off short. It takes a long time for them to stop. Sometimes it takes a while for them just to react and if you have to run faster to get away from them in traffic, run faster and get away from. Don’t drive right behind them because if they have to stop, a lot of times, they can stop quicker than you can.
David Craig – Host:
And that’s assuming the equipment’s in good shape. I drive and I assume that they’re not in great shape because of what I do for a living. And so, I keep my distance. And when I’m in a construction zone, I’m looking at, “How am I going to get out of this area? Is there an out for me in case the equipment behind me doesn’t stop or doesn’t slow down or whatever?” I think it’s good advice is that no matter, you just have to respect on the road. I get semi drivers comment all the time on my blogs and on my videos and on my podcasts that you got to ride with us for a while because people cut them off, and people don’t respect them and they don’t give them sufficient space.
David Craig – Host:
I mean, we all have to do that. You have to take care because… And I represent truck drivers who get hit by other truck drivers. The majority of truck drivers, in my opinion, are good people who care very much about safety. Unfortunately, there’s a small percentage out there that don’t. That put profits ahead of safety. And those are the ones you have to watch out for. And when those cause wrecks, you have to hire people like yourself to figure out why. What went wrong? Do you enjoy the forensic part of it?
Gary McMinoway:
Oh, yes. Yeah. It’s very interesting. As a matter of fact, for too long, I’m probably going to be retiring from regular company, but I’m going to continue doing the forensic part of it because it’s very interesting. I enjoy the people that I do it with. And I just think it’s… Something needs to be done also.
David Craig – Host:
Well, I know I enjoy working with you. Either side, I think, again, a lot of people don’t understand the good experts, I think, work on both sides. And another thing people don’t realize is they get along typically. I mean, I very rarely am I at an inspection where the people don’t know each other or they don’t trust each other. They usually get along, they work together and share information.
Gary McMinoway:
Absolutely. Most of us know that if you do write something down that’s incorrect, you’re not going to be able to get away with it for long. One of the others is going to catch it. And if you get that reputation for writing down the wrong thing, you’re probably not going to be doing it very much because that doesn’t work out well in the end for anybody.
David Craig – Host:
Right. And I think the same way with lawyers. I mean, I see lawyers trying to make a case that’s not… There is no case. I’ve hired experts and spent thousands of dollars to find out that I did not have a case. And I had to tell the family. Look, after we did the downloads of the car, we did the downloads of the truck, we checked the truck, we did this, did that, and we investigated. We talked to witnesses. It turns out that it was the car driver’s fault. And I would rather… And the families, they want to know the truth. I mean, they’re not wanting me to build a case. They’re wanting to know the truth. And so, I would much rather find that out in the very beginning and be able to go back and tell the family, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing here we can do to help you.” And at least give them some closure than to try to make a case out of nothing.
Gary McMinoway:
Yeah. It’s a shame, but like you say, there are some mechanics and some lawyers and some of the lawyers hire mechanics that they know will do that.
David Craig – Host:
And the truth though, ultimately wins itself out. And so, I believe that at least. And I’m always looking for the truth and what happened. And I think… For people who are listening too that it’s very important that you pick a lawyer who understands semi-tractor trailer cases, who understands the law behind it because it is different, understands the equipment. And more importantly knows who to hire. Not the hired gun, but hire the people who have credentials, who can give you a truthful answer.
Is there anything else, Gary, that you think of that you think should… that we want to cover, that we haven’t talked about yet?
Information on Motorcycle Safety
Gary McMinoway:
One thing I might mention too while we’re here. As I said earlier, I’ve also done inspections on cars, trucks, motorcycles, and scooters. I’m a motorcycle rider. Have been since I was a kid. And I would like to throw in a little bit about motorcycle safety too. I know there are a lot of motorcycle riders that ride too fast. They zigzag in and out of traffic. And sometimes they cause their own issues that way or problems that way, but I would like to request that people who drive cars, drive trucks, whatever, keep an eye out for motorcycles. They’re very small. They’re not a threat to you. I think a lot of times people see a motorcycle coming. They see it, but it doesn’t present a threat to their vehicle because they’re inside of a car or a truck or whatever. And they might go ahead and pull out of an intersection or stop short or whatever. Like I say, it’s something that we really need a lot of people to pay more attention to.
David Craig – Host:
Again, it’s like the semi drivers. I mean, the majority of people who ride motorcycles are good, safe drivers. You have a handful that kind of make it bad for everybody, but the majority are good, safe drivers. The one thing that I see that I would comment and add to that is that distracted driving is deadly. And so, when you’re looking at your cell phone, even for a second, or you’re looking at a computer, or you’re looking at your… Or you’re fixing your hair or you’re reading a book or whatever it is you’re doing, you take your eyes off the road for a second and people can die. And motorcycles are really vulnerable because if you take your eyes off this road and you’re doing 30 miles an hour in a city and you hit somebody, hopefully, people aren’t going to die in that wreck. But if you take your eyes off a second, and you’re going 30 miles an hour and you hit a motorcycle, somebody could die or they could lose a leg or they could be seriously injured.
Gary McMinoway:
Yes.
David Craig – Host:
And so, distracted driving. It’s so frustrating to me because every year I’m just getting more and more cases. I get more distracted driving cases than I do alcohol involved cases. Ones that involve alcohol. We had two folks on a motorcycle who both lost a leg because of a distracted driver. They were parked along the side of the road-
Gary McMinoway:
Oh, wow.
David Craig – Host:
… and got hit. And so, it’s just… We actually just this weekend, Lawrence had a community safety event, and I have distracted driving machines that I take out to the community and I have kids drive them because they see their parents using their cell phones. And I have them go through this course and say, “Okay. You try to get through this course. Have your mom sit here and try to get through this course,” because they think they can do it because they’ve done it and not wrecked. Well, they’ve been fortunate because nobody’s slowed in front of them or nobody stopped in front of them or nobody walked in front of them. That’s the only reason they’ve been successful. And so, we put them in a simulation machine where you can see that something will walk in front of them or stop in front of them and they don’t make it through the whole course. Nobody does. And I just wish that more people understood that for motorcycle drivers, for car drivers, for every… I mean, everybody. Nobody should be distracted at driving.
Gary McMinoway:
It is a full-time job just watching the traffic, watching the road conditions, and keeping your vehicle under control. And like I say, when you’re doing all this other stuff that we see people doing, it’s just not safe.
David Craig – Host:
Yeah.
Gary McMinoway:
And I’ve had several crashes and a lot of the trucking companies now, of course, have in-cab cameras that view not only outside, in front of the truck, but inside the cab. So, here’s a driver going down the road. He knows there’s a camera in there focused on him. He’s still holding his phone up here watching a video while he’s driving the truck down the road.
David Craig – Host:
Yep.
Gary McMinoway:
And then it shows the truck gradually drifting off so he’s concentrating on the phone, not concentrating on where he’s going, and he drifts over and hits the guard rail, then yanks it back and runs into somebody else.
David Craig – Host:
Yep.
Gary McMinoway:
And all from being distracted.
David Craig – Host:
Yeah. I’ve seen drivers… We had a fatality where a driver was driving a flatbed and he was using his phone just solely as a GPS. Now, he was trying to figure out where he was going and he didn’t… My client was stopped at a red light and he’s looking at his phone and he killed my client. I’ve had ones where a guy was actually looking at porn-
Gary McMinoway:
Oh, wow.
David Craig – Host:
… and he was driving a semi-tractor trailer. It amazes me. And there’s no excuse for a car driver or somebody driving a truck to take their eyes off the road, not be paying attention because unfortunately people die.
Gary McMinoway:
There’s just too much traffic anymore. When I was a kid and learning how to drive, there was so much less traffic around this area around where I live in Southern Indiana down here. It’s just a totally different situation now. I remember in ’79, took a trip out to California and the roads out there were, of course, expressway, just clogged with traffic even back then. And it was totally different. It was a full time job just avoiding accidents in traffic. Every year, we get more drivers on the road, more vehicles on the road, and it gets more and more dangerous to be driving and not paying attention to what you’re doing.
David Craig – Host:
Yep. Okay. Thank you very much again for being on the podcast.
Gary McMinoway:
Thank you for having me.
David Craig – Host:
This is David Craig, and you’ve been listening to After the Crash. If you’d like more information about me or my law firm, please go to our website ckflaw.com. Or if you’d like to talk to me, you can call 1-800-ASK-DAVID. If you would like a guide on what to do after a truck wreck, you [inaudible 00:57:57] my book, Semitruck Wreck: A Guide for Victims and Their Families. This is available on Amazon or you can download it for free on our website, ckflaw.com.
