Every year people are injured or killed by falling cargo that was improperly secured. Proper load securement is critical because a semi pulling a trailer will be confronted with wind, poor road conditions, and other factors that can cause vibrations and movements that shake and loosen the load.
Craig, Kelley & Faultless has handled numerous cases involving falling cargo. We have represented people that have been injured when they opened a box trailer to unload the cargo. Unfortunately, when they opened the trailer door the merchandise fell on them. We have represented a semi driver who was going around a curve when the load shifted causing the trailer to flip. We have also represented people who have been injured or killed because of cargo falling off of flatbed trailers.
Cases involving shifting or falling loads are complicated and require attorneys that are familiar with the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Regulations, the Commercial Driver’s License Manual, state law and trucking industry standards. These cases may involve fault on the semi driver, the commercial motor carrier, the shipper, the broker, and others. Each of these entities will have their own insurance coverage and an experienced truck accident attorney can sort through the role of everyone involved to make sure those injured or the survivors of a wrongful death are properly compensated.
On November 11th 2020 a semi pulling a flat bed trailer loaded with large pipes was westbound on Interstate 70, west of Richmond, Indiana in Wayne County. The load had been picked up the day before in Ohio. The pipes had been loaded on the motor carriers trailer by the shipper. The semi driver had watched part of the loading process but not all of it. Part of the time the truck driver was in the cab of his semi tractor or in the office of the shipper doing paperwork.
When the shippers’ employees finished loading the semi-trailer, the semi driver put a few extra straps on the load and checked it to be sure it was secure. After assuring himself that the load was properly secured, he drove the semi tractor trailer off the property. The driver checked the load again the same day and then again, first thing the next morning. Each time he checked; the load was secure.
As the semi driver crossed into Indiana from Ohio on I70, two pieces of pipe fell off of the trailer. One rolled into the median, another stuck a car also heading west on I70. The semi driver did not notice that either of these pieces fell from his trailer. Consequently, he continued driving at highway speeds. A driver of a pickup did notice the pipes falling and he decided to stop the semi and warn the driver. Unfortunately, the pickup driver decided to stop the semi by stopping in from of him in the left, passing lane of I70. The semi driver was forced to park on the highway.
Our client was also driving west on I-70 but significantly behind the semi. He would not have been close enough to have seen the pipe fall from the trailer. He was driving in the left lane and drove right into the back of the semi that was parked on the highway. Tragically our client, a husband and father of two was killed instantly. The widow was referred to attorney David W. Craig at Craig, Kelley & Faultless by an attorney in Florida.
Fortunately, our law firm was hired soon after the accident. We realized that the semi driver likely did not have enough insurance to adequately compensate the victim’s family. The semi driver and commercial motor vehicle only had one million dollars ($1,000,000) of coverage and no available assets to pay for the harm they had caused. The next logical responsible party was the shipper who loaded the trailer.
The problem is that many states including Indiana have adopted case law that holds that a shipper is only liable for unsecure loads if the problem with the load is caused by a latent defect. The law is that the motor carrier and the driver are responsible for the load once they take the trailer and start transporting the goods. So, in our wrongful death case, the semi driver and the trucking company were liable for stopping the semi on I70 and for the load falling.
The question was, could we hold the shippers liable? The only way the shipper would be responsible would be if there was a hidden or latent defect that the truck driver was not aware of, that caused the load to shift and fall from the trailer.
Once we were hired, we sent out Preservation of Evidence Letters and inspected the trailer while the remaining load was still in place. We then insisted on being present when the trailer was unloaded. We had experts and a professional videographer at the inspection. What we were looking for was the hidden defect. We found it. The shippers had not used screws to fasten the 2×4 boards, that were used to keep the pipes in place. The lack of screws was hidden by the pipes that had been placed on top of the 2×4’s. The truck driver would not have known that the shipping company did not fasten the boards securely to the trailer with screws.
Our shipping expert was able to view the video of the pipes being unloaded. He was able to see that the boards were not fastened. He was of the opinion that the load shifted during transportation as the 2×4’s moved. This would have loosened the strapping causing part of the load to fall.
If we had not been hired as soon as we were and before the load was taken off the flatbed, we would not have been able to make our case against the shippers and our client’s family would have been deprived of getting any compensation from the shippers.
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