Failure to Properly Winterize A Semi Truck

The Scene and Circumstances of the Accident

It was December, a typical winter evening in northern Indiana. It was close to the holidays. The temperature had been near zero degrees for weeks. There was some snow on the ground, but the roads were clear.

The man who would become our client was having a business dinner. He had one or two alcoholic drinks during the evening that lasted for approximately four hours. After the meeting ended, he headed home. It was already dark, and he had about an hour drive. He lived in a rural area. He was taking a two-lane road home. It was late and traffic was light.

As my client was driving west, his headlights hit reflective tape on the side of a semi-trailer that was blocking both lanes of traffic. By the time he realized what he was seeing it was too late, he swerved and braked, but couldn’t avoid colliding into the semi-trailer.

The collision was violent, and he was lucky to live. Unfortunately, he would suffer horrific injuries. His legs were damaged. Bones were fractured, muscles and ligaments damaged. In addition, he suffered other non-life-threatening injuries. He was taken to a hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That is where I met him for the first time.

The victim of this wreck with a semi-trailer had a close friend who was an attorney. That attorney did some insurance defense work. I had several cases against him in the past and had always found him to be a worthy adversary. One day, I got a call from this attorney who told me about the crash. He asked me if our law firm, Craig, Kelley and Faultless, would work with him and represent his friend. He told me that he had always respected me and our law firm. He knew that we had experience in truck accident law.

The referring attorney indicated that his friend was in pretty bad shape and was worried about his future. He was worried about his inability to work, his lost wages, and whether he could physically ever be able to do what he could do before the crash. He was worried about how he would pay his bills with no income. We immediately went to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne. I explained the legal and claim process. I explained that we would need to file suit to preserve evidence.

Legal Strategy and Case Preparation: Building a Strong Defense

Once we were hired, our law firm immediately began taking steps to protect the client and to maximize his ultimate recovery. First, we obtained the police report. What the police report showed was that the semi tractor had become disconnected from the trailer when the semi driver pulled out of the facility he had been at and turned left. The police and the semi driver did not know what caused the trailer to become disconnected. We immediately sent out Preservation of Evidence letters to the truck driver, the trucking company, and its insurance carrier.

Next, we checked the FMCSA’s Safety and Fitness Electronic Records (SAFER) website to check the safety of the trucking company whose truck and driver were involved in the wreck. What we found was that the company had safety issues. Next, we pulled up the company’s website and copied it for use in future depositions. We also pulled all news reports of the crash. We requested all police photographs and all 911 calls. We hired personal investigators to interview all people who witnessed the wreck or who had called 911.

Our team on this case consisted of personal injury attorneys, paralegals, private investigators, a mechanic who worked on semis and other commercial motor vehicles, an accident reconstructionist, a fifth wheel expert, trucking company standards expert, a doctor to testify as to our clients’ injuries and prognosis, loss of future earnings expert and a future care expert. Like all of our cases, we prepared our case as if we were going to trial.

Determining Fault and Pursuing a Fair Settlement

The only way to guarantee your clients full recovery is to prepare the case for trial. If the trucking company and its insurance companies refuse to be fair and you have built a strong case, there is no reason to take a bad settlement. You will get a fair settlement voluntarily or you can force the defendant to pay by getting a jury verdict.

In this case, after the inspection of the semi tractor trailer, the semi tractor, the fifth wheel of the tractor, taken statements of the witnesses, and the deposition of the semi driver, trucking companies safety director and others, we determined that there was nothing mechanically wrong with the semi tractor or trailer. We believe that the driver had done what he believed was sufficient to lock the trailer to the tractor. We believed that the fifth wheel, the part of the semi tractor where the semi-trailer connected was not defective.  However, we discovered that the grease on the fifth wheel was the wrong type of grease. The grease was for use only in warm/hot weather climates. It was not designed nor anticipated to be used in cold weather states.

It turned out that the 18-wheeler involved in this wreck had come from Mexico. The driver was from Mexico, was trained in Mexico, and most of his experience was driving in warm weather climates. He was unprepared to drive or maintain his equipment in freezing or below freezing weather.

We had to deal with a few other issues such as our client’s speed, conspicuity issues, and whether one or two alcoholic drinks had contributed to the cause of the wreck. Ultimately, we were able to prove that our client did nothing wrong and nothing that he did or didn’t do contributed to the wreck. We were able to show that the tractor would have been impossible to see because of the angle of the tractor on the road and the loss of power to the trailer once it became detached from the semi tractor.

The case settled for a fair value once we had completed the work necessary to prove that all of the fault for the accident was the responsibility of the truck driver and the trucking company that hired him and didn’t train him to maintain equipment in the cold weather.

Take Aways:

1. Not all semi drivers have been trained or have experience driving in cold weather conditions.
2. Semi tractors and trailers need to be properly maintained and prepared for cold weather and winter driving.
3. A fifth wheel needs different grease in winter and cold weather.
4. When a trailer becomes detached from the semi tractor it can lose all power which can cause a hazard.
5. If a semi driver loses his trailer, loses power to the trailer and is blocking a lane of travel at night it is critical that the driver immediately puts out flares or triangles to warn oncoming traffic of the dangerous condition.