One of the great pleasures of living in Louisiana is its strong sense of its culture. At the top of that cultural list for many is the Mardi Gras, but celebration can turn to tragedy when someone is injured. This was the case when an unnamed woman was run over by the...
Truck Accident
Sharing the road with motorcycles
The recent crash outside of Walker made the local news for a good reason. A rider on a Harley Davidson traveling westbound on LA Hwy 1024 East of Hwy. 449 crashed head-on into a Chevrolet Tahoe that was traveling east. According to news reports, the driver of the SUV...
Safety advocates fight plan to ease truck driver regulations
Safety advocates warn that a Department of Transportation plan to loosen rules over the number of hours a truck driver can work may put all drivers at higher risk on U.S. highways. The Associated Press reports the trucking industry has long fought to see the federal...
Seven motorcyclists die in accident
A driver of a commercial pick-up truck pulling a flatbed trailer made a fatal error on June 21 when he allowed his vehicle to veer across the yellow line and into the oncoming lane occupied by ten motorcyclists. Seven in the group, known as the Jarheads Motorcycle...
Administration looks to loosen regulations on truckers’ hours
The U.S. Department of Transportation is looking to ease restrictions on the number of hours that truck drivers can work in a workday. Taking its lead from a Trump administration that has a close relationship with the trucking industry, the governing Federal Motor...
Back seats no longer the safest place
Parents and the safety conscious have been told for decades that the safest place in the car was the back seat. However, years of focus on the front seat have changed things. Along with the usual array of airbags, there are also features like seat belts that tighten...
Man gets $21.6 million in damages in collision with truck
Crashes involving trucks are usually severe if not fatal. Fortunately, a man in Dalton, Georgia survived a crash caused by a semi-truck, and he and his wife will collect $21.6 million in damages. The jury sat for a four-day trial in Whitfield County Superior Court,...
Louisiana is dangerous for bikers
Louisiana has the dubious distinction of once again being near the top of rankings for the most dangerous state to bicyclists. According to the Wall Street Journal, the only one with more bike-related fatalities was Florida. Whether we are first or second, it is still...
New safety initiatives for the trucking industry
The National Safety Transportation Board (NSTB) has announced the 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvement during a February 4 press day. It is a distillation of a larger list of 46 recommendations for safety improvements.The items on the short...
Trucker deaths hit record high
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released a report that 840 truckers died on the job in 2017. This is up from 786 in 2016 and represents an overall jump of 25 percent since 2011. According to experts, trucker drivers average 26.8 deaths per 10,000 workers,...