Hotshot Connect Forum :: Commentary: Hidden Problems with Trucks Can Spell Disaster

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By David Nissenberg

In late December 2006, a trailer hitch weighing five to six pounds escaped from a truck, bounced up and down on one of San Diego, California's freeways and smashed into the windshield of a sport utility vehicle tragically killing its 32-year old driver. Trailer hitches secure a towed vehicle such as a trailer to a truck and, if properly utilized, will not detach.

Most drivers have enough to keep themselves occupied while traveling on a freeway without having the additional worry of being struck by a flying object or facing an obstacle in their path which has escaped from a truck or tractor-trailer. Hazards to safe travel becoming more common as increased numbers of big rigs use our highways include not only detached trailer hitches but other components that have either disintegrated or fallen off a truck such as wheels, tires, wheel assemblies, brakes, brake drums, mufflers, muffler assemblies and, too often, the loads themselves.

The loss of a wheel and tire from a tractor-trailer combination presents a particularly lethal situation. Several years ago on the Santa Ana freeway in Irvine, California, a 200-pound wheel spun off the axle of a tractor-trailer and sailed into traffic crushing the cab of a pickup and leaving the driver blind, with impaired speech, a faulty memory and a reduced ability to walk steadily. A lawsuit brought against the trucking company and its tire servicing firm on behalf of the victim resulted in a 13 million dollar settlement.

Some of these types of accidents can be prevented. Take, for instance, a trailer hitch failure. A primary cause of that occurrence is attributable to the size of the load exceeding the hitch capacity. Whoever loads the trailer should know the weight of the load and the design specifications of the hitch being used. Analyses of wheel loss accidents often lead straight back to improper installation or maintenance of the wheel.

Were the wheel nuts and bolts torqued in the wrong direction? Were they overtightened? Was there a failure to lubricate them? Federal and state motor carrier safety regulations require motor carriers and trucks to service their rigs on a regular basis and to make a detailed pre-trip inspection before hitting the road. The operation of a commercial motor vehicle in such a condition as to likely cause an accident or a breakdown of the vehicle is specifically forbidden.

Sometimes the fault lays with the failed component itself. A friend of mine spent many years selling big trucks. Every so often he would tell me that he kept a box in his desk specifically for lug nuts and bolts which had disintegrated and that the box was always full. In fact, there is a problem in the trucking industry caused by the use of counterfeit heavy truck parts which are inferior in quality and not up to the stress requirements found in heavy-duty truck operations. If the use by the trucking company was unknowing then the trucker can hardly be expected to anticipate a failure.

But if the part that failed is legitimate but had been abused by poor driving habits creating heat buildup and high pressure, as can happen to brake drums, then when it cracks and is propelled into the highway, it is the trucker's fault.

A major hidden problem – hidden to the public, that is, has to do with loads that are improperly secured on the truck or trailer. Striking a piece of pipe on the roadway or a mattress which had fallen from the top of a refuse truck, which happened to a driver a few years back with drastic consequences, is the end result of poor and unlawful loading practices.

Several months ago, I had occasion to call the California Highway Patrol to report what I considered to be the unsafe transportation of crushed automobiles stacked on flatbed trailers on the 805 freeway. These rigs which I saw daily on my way to my office and still see secure their loads with nothing more than straps tying down each pile of cars. A sudden stop, a quick lane change, a jackknife in bad weather conditions could throw these crushed automobiles off the trailer and into traffic. Federal motor carrier safety regulations specifically require transportation of crushed vehicles on vehicles which have containment walls or comparable means on four sides which extend to the full height of the load to block movement of the cargo in any direction. Obviously, my call has not changed anything but one would think that the CHP would have taken action by now.

Truckers are under a duty to secure a load before leaving a shipper's premises and to stop within the first 50 miles of the trip to see if the load has shifted and, if so, to make adjustments.

Members of the driving public have to rely on trucking companies to properly instruct their personnel on safe driving and safe load securement so that unwanted items from a truck or tractor-trailer do not end up flying through the air or lying in wait for some unsuspecting driver to collide with. Reliance, however, can only go so far. Cautious driving and aggressive law enforcement are also needed to cut down on these hidden problems with trucks.

David Nissenberg is a California attorney who is the author of a widely used book on commercial trucking law. He can be reached at dnnesq@yahoo.com.