Posts Tagged ‘accident’
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
While everyone was decking the halls at Christmas time, police were busy investigating a “hit and run,” but not quite 
the hit and run that you think.
According to reports, on December 23rd a truck was traveling on I-10 East Freeway when a tractor trailer driving in front of him failed to secure their cargo properly, causing a 31-inch-long steel pipe to roll off the tractor trailer, bouncing off the ground and into the windshield of the following truck (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7374591.html).
Instead of stopping to help the victim, who ended up suffering a broken arm, the driver kept going, never reporting the accident, and meanwhile, leaving the shipper’s cargo behind.
This would never happen with a Road Scholar Transport truck. We secure all loads properly and only put safe/responsible drivers on the road, which is why Road Scholar has a 0.0005% damage claims ratio.
As chron.com notes, the victim followed the tractor trailer until he could no longer deal with the pain and had to stop and get help.
Crime Stoppers now seek your help regarding any information leading up to the arrest of the driver, offering a $5,000 reward.
Tags: 31-inch-long steel pipe, accident, cargo, christmas, Crime Watchers, damage claims, driver, hit and run, I-10 East Freeway, insecure load, police, reward, road scholar transport, shipper, tractor-trailer, truck, trucker identity, victim
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Monday, December 27th, 2010
In response to the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and other members of the industry’s concerns, the Federal 
Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed that the current hours of service (HOS) rule remain the same with the exception of seven changes.
According to truckinginfo.com, the rule will still require 10 consecutive hours each day for drivers to rest, with 60 hours in 7 days and 70 hours in 8 days of on-duty time remaining the same.
The question of whether drivers will be allowed to travel 11 hours or be reduced to 10 hours a day, which, thetrucker.com notes, changes due to individuals’ beliefs on whether the number of fatigue related accidents is too high, has come to light with the FMCSA believing that a reduction in the number of hours a driver is allowed should be changed to 10.
Other changes the FMCSA proposes are as follows (provided by http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=72531):
-Drivers would have to be released from duty after 14 consecutive hours, rather than have the current option of continuing on duty but not drive. This would apply to regional drivers as well, who currently get the option of one 16-hour shift a week. Certain short-haul non-CDL drivers would still get two 16-hour shifts a week but would have to be released from duty afterwards.
-Give drivers a one-hour break during the day by limiting actual duty time within the 14-hour driving window to 13 hours.
-Limit consecutive time behind the wheel by prohibiting a driver from driving if it has been more than 7 hours since his last off-duty or sleeper-berth period of at least 30 minutes.
-Modify the 34-hour restart: it would have to include two periods between midnight and 6 a.m., and it could be used only once a week.
-Change the definition of on-duty time from any time in the truck, except the sleeper berth, to exempt any time spent resting in a parked truck and up to two hours in the passenger seat of a moving truck immediately before or after eight hours in a sleeper berth.
-The oilfield operations exception would be revised to clarify the language on waiting time and to state that waiting time would not be included in the calculation of the driving window.
Stay up-to-date with more news in the trucking industry by visiting Road Scholar’s website at http://www.roadscholar.com/industrynews.html.
Tags: accident, American trucking Associations, ATA, driver, federal motor carrier safety administration, FMCSA, HOS rule, hours of service, on-duty hours, proposal, road scholar transport, truck, trucking industry news
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Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
According to abc2news.com, a pharmaceutical truck transporting narcotics to a nearby pharmacy in West Baltimore was robbed yesterday in what is being called an “incredibly thought out robbery.”
The driver was transporting 87 crates full of narcotics (worth a very significant value) when three suspects, one in possession of a gun, surrounded and abducted the driver, stealing the truck, the article notes.
Thieves drove the truck to a precise location where they unloaded the cargo into another truck and took off, leaving the empty pharmaceutical truck and driver, who was unhurt, behind (http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/state/city-robbers-steal-truck-full-of-narcotics-during-pharmacy-delivery).
Abc2news informs that descriptions of the suspects have not yet been released but that this is thought to be a planned robbery since the thieves knew exactly what kind of freight the truck would be transporting and at what time.
When transporting a high value target, such as pharmaceuticals, it is very important to choose a carrier who will provide you with the security and service you need to keep your freight safe. Road Scholar Transport’s tractor trailers are equipped with a Show Me feature that allows you to see exactly where your cargo is at any precise moment (down to the street level), along with electronic door monitoring alerting of every door opening/closing, as well as many other security features. Road Scholar Transport also offers expedited shipping to ensure that your freight is delivered safely, on time, every time.
Learn more about all the services Road Scholar Transport provides to keep your cargo safe from accident/theft by visiting www.roadscholar.com.
Tags: abduct, accident, cargo, crate, driver, electronic door monitoring, freight, narcotics, pharmaceutical, road scholar transport, robber, robbery, safe, security, Show Me, stolen, theft, thief, tractor-trailer, transport, truck, West Baltimore
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Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
“It’ll clear,” Ron Davis thought as he drove his 12 feet 4 inch tractor trailer under the
http://www.clickondetroit.com/slideshow/news/25378446/detail.html
railroad trestle in the Detroit area. What he failed to realize was that the tanks he was transporting made his truck taller than the 12 feet 8 inch bridge limit, an article on clickondetroit.com notes.
The impact caused two large plastic tanks Davis was transporting to detach, one of them crashing down on a car traveling in the opposite direction, where a man was driving his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son, the site states.
Luckily for the boy, the tank landed on the driver’s side and resulted in no major injuries. Both were taken to separate hospitals, the boy being transported to a children’s hospital, and except a broken leg the driver obtained, both are doing well.
It is important for drivers to be aware of the freight they are carrying and to make sure that their cargo is safe and secure, the way that Road Scholar Transport does. One of the reasons why Road Scholar Transport has only a 0.0005% damage claims ratio.
Tags: accident, cargo, damage, davis, Detroit, driver, railroad, road, ron, scholar, tank, tractor, trailer, transport, trestle, truck
Posted in Trucking Industry News | Comments Off
Friday, October 1st, 2010
If you think that the shortage of truck drivers is bad now, brace yourself because it’s about to get worse.
Once again, The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s initiative to take unsafe drivers off the road is at play, this time with the Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA) 2010 going into effect today.
According to NorthJersey.com, the CSA 2010 will keep track of everything from accidents to the simplest inspection violations on a particular driver.
After receiving a driver/applicant’s permission, an employer can then go online and screen the driver’s record of the past three (inspection violations) to five (accidents) years, the site notes.
The CSA 2010 presents both positive and negative reactions. First of all, screening drivers before employment would help reduce the amount of unsafe drivers on the road, which in return, help lowers the number of accidents, just like Road Scholar Transport’s daily inspections and responsible drivers help reduce crashes everyday.
On the other side, carriers believe that it is hard finding drivers the way it is and that the CSA 2010 is going to make that scarcity worse. Those drivers that are looking for work are fearing that they will have a hard obtaining employment due to past occurrences.
If you’re a safe driver looking for a career, apply today at www.roadscholar.com/employment.html.
Tags: accident, administration, carrier, CSA 2010, drivers, federal, inspection, motor, road, safe, safety, scarcity, scholar, transport, truck, unemployment
Posted in Services, Trucking Industry News | 42 Comments »
Friday, September 24th, 2010
It was literally a buzz that began a lawsuit this week against Reinhart Foodservice and its 
carrier and driver.
According to Star Tribune, Todd Brinkhaus is suing after an accident last May that caused a four-vehicle pileup on I-35 and two fatalities, one being his wife.
Driver Jason Styrbicky was driving over the speed limit when he “failed to brake, causing a chain reaction crash that crushed two cars between that truck and another semitrailer carrying bees” (http://www.startribune.com/local/south/103678439.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsA).
Yes, bees. Seventeen million to be exact, which were then released into the air.
Besides Brinkhaus’ wife, another woman was killed after being crushed in the pileup.
The trucking company which started the accident is being hit with not “maintaining a reasonable distance,” failing to “drive a safe speed,” and driver fatigue, the site notes.
With the record of never encountering a full cargo loss and having a statistic of only 0.0005% in damage claims over the last year, the only buzz you’ll hear about Road Scholar Transport is our 10 million miles to a cure awareness program.
Tags: accident, bees, Brinkhaus, buzz, cargo, fatality, freight, I-35, lawsuit, May, Reinhart Foodservice, road, scholar, Styrbicky, transport, truck
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Thursday, September 9th, 2010
You hear it on the television and radio all the time, “Traffic is back up due to a tractor trailer accident.” Your first instinct is that the truck driver is at fault. Wrong.
According to a recent European study, accidents involving trucks are usually not the truck driver’s fault.
As an article in truckinginfo.com states, in 85.2 percent of cases, human error was to blame for the accident, with 75 percent of those being the passenger vehicle’s fault (http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=71594). That leaves only 25 percent of human error accidents actually the truck driver’s.
So maybe you’ll think differently now the next time you hear of an accident on the interstate or highway.
But during those times that it is the truck driver’s fault, chances are it won’t be one of Road Scholar Transport’s trucks you hear about.
Road Scholar Transport is a best in class Truckload and LTL Carrier with a 99% delivery rate and less than 0.0001% damage rate! Here’s an example, in 2009 Road Scholar posted statistics that stated out of 350 million pounds of freight transported, seven million miles traveled, and 30,000 deliveries made, there were only seven damage claims. It must be those safe drivers, security features, and excellent services that people are always associating with Road Scholar.
Want to hear for yourself? Check out Road Scholar Transport’s testimonial page at http://www.roadscholar.com/testimonials.html.
Tags: accident, cargo, driver, Europe, freight, ltl carrier, road, safe, scholar, security, service, tractor, trailer, transport, truck, truckload, vehicle
Posted in Services, Trucking Industry News | 40 Comments »
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
A truck driver crashed in Kentucky last March, resulting in 11 fatalities, among those an infant. That driver was Kenneth Laymon.
As of June, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) finished auditing Hester, the Alabama trucking company responsible for the accident, and pulled them off the road, truckinginfo.com notes. As the site states, it was not until recently that this information was released to the public, when a newspaper was granted the information through the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the reports, Laymon was on his cell phone at the time the accident occurred and investigators do not know how long he was operating the vehicle non-stop before he crashed, since “the truck was not equipped with an electronic onboard recorder, and the driver’s logbook was destroyed in the fire” (http://www.truckinginfo.com/news/news-detail.asp?news_id=71569).
It would come as no surprise if Laymon didn’t keep a logbook anyways. According to nky.com, in a two year time span, Hester received 166 violations, 39 of which were for driving too long without rest and 21 for not maintaining their log or for false entries.
The site also notes that Hester’s inspection rating was marked at 88.4% on a scale where 100 is the worst and anything from 75% on is “considered deficient” (http://nky.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20100331/NEWS0103/303310014/Alabama-trucking-firm-Hester-Inc-had-poor-safety-record-before-Int-65-crash).
With Road Scholar Transport, you don’t have to worry about safety violations or an ill-equipped truck. All of our trucks contain tracking devices so that we know exactly where our drivers are at all times, when and where they stopped and for how long, and much more.
Our drivers operate with the upmost in safety and performance, are Hazmat certified, and the best part is, Road Scholar Transport has a proven record of less than 0.0001% in damage claims every year!
To learn more about our services and to view our certificates and credentials visit www.roadscholar.com.
Tags: accident, Alabama, cargo, driver, FMCSA, Freedom of Information Act, freight, Hester, Kentucky, Laymon, road, scholar, tranport, transport, truck, trucking
Posted in Services, Trucking Industry News | 36 Comments »
Monday, August 30th, 2010
Did you know that “every 16 minutes, a person is killed or injured in a truck accident?” (http://www.truckinjuries.com/trucking-accidents.asp)
That was the case last year when Vaughn Gentry crashed the tractor trailer he was driving on Interstate 30, killing three people, along with himself, who were stopped due to construction work, TheTrucker.com notes. According to this site, recent reports show that Gentry’s blood results tested positive for cocaine and marijuana (http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2010/8/30/DriverindeadlyArkcrashtestshaduseddrugs.aspx).
Unfortunately, fatalities of no-fault victims are nothing new. Truckinjuries.com states that “in tractor trailer accidents, 98% of all fatalities occur to the individuals in the passenger vehicles.”
So how do we lower these statistics and prevent fatalities on the road? By hiring only the safest drivers to transport your freight.
Road Scholar Transport does just that, conducting a drug test on every new hire and again on 50% of established drivers every year. IF there is ever an accident where a vehicle is either towed away or an injury results, we take it upon ourselves to conduct another drug test. Our company also performs ten year criminal background checks on all drivers to make sure that we operate with only the safest drivers.
At Road Scholar Transport, we exhibit the highest confidence that we are a completely drug-free company.
Visit www.roadscholar.com to learn more.
Are you a safe driver? Apply today at http://www.roadscholar.com/employment.html
Tags: accident, apply, Arkansas, background, check, drug, employment, fatality, freight, Interstate, job, road, safe, scholar, test, tractor, trailer, transport, truck, Vaughn Gentry
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