road safety

New International Roadcheck Dates Set For September 9th-11th

October 5, 2020 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Like many events previously scheduled to take place this year, 2020’s International Roadcheck was postponed and rescheduled. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance announced this month that the event, originally scheduled to take place in March, is now set for September 9th through the 11th.

“Although the coronavirus pandemic understandably shifted priorities and personnel during the spring, the commercial motor vehicle law enforcement community has reasserted its focus on the roadside inspection program and enforcement duties,” said Sgt. John Samis, President of CVSA. “Jurisdictions are nearly back to their pre-pandemic capacity with a strengthened concentration on identifying and removing unfit vehicles and drivers from our roadways using federal safety standards and the out-of-service criteria.”

The International Roadcheck has occurred right on schedule every year for the past 32 years, so the decision to postpone was “thoroughly and thoughtfully discussed,” Samis explained.

“This experience is unprecedented in our modern society, and we need to do all that we can to help stop the spread of this global pandemic,” he said at the time of postponement.

2020’s Roadcheck will be a 72-hour, boosted effort focusing on the category of driver requirements. CVSA-certified inspectors across North America will conduct visibility inspection and enforcement efforts including motor vehicle and driver inspections at weigh-in stops or inspection stations, which may be part of roving mobile patrols or specific fixed locations.

Throughout the three-day event, commercial motor vehicles will be thoroughly checked for federal regulation compliance, and law enforcement personnel will inspect for any item violations with the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.

“As we urgently respond to this time-sensitive crisis, we must remain diligent and committed to ensuring that the commercial motor vehicles and drivers providing essential goods and services to our communities are following motor carrier safety regulations,” said Samis. “Safety doesn’t take a break. It is always our top priority.”

Inspectors will collect and verify a driver’s documents during the driver portion of the inspection. They will be careful to accurately identify the motor carrier, check records-of-duty status, examine the driver’s license, and check periodic inspection reports. If needed, the inspector will also check the Medical Examiner’s Certificate, the driver’s daily vehicle inspection report, and the Skill Performance Evaluation Certificate.

Drivers will also be checked for illness, fatigue, proper seat belt usage, and any drug or alcohol possession or impairment.

Any commercial motor vehicle drivers operating without all necessary credentials, driving while ill, fatigued, or otherwise impaired, in violation of any hours-of-service rules, or under the influence of or possessing any drugs or alcohol could be placed out of service.

When placed into an out-of-service status by an inspector, the vehicle will become restricted from any travel until all violations are corrected.

The inspection portion for vehicles include thorough checks of: brake systems, cargo security, coupling devices, drive-line components, drive-shaft components, presence of the driver’s seat, exhaust systems, frames, fuel systems, lighting devices, steering mechanisms, suspensions, tires, van and open-top trailer bodies, wheels, rims, hubs, and windshield wipers.

All American commercial motor vehicle inspections are an effort to check for compliance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Canadian standards are based on many provincial and territorial mandates along with the National Safety Code, and Mexican commercial motor vehicles are checked for compliance with Normas Oficiales Mexicanas standards.

Inspectors will typically perform the North American Standard Level I Inspection during an International Roadcheck. This inspection consists of 37 steps within two main categories, along with a driver operating requirements and vehicle mechanical fitness examination. Hazardous materials and dangerous goods may also be a third category component of a Level I Inspection, if needed.

CVSA’s International Roadcheck partners with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Transport Canada, and the Ministry of Communications and Transportation of Mexico.

The International Roadcheck gives particular emphasis to one specific category of violations each year. This year’s focus on driver requirements comes after FMCSA’s data from last year’s Roadcheck showed that out of approximately 3.36 million inspections, 952,938 driver violations were found, and 199,722 of those were out-of-service conditions.

In the News – Week of September 2nd

September 6, 2019 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

New Data Provides Further Insight on Chicago’s Scooters

A new study conducted by DePaul University researchers has discovered that the electric scooters the city recently adopted as part of a four-month long trial are now being used as legitimate choices for commuting during morning and evening rush hour periods. What was once deemed a fad that many cities throughout the United States were quickly shutting down due to safety hazards and an overall lack of regulations for the public has now shown that maybe they are more useful than originally thought. The study, which was done by the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Planning, looked at 12 hours of data from a single day in the month of July. Ultimately, what this data was able to show was that in the roughly 2000 scooters trips that were taken in single day, a majority of the rides took place between 7-9am and 5-7pm.

As many in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs already know, traffic in the city can be grueling. Just like any large city, it seems that the traffic will simply never end. This new research seems to suggest that some individuals throughout the city may be turning from public transportation and vehicles altogether, and joining the scooter sharing fleet. Joseph P. Schwieterman, one of the researchers who conducted the study stated “I thought perhaps scooters were a novelty and people would use them in their leisure time, to make their social activities a little easier, but what we found is that rush hour is when most of the money is being made.” Such results from the pilot program are very important to note. While the scooters may seem like non-factor in the larger view of the city’s infrastructure as a whole, the reality is that people will go to great lengths to make their trips quicker in the morning and evening. While Chicago has clearly experienced the negatives associated with scooters, data such as this may begin changing people’s perspectives of the scooter sharing program altogether.

Of course, just because people are beginning to adopt the pilot program, does not mean it is in the best interest of city residents. As we have continuously covered, allowing scooters within city limits poses a severe risk to pedestrians and bicyclists in the city, as well as the scooter riders themselves. At this point, there have not been any developments regarding the most pressing issue – the fact that the scooter companies have failed to establish insurance coverage for riders. This effectively creates an insurance gap which could place riders in a dangerous and expensive situation if an accident were to occur. All of this is to say that while the scooters become more popular and the city becomes accustomed to seeing them, the city should also be making strides to make them much safer and establish further regulations that ensure that riders and the surrounding public are protected legally as well.

Lightfoot to Hold Town Hall on Budget Spending; Updates Expected Regarding the City’s Infrastructure

Mayor Lightfoot has announced that she will be holding several town hall meetings for Chicagoans in September 2019 to allow for open discussion regarding the City’s budget as a broader attempt to provide transparency to the city’s residents. One of the topics that will likely be discussed is how the city plans on spending the significant increase in funding it is set to receive as part of Governor Pritzker’s $45 billion capital plan that was announced in May of 2019.

We previously wrote on the plan’s overall impact on the crumbling infrastructure throughout the state, especially the roads and freeways connecting Chicago to the surrounding suburbs. Mayor Lightfoot’s townhall should hopefully provide some further updates on announced projects, such as the Kennedy Expressway reconstruction and the I-80 Ridge Road to Lincoln Highway rebuild. While these projects will likely take a significant amount of time to be completed, its important they are followed through as it was announced earlier in May that Illinois drivers were losing roughly $18.3 billion per year due to poor infrastructure and traffic.

Further, the City of Chicago has released a 2020 Budget Survey that asks city residents which areas of the budget should receive reduced or increased spending. If you are interested in attending any of the meetings, see below for further information:

6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, September 4 at the Copernicus Center on 5216 W. Lawrence Ave.
9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 14 at Roberto Clemente High School on 1147 N. Western Ave.
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 19 at Southeast United Methodist Youth and Community Center (The Zone) at 11731 S Ave.
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 25 at Lindblom Math and Science Academy, 6130 S. Wolcott Ave.

FMCSA Altering Motor Carrier Scoring

August 8, 2019 by Jay Stefani Leave a Comment

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently announced a plan to remove some types of truck crashes from how it tracks and scores trucking companies’ safety records. The FMCSA’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) site, which compiles safety data on the nation’s motor carriers, had been criticized in the past for including collisions that may not have been the fault of the truck driver or trucking company. The agency has been testing the revised system since 2017, but now plans on making the changes more permanent.

FMCSA’s Safety Measurement System

“The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) core mission is to prevent crashes, injuries, and fatalities related to large trucks and buses on our Nation’s roads.” Working toward this goal, the SMS is designed to help motor carriers incorporate federal safety rules into their operations. Adherence to these regulations is assessed by reviewing on-road performance and compliance, then analyzing the data into seven categories: Unsafe Driving, Crash Indicator, Hours- of-Service Compliance, Vehicle Maintenance, Controlled Substances/Alcohol, Hazardous Materials Compliance (HM), and Driver Fitness. These categories are referred to as Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, and are commonly referred to as a BASIC score. The BASIC score for every motor carrier in the United States is used to create a percentile-based safety ranking.

The Crash Indicator category had included all crashes involving a motor carrier’s trucks, regardless of fault. While this made the scoring system easier from a data-collection standpoint, it drew the ire of the trucking industry because it arguably penalized a truck or bus driver for a crash that was caused by someone else.

Certain types of truck crashes eligible for review

The “new” program will allow carriers, including owner-operator truck drivers, to contest certain crashes. If the crash is determined not to be the fault of the carrier or driver, the resulting points would be removed from the Crash Indicator score, thereby improving (or, more accurately, not reducing) the percentile ranking.

With the program, the following types of crashes are eligible for review:

When the commercial motor vehicle (CMV) was struck by a motorist driving under the influence (or related offense)
When the CMV was struck by a motorist driving the wrong direction
When the CMV was struck in the rear
When the CMV was struck while legally stopped or parked, including when the vehicle was unattended
When the CMV struck an individual committing or attempting to commit suicide by stepping or driving in front of the CMV
When the CMV sustained disabling damage after striking an animal in the roadway
When the crash was the result of an infrastructure failure, falling trees, rocks, or other debris
When the CMV was struck by cargo or equipment from another vehicle

Beginning in October, the FMCSA will begin accepting review requests for the following additional types of truck and bus crashes:

When a truck is hit by a vehicle that did not stop or slow in traffic.
When a truck is hit by a vehicle that failed to stop at a red light, stop sign or yield sign.
When a truck is hit by a vehicle that was making a U-turn or illegal turn
When a truck is hit by a vehicle driven by a driver who experienced a medical issue that caused the crash.
When a truck is hit by a driver who admits to falling asleep or being distracted (by a phone, passengers, etc.)
When a crash involves a driver under the influence.
When a crash involves a driver operating in the wrong direction, even if the truck was hit by another vehicle other than the one driving in the wrong direction.

Potential impact

As with many revisions to regulations and review processes, the potential impact will likely not be fully seen for some time. From a common sense standpoint, it seems fair that carriers shouldn’t be penalized for a crash that is neither their nor their driver’s fault. While that is true, there are questions that need to be addressed:

Who reviews the requests?
What kind of investigation is involved in the review?
Will there be transparency?
Will the review process be adequately funded and staffed? Or will a backlog of requests lead to nothing happening?

If the plan works as intended, it should result it more accurate safety rankings for carriers. This would, in theory, lead to safer motor carriers have better scores, and less safe motor carriers having worse scores. Obvious as this may seem, it is critically important for people who care about highway safety. A more credible scoring system would allow companies to select safer carriers to transport their cargo. A more reliable safety ranking would let shippers avoid carriers that cut corners and ignore rules and regulations intended to protect the general public.

Speaking from experience handling numerous truck crash cases, the truck is not always at fault. Or, I should say, one of the trucks isn’t always at fault. In many of our trucking cases, we represent a truck driver who was hit by another truck. Being on the road so frequently, it stands to reason truckers are more exposed to getting hit by other trucks. In a very real sense, safe trucking benefits truckers. Adhering to hours-of-service limits, hiring qualified drivers, and implementing drug awareness programs are all examples of actions carriers should be rewarded for. Safe truckers and truck companies that follow the rules should be advocating for any system that ranks them higher than those that do not.

Correctly identifying who is safe and who is not is a step in the right direction for everyone.

Who Pays My Medical Bills After a Car Accident?

July 25, 2019 by Danylo Terleckyj Leave a Comment

The short answer is the person who is responsible for a crash generally pays for medical bills related to the incident. However, the at-fault driver will pay for the medical bills usually as part of a lump-sum payment that is included in the entire settlement or verdict amount. In other words, a victim of a car crash is responsible for making sure his or her bills are paid or that the doctors, hospitals, or clinics providing treatment for their injuries resulting from the crash are willing to wait until their legal case is resolved to get paid.

What If I Don’t Have Health Insurance?

Most auto insurance policies include medical payment coverage for medical bills incurred as a result of a car crash, but the limits are usually low, and it may only cover a relatively small amount of bills. Once that coverage is exhausted, you can request that a doctor or treatment facility place a lien on an outstanding bill. This means that the doctor or medical office agrees to wait to get paid until the legal matter is concluded and funds are recovered from the negligent driver. However, medical offices typically do not agree to provide treatment on a lien basis unless their patient is represented by an attorney.

What If The Other Side Blames Me For The Crash?

Damages in injury cases in Illinois are apportioned based on fault, unless the person filing the claim is more than 50% at fault. Put another way, if a negligent driver is 100% at fault for a crash, that person should pay 100% of the damages related to the case. If the person bringing a lawsuit is determined to be partially at fault for his or her injuries, that person will be responsible for the amount of damages proportionate to his or her percentage of fault. So, if the Plaintiff is determined to be 10% at fault, that percentage remains his or her responsibility. However, if it is determined that the Plaintiff is more than 50% at fault for his or her own injuries, that person will recover nothing.

Why Do I Have to Pay At All If It Wasn’t My Fault?

It seems unfair. When a negligent driver causes injuries and property damage, the victims of the crash now have to try and put their lives back together. Everyone has their routines and responsibilities – the things they have to take care of day to day. Avoidable car crashes disrupt all of that. They make you late to wherever you were headed. They injure you, sometimes irreparably. They can cause stress. Yet, very often, the financial burden of immediate aftermath of a crash falls on the victim.

You have to get your car fixed. You have to go to the doctor. You lose time and pay at work. Often, it isn’t until the legal process is completed that these damages are addressed. Also, if a negligent driver who causes a crash has insufficient, or no insurance, you have to rely on your own auto policy to cover the cost of your vehicle and your medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of normal life, lost wages, etc.

One thing people can do to mitigate this problem is to purchase the most auto insurance coverage their budget will allow. The more coverage you have, the less risk you take when sharing the road with underinsured drivers. Illinois law requires auto policies issued in the state to include insurance that covers the policy holder and others covered by the policy if they are hurt by a driver who has no insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance. Negligent drivers should be held responsible when they cause damage, but if they don’t have enough insurance or money to pay for the damages they cause, it’s better to cover yourself to the full extent that you can.

Medical Bills Can Often Be Negotiated

If you’re hurt in a crash, medical bills can pile up in a hurry. If you have medical insurance that covers the bills initially, or you find a doctor that will treat you on a lien basis, there may be an opportunity to save on medical expenses once your case is settled by negotiating with the medical bill lien holders. There are statutes in Illinois that govern how medical bill and insurance liens are calculated in Illinois. Having the help of an experienced injury attorney to help you navigate these rules can make the process of resolving these issues much easier and more efficient than trying to figure it all out on your own.

Avoiding crashes altogether is, of course, the preferred outcome in any situation. Each person who ventures to travel anywhere, whether for work, fun, or chores, should strive to act as safely as possible. Still, we all know that we live in an imperfect world where not everyone does the right thing all the time, or even what they are supposed to do. Knowing what to expect and who to turn to if things go wrong, is a much better way to approach the hazards we all face when we venture out on to the road.

Who Pays for My Car After a Crash?

July 24, 2019 by Danylo Terleckyj Leave a Comment

It is possible to follow all the rules of the road and still find yourself in a motor vehicle collision. If another driver acts unreasonably and crashes into your car, damaging your vehicle, you can make a claim to insurance for property damage. There are a few things that need to be considered before determining who actually pays.

Who caused the damage?

In Illinois, you can make a claim against another driver’s car insurance policy for your property damage if that person was responsible for the crash. If you have collision coverage on your own policy, you can seek compensation that way, too. It is usually your choice as to which policy to request payment from. Here is a list of a few things you can expect depending on which route you take:

Your Insurance

There may be less of a wait because your car insurance company will generally pay for the damage to your car without having to determine who is at fault in a crash. You contracted with that company to provide coverage for the possibility of your car being damaged. That is what it’s there for.
If you choose your policy to pay for your property damage, you will most likely have to pay your own deductible. $500 is a common deductible amount for auto collision policies in Illinois. That is the portion you have to pay out of pocket when your car insurance company pays for your property damage. If the other driver is at fault for the crash that caused damage to your car, your insurance company may be able to recover your deductible from the other driver’s insurance and reimburse you.
If you purchased minimal insurance that only provides liability coverage and no collision coverage, your car insurance company is not obligated to pay for your car regardless of how it was damaged. In this scenario, for the other driver’s insurance company to voluntarily pay for your property damage, they will likely have to accept full responsibility for the collision on behalf of their insured. Without either an admission of fault by the other side or a determination of fault you may not be able to recover your damages from insurance. For this reason, it’s always better to purchase collision coverage if you can afford it.

The Other Party’s Insurance

Regardless of how a crash occurs, insurance companies want to determine the estimated cost of repairs or a total loss before issuing any payments. When dealing with another party’s insurance policy, the process of scheduling an inspection can get delayed if the adjuster has not completed his or her investigation or determined who was responsible for the crash.
An insurance adjuster for the other driver might decide that he or she thinks you are partly to blame for a crash and will want to discount their property damage compensation offer accordingly.
If the other party’s insurance accepts full responsibility for a crash, you will not have to pay a deductible.

What is my car worth?

If your vehicle is determined to be a total loss after a crash, an insurance company will be unlikely to pay for it to be repaired. Instead, as long as the damage is covered by the policy, the company will issue a check for the value of the car before it was essentially destroyed. In other words, if a car is damaged so much that the cost of repairs is more than what the car is worth, it’s considered a total loss.

The value of the car is based on what you could get for it if you were to sell it. Put another way, it’s the market value. That is why it’s important, when financing a car, to make sure you have adequate insurance coverage for collisions and, not to borrow more money to pay for a car than what the car is worth. If you borrow money from a bank, credit union, or dealership to pay for a car and it gets wrecked in a crash, you will have to pay back the money you borrowed to finance the car regardless of how much the car is worth. The loan amount and the value of the car are two separate things that don’t always match up. You may want to consider this when you are looking to purchase a new or used ride.

The bottom line is that it’s wise to purchase as much insurance coverage as your budget will allow. It’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Trucking Industry to Have Drive-Time Rules Deregulated

July 12, 2019 by Levinson and Stefani Leave a Comment

Under the Trump Administration, the Transportation Department is looking to curb a longstanding rule, which requires drivers to stop driving once they hit their 14^thhour on the road. In addition to mandating that commercial drivers stay off the roads once they hit this limit, they must then take 10 consecutive hours off from driving before they can get back on the road. For those drivers who are set to drive for more than 8 hours at a time, it is also mandatory that they take a 30-minute break prior to reaching the 8-hour mark. The Trump administration and trucking industry lobbyists argue that these rules, regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), go too far in regulating commercial drivers due to the overall effect that inclement weather, poor traffic, and the rules themselves have on drivers being able complete their deliveries in a timely manner.

While those lobbying for changes to the current rules state that the regulations hinder driver’s abilities to get paid and ultimately keep truck drivers off the roads, the most important thing to remember is the reason as to why these rules were adopted in the first place. Just like any job throughout the United States, it is mandatory that employees be given at least a 30-minute break for every 8 hours of work. In any job, these breaks are mandatory to ensure that employees are not overworked and as we all know, if we are overworked, our productivity takes a significant hit. With that being said, why should the rules be different for truck drivers? Because America is so dependent on ground shipping and can’t be forced to deal with delays? The point of this is to say that the data in no way supports the argument that these lobbyists are making. As PBS NewsHour reported on July 1^st, “there were 4,657 large trucks involved in fatal crashes in 2017, a 10% increase from the year before, according to a May report issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration . . . Sixty of the truckers in these accidents were identified as ‘asleep or fatigued,’ although the National Transportation Safety Board has said this type of driver impairment is likely underreported on police crash forms.”

Ultimately, this news will mean that if federal regulations are relaxed, allowing commercial truck drivers to stay on the road longer, safety measures will come down to self-checks by the drivers. All drivers should become knowledgeable of safety tips to ensure they are keeping the roads a safe place for all drivers, no matter the importance of meeting delivery needs. Here is a pamphlet created by the CDC, which provides great tips and resources for such things as sleeping disorders, driving at night, and drowsy driving. It all comes down to staying safe on the roads. Statistics establish that truck drivers who are fatigued do pose a serious risk to other drivers, so be sure to review the material available and keep others safe.

Sleep Apnea Proves to be a Contributing Factor

As we are aware that fatigued driving already plays a major role in traffic crashes throughout the United States, it’s important for us to remember that some drivers may also be experiencing certain conditions that naturally make driving fatigued a regular part of their day. This fatigue is then only made worse by the fact that drivers are working incredibly tough jobs. An article published by Sleephelp, states that “sleeping with sleep apnea causes the same amount of fatigue as getting less than 5 hours of sleep per night . . . Sleep apnea is exacerbated and, in some cases, caused by obesity. Since truck drivers are among the most likely workers to be obese (38.6% struggled with obesity, according to one study), sleep apnea and the ensuing drowsiness is more likely to be an issue for them that it is for other people.” Similar to a recent post we wrote regarding drug use among commercial truck drivers, we are not saying that each truck driver is affected be these types of sleeping disorders or levels of fatigue; however, the statistics show that people within the industry are more likely to experience these issues. In addition to the factors likely to lead to sleep apnea, the FMCSA has also provided information regarding the overall risk factors and symptoms associated with the sleeping disorder. Overall, the FMCSA list the risk factors of sleep apnea as:

A family history of sleep apnea
Having a small upper airway
Being overweight
Having a recessed chin, small jaw, or a large overbite
A large neck size (17 inches or greater for men, 16 inches or greater for women)
Smoking and alcohol use
Being age 40 or older
Ethnicity

Additionally, according to the FMCSA, the symptoms of sleep apnea include:

Loud snoring
Morning headaches and nausea
Gasping or choking while sleeping
Loss of sex drive/impotence
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Irritability and/or feelings of depression
Disturbed sleep
Concentration and memory problems
Frequent nighttime urination

Overall, if you have concerns that you may be afflicted by sleep apnea and its overall effects on your ability to drive, feel free to go ahead and download this form, which helps inform individuals on how to deal with the disorder. By learning about this disorder, especially by individuals within the trucking industry, it will go much farther in establishing safer roads for all.