Hours of service violations and the resulting fatigued truck drivers constitute a national safety crisis of epic proportions. Every time we get behind the wheel of our vehicle we are likely to be sharing the roadways with huge commercial trucks, delivering goods across the United States. Despite the best efforts of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the profit-driven motives of trucking companies keep exhausted drivers behind the wheel of 80,000 pound trucks, threatening the safety of everyone else on the road. When a Texas truck wreck occurs, it is fairly likely the crash is the result of an overly-tired driver who has logged too many hours behind the wheel. Alarmingly, the number of truck accident fatalities increased in 2011 while overall traffic collision fatalities decreased.

While most truck accidents are serious—due to the sheer size of the truck—no matter how large or small the resulting damages and injuries, a Houston trucking accident is always treated differently than a “regular” car crash. Further, trucking accidents bring a host of new complexities into the mix. If your chosen attorney is inexperienced, your claim, as well as your future, can suffer irreparable harm.  Interstate trucking cases are unique, time consuming and expensive to prosecute, placing them in a very narrow legal niche.

Those who have been involved in a truck accident are fully aware of the trauma involved, both in the collision itself as well as in the aftermath of injuries and damages. An 80,000 pound loaded truck can—and does—do immense damage to the much smaller passenger vehicles involved in the accident. In fact, the vast majority of fatalities in truck accidents are the occupants of the passenger vehicle rather than the driver of the large commercial truck.

In our current society, drivers are beginning to fear the reckless or aggressive driver as much as they fear the driver who is driving while under the influence. Although aggressive driving does not generally reach the same levels as road rage, the terms are used interchangeably at times. The aggressive driver is impatient and quick to anger; he or she tailgates others in a bid to get even a tiny bit ahead of another driver. The aggressive driver and the reckless driver show an overall disregard for the rules of the road. Both types of drivers may change lanes in an unsafe manner; drive at speeds which are unsafe for the road conditions and generally put others who share the road at risk. Some forms of reckless and aggressive driving include:·

Over 500,000 semi-truck accidents occur each year in the United States resulting in over 5,000 fatalities and thousands of injuries. A loaded semi-truck can weigh in at 80,000 pounds and when that much weight comes in contact with a passenger vehicle which weighs around 5,000 pounds, it is clear who the victims will likely be. There are numerous factors involved in a trucking accident including driver error, reckless driving, distracted driving, equipment malfunction, inexperienced drivers and improperly secured loads. Attorneys who represent the victims can face many challenges when proving negligence on the part of the truck driver, trucking company, maintenance department or the manufacturer of the truck.

Those who have found themselvesentangled in a Texas auto accident may realize after the shock of the accident has passed that their neck is painful and that they are unable to perform the same range of motions they once were. These limitations, along with chronic pain, can make their day-to-day lives very difficult. Many people are tentative about contacting a personal injury attorney for a neck injury due to the adverse connotations frequentlyassociated with whiplash claims.

In many cases, after a car accident which resulted in injuries, the victims of those injuries may find themselves dealing with what is sometimes called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, and other times labeled Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy. Although the exact cause of CRPS is not fully understood, one theory suggests that the injuries resulting from the car crash trigger an immune response as well as other symptoms associated with inflammation. Complex Regional Pain Syndrome often affects the arms, legs, hands or feet and the primary symptom is intense, continuous pain which is difficult to alleviate. Extreme sensitivity to even the lightest touch is a hallmark of CRPS and the pain felt by the victim is almost always much more acute that the injury would warrant on the surface.

Large commercial trucks are responsible for over 5,000 traffic fatalities each year in the United States. These accidents are largely a result of trucker error, distraction, and/or fatigue, mistakes on the part of the passenger vehicle driver and mechanical failures common to large trucks.

The City of Houston has a huge number of 18-wheelers on its roadways each year and is considered one of the busiest thoroughfares in the United States as well as a primary shipping route. The Houston metro area, with its over three million residents, sees traffic of all types at all hours of the day.

Motorcycle riding has grown in popularity over the years and as the number of motorcyclists increase so will the number of accidents. While motorcycle fatalities across the nation have actually declined in the past decade, Texas motorcycle fatalities have increased.