Hiring Negligent Truck Drivers in Texas.
When people get behind the wheel of a large truck, they’re putting other people’s lives in their hands.
As any truck accident lawyer could tell you, trucks are not easy to drive. They typically have major blind spots, for example, and it takes longer for trucks to brake than smaller vehicles.
Not to mention, commercial trucks often carry heavy or hazardous materials, all of which must be properly stored and secured.
In short, when a truck collides with a car or a smaller truck, the results can be devastating.
During accidents, the sheer size and power of large trucks can lead to debilitating injuries for the other drivers and their passengers. And, in such collisions, fatalities are all too common.
Thus, it’s vital for trucking companies to hire the right employees to handle their fleet — people with excellent driving records, people who are cautious and conscientious, people they can trust at all times. The safety of everyone on the road depends on it.
With all that in mind, let’s look at how trucking companies should screen their job candidates — and what can happen if they’re remiss in their hiring duties.
The Employer’s Duty in Texas Trucking Hires
In 2000, the U.S. Department of Transportation established the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The role of this agency is to oversee commercial motor vehicle safety throughout the country.
One way that FMCSA accomplishes its mission is to create and enforce regulations for commercial driver hiring practices. And, according to FMCSA’s rules, a trucking company can only hire a driver who:
- Obtains a commercial driver’s license
- Passes a road test
- Undergoes a full background check, one that examines their driving history and their history of drug and alcohol abuse
In addition, all job applicants must provide their commercial trucking employment history. Specifically, they must supply the names and addresses of all their trucking employers over the past 10 years, the dates of their employment, and their reasons for leaving each position.
Each applicant must also receive a special medical examination. This exam will assess the person’s overall health, and it will focus particularly on the following:
- Hearing
- Vision
- Blood pressure
- Cardiac health
- Conditions that could potentially interfere with driving, including diabetes
On top of that, the law requires commercial trucking operations to keep up a “qualification file” for each driver. Such a file must contain:
- The original job application
- The road test certificate
- The medical examiner’s certificates
- A list of the employee’s references along with their contact info
- An up-to-date driving record
These rules ensure that commercial truck drivers possess the skills, the temperament, and the judgment that safe vehicular operation requires.
What Is Negligent Hiring?
“Negligent hiring” is a legal term. It describes a situation whereby a company hires someone who’s unqualified, under the law, to fulfill the responsibilities of their position.
Essentially, there are two ways to negligently hire someone. The first involves a lack of due diligence. For example, imagine that a trucking company hires a driver without contacting that person’s prior employers. And, as it turns out, this employee has a history of reckless on-the-job driving.
Now imagine that this driver continues to drive their truck recklessly and ultimately causes a collision. In this scenario, the employer would be legally liable — at least to some degree — for the resulting damages.
The second type of negligent hiring involves knowingly hiring someone who doesn’t meet federal or state regulations.
For instance, if a job applicant fails a trucking company’s drug test and the company hires that person anyway, the company could be in serious legal trouble later on.
Negligent Retention and Supervision
Naturally, it’s not enough for a trucking company to screen a job applicant before hiring that person. According to federal law, the company must also monitor and supervise that person all throughout their employment duration.
Moreover, if an employee ever fails to meet the legal standards for commercial truck drivers, the company must fire them at once.
For example, if a commercial truck driver were diagnosed with a legally disqualifying medical condition like epilepsy, their employer would have to let them go. For sure, it can be heartbreaking to fire someone who hasn’t done anything wrong, but this law exists for public safety.
Indeed, according to the law, the monitoring and supervision of commercial truck drivers involve various responsibilities. They include but aren’t limited to:
- Random drug and alcohol testing
- Keeping an eye on every driver’s motor vehicle record, making sure no traffic violations are committed
- Verifying that all drivers renew their medical certification every two years (or more often in certain circumstances)
- Ensuring that all drivers follow the hours of service laws, which dictate how long they may drive before resting
Trucking companies must keep updating their drivers’ qualification files, too.
Also, every trucking company must stay abreast of FMCSA’s regulations. If any of those laws ever change, employers must adhere to the new rules.
Why Trucking Companies Cut Corners
To so many people, FMCSA’s hiring and monitoring rules make perfect sense. So why would any trucking company deliberately disobey them — while risking serious legal liability to boot?
It’s an unfortunate reality, but there’s often a strong monetary incentive to overlook these rules.
Maybe a trucking company signs on new customers, and it suddenly needs more drivers to transport the extra cargo. Or perhaps a trucking company is facing a driver shortage or a high rate of staff turnover.
In any event, since no trucking company wants to miss its shipping deadlines, employers occasionally rush their hiring processes. Along the way, they might skip certain steps that the law requires.
On the other hand, some employers are just lax, lazy, overly complacent, or incompetent. When it comes to following the law, they tend to be sloppy.
Other trucking company owners might know employers who’ve ignored hiring laws. Maybe they feel they can get away with ignoring them as well.
No matter the reason a trucking company hires people negligently, this dereliction can lead to catastrophe.
Common Injuries After Texas Trucking Accidents
Unqualified truck drivers frequently cause roadway collisions. And, tragically, those crashes often lead to the injuries listed below:
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Spinal cord and herniated disc injuries
- Broken or fractured bones
- Internal bleeding
- Whiplash
- Damage to the vital organs
- Injuries to the neck, chest, arms, legs, or knees
- Severe burns, cuts, or lacerations
- Eye injuries and vision loss
- Dental injuries and tooth loss
- Strained or sprained muscles
- Mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Some of these injuries may heal over time. Others can be permanent, causing lifelong disfigurement and chronic pain. Sometimes injuries from an accident are so severe that they can be fatal.
Further, treating such injuries may require surgical operations, amputations, blood transfusions, organ donations, rehabilitative therapy, or ongoing medical care.
Proving Negligent Hiring in a Truck Accident Case
If you’ve been involved in a commercial truck accident, it’s vital to contact a qualified truck accident attorney right away.
The sooner your lawyer can get to work investigating the collision, the fresher the evidence will be, and the more detailed and reliable the eyewitness testimony will be.
A skilled attorney will be able to reconstruct the accident and figure out what caused it and who’s to blame.
It might turn out that negligent hiring played a role in the crash. If so, your truck accident attorney will find out.
Lawyers can uncover hiring and supervisory negligence by:
- Examining the driver’s background check, employment records, medical records, and driving records to see if any disqualifying factors were overlooked
- Studying the driver’s alcohol tests, drug tests, and history of substance abuse
- Evaluating the effectiveness and thoroughness of the company’s employee training program
- Analyzing the driver’s hours of service history
In short, your truck collision attorney will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the company’s hiring protocols and monitoring methods.
Indeed, your truck wreck lawyer will obtain — subpoena, if necessary — all relevant records and internal documents.
Your truck crash attorney might also interview the employers themselves. They may interrogate past and present employees as well.
In the end, an outstanding truck crash lawyer will identify any and all hiring failures and falsifications.
If any such transgressions are found, the next step is to prove causation. That is, your truck wreck attorney must demonstrate — with precision and via the available evidence — how those infractions led directly to your accident.
How PM Law Firm Can Help
Have you been in a truck accident recently? And do you live in Humble, Kingwood, or Atascocita, Texas?
If so, we at PM Law Firm stand ready to help you earn the compensation to which you’re entitled — the compensation you truly deserve.
Each truck collision lawyer at PM Law Firm is highly trained and deeply experienced. Yes, our entire team is extremely knowledgeable about federal and state laws.
Equally important, each of our lawyers is adept at constructing evidence-based, airtight, winning cases. As such, we’re fully dedicated to justice and fully dedicated to our clients.
Whenever we stand up for a truck accident survivor — whether it’s at a negotiating table or inside a courtroom — we’re very persuasive. We’re also fearless. No matter how powerful the opponent, we wouldn’t even think of backing down.
To speak to a truck accident lawyer, please contact us today. That way, we can get started on your case right away.