Truck Accidents Archives

Who’s at Fault for a Truck Accident [and how a truck accident lawyer can help]

Clayton Hasbrook · November 17, 2020 ·

Truck accidents are often the result of negligence. But Determining fault in a truck accident can be more complicated than you might think. Semi-trucks and big rigs are usually not personal vehicles, and the driver is not always at fault. The commercial trucking companies that own or hire out the truck usually have a legal responsibility for their safe operation.

When Is the Driver Responsible?

Even if a truck is in perfect working order, that will not matter if the driver acts in a reckless or unsafe manner. Some of the most common driver-related causes of truck accidents include:

Driving above the posted speed limit on most 4-lane and super two-lane highways;
Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs;
Driving longer than federal “hours of service” regulations governing commercial motor carriers allows;
Failing to obey the rules of the road, including local traffic laws and signage;
Failing to maintain an appropriate “space cushion” between the truck and other objects;
Failing to allow a adequate stopping distance. This is especially true when driving at night, on secondary roads, or along hilly or curvy roads; and
Failing to keep windows and mirrors clean.
Failure to properly secure the load and failure to regularly inspect the truck.

Who Employs the Truck Driver?

If the driver is responsible for the accident, it is important to find out his or her employment status. Many truck drivers today are independent contractors. They are only hired on a job-to-job basis. If that is the case, an accident victim may only be able to seek compensation from the driver and their insurance provider; instead of the trucking company.

If the driver is employed by a large trucking company, the employer may be “vicariously liable” for the accident under Oklahoma law. Vicarious liability applies when an employee commits a negligent act within the scope of his or her employment. The trucking company may also be held responsible if the driver was not provided with proper training or safety instructions on delivering particular cargo.

Who Owns the Truck?

As noted above, truck drivers are not always to blame for accidents. The truck itself may have a defect that was never identified or repaired by the trucking company. If the brakes were not maintained, for instance, then the driver may have been unable to stop. The brakes themselves might be defective. In that case, the manufacturer of the part could be liable.

Which Other Parties May Be at Fault?

There may be some third parties whose acts contributed to the accident. This can include another driver who forced the truck driver to lose control, or the company that hired the truck to carry certain dangerous cargo.

Given the number of potentially liable parties, investigating a truck accident is no simple task. That is why you need to work with a qualified Oklahoma City truck accident lawyer who has experience dealing with these types of complex cases. Contact the offices of Hasbrook & Hasbrook at 405-235-1551 to schedule a free consultation with one of our attorneys today.

Oklahoma Truck Accidents Are on the Rise

Clayton Hasbrook · April 13, 2020 ·

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says accidents and fatalities involving semi-trucks are increasing in Oklahoma at an alarming rate. OHP has reported 574 accidents in Oklahoma involving semi-trucks in June, July and the first half of August.

Lt. Preston Lay, a supervisor of the OHP’s Troop S, said distracted driving is one reason for the increase. Troop S is the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit of the OHP.

“Distracted driving” primarily refers to drivers who are talking or texting on their mobile phones. When a truck driver is preoccupied with his or her mobile device, or when a driver sharing the road with a semi-truck is distracted, disaster can result. Although it is not illegal for a standard driver to talk on the phone while driving, it is illegal for the driver of a semi-truck to use any hand-held device while driving.

Other Factors that Cause Truck Accidents

Fatigue: We all know how dangerous it is to drive when you are sleepy. The danger increases exponentially when you are behind the wheel of a truck carrying 5 tons or more of cargo. The laws governing truck driver “hours of service” are complicated. In a nutshell, a driver is limited to 14 hours of consecutive driving a day, and those 14 hours must include at least 3 hours of breaks.
Unsafe operation: Truck drivers facing deadlines or drivers running out of hours of service are tempted to speed, change lanes, tailgate, etc., to achieve their goals. Operating a semi-truck in an unsafe way endangers the lives of every other driver on the road.
Impaired driving: Of course, it is illegal for any driver to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Unsecure cargo: When cargo comes loose, it can fall into the path of oncoming traffic or smash into vehicles’ windshields or cause other drivers to take dangerous evasive actions. This is one reason why it is dangerous to drive too closely behind a cargo-carrying semi-truck.
Improperly maintained vehicles: It is important for commercial vehicles to be kept in safe working condition. Lt. Lay said that from June last year to June this year, OHP troopers did 28,000 random inspections and stops and found more than 44,000 violations. “Our troopers on a daily basis in Troop S pull trucks over that (are) a catastrophe waiting to happen,” Lay was quoted as saying.

Dial *55

Many Oklahomans do not know about “Star 55.” If you see a truck driver or any driver driving on the highway in way that is endangering lives, or if you are experiencing any kind of highway emergency, dialing “*-5-5” will connect you with the nearest OHP dispatcher. No, it is not against the law to use your cell phone while driving to make the call, although texting while driving will become illegal in Oklahoma starting in November.

Crashes in the OKC Area

During the year-long period from July 2014 to June 2015, the OHP reported more than 1,110 crashes involving semi-trucks in the Oklahoma City metro area, including:

896 semi-truck related crashes in Oklahoma County (includes OKC, Edmond, Midwest City).
152 such crashes in Canadian County (includes Yukon, El Reno).
133 such crashes in Cleveland County (includes Norman, Moore).

Here are brief descriptions of a few recent fatalities in the Oklahoma City area and elsewhere in Oklahoma that involved semi-trucks:

Aug 20, 2015, Moore: A semi-truck crashed into a car that was broken down and stopped in the inside, northbound lane of I-35. The driver of the stopped car, who was still in the vehicle when the crash occurred, was killed.
July 20, 2015, Norman: A semi-truck was driving northbound on Sunnylane Road and made a left-hand turn across traffic to reach a destination. A motorcyclist, a 36-year-old Oklahoma City man, driving southbound hit the truck and was killed.
July 10, 2015, Wellston: A semi-truck and six other vehicles were involved in a crash on the eastbound lanes of Turner Turnpike near the Wellston exit. One person was killed.
April 23, 2015, Oklahoma City: A Yukon man, 48, was killed while driving in the eastbound lane of I-240 in south Oklahoma City. He was attempting to change lanes behind a semi-truck. The truck stopped suddenly and the driver’s vehicle smashed into the truck.
April 3, 2015, Mulhall: A tanker truck struck a semi-truck in the northbound lanes of I-35. The semi-truck was disabled and stopped in the outside lane and the shoulder of the highway. When the tanker truck struck the stopped semi-truck, it caught fire and exploded; the driver of the tanker was killed.

If you have suffered a severe injury due to a truck accident, contact our truck accident lawyers for a consultation on possible compensation you could receive for your pain and suffering.

Many Online Tools to Determine Best Price for a NEW Car or Truck

Clayton Hasbrook · April 2, 2015 ·

When you are shopping for a new car or truck in the Oklahoma City metro area, how do you know whether the dealer is asking a fair price or trying to rip you off? And how do you know you are getting a square deal on your trade in?

Hasbrook & Hasbrook is one of Oklahoma’s top auto dealer fraud law firms. We fight for citizens who have been victims of odometer tampering, title washing, or one of the many other scams that have been used to cheat citizens out of their hard-earned money.

There’s no law against charging a sky high price for a new car. However, as a service to our clients and in keeping with our goal to help you avoid getting ripped off when you buy a vehicle, we provide this information to help you negotiate a good price on your purchase and fair value on your trade-in.

Five Internet tools for pricing new vehicles are described below. First, though, let’s define two terms used by these auto pricing services:

MSRP: Manufacturer’s suggested retail price; the price the automaker suggests that dealers charge for the new car; the “sticker price.” The MSRP is a guideline, not a mandate. The MSRP is usually about 10% to 15% above the dealer invoice price.
Dealer invoice (factory invoice) price: The price the manufacturer charged the dealer for the vehicle. However, the invoice price is not necessarily the dealer’s actual price, because of other factors in the manufacturer’s agreement with dealers, including “dealer holdback” (an amount the manufacturer pays the dealer for each car sold) and other dealer incentives. There is usually about 10% profit for the dealer built into the invoice price.

It is unrealistic to try to strip all dealer profit out of a car deal. The dealer invoice price is a good target when negotiating on a new car. An offer of 5% above invoice is a good offer that many dealers will readily accept. You should also take into account things like depreciation and replacement value of the truck in the event of an accident.

FIVE ONLINE AUTO PRICING TOOLS FOR NEW CARS

In comparing these tools, we checked for listings for a 2015 Toyota Camry Sedan LE, four-door, no special options.

1. Kelley Blue Book: www.kbb.com.

The Kelley Blue Book has been around, believe it or not, since 1926. Kelley was purchased by AutoTrader.com in 2010, but the service continues to operate under the Kelley name. In 2013, Kelley Blue Book expanded into China.

Kelly listed the following prices for our new 2015 Toyota Camry:

MSRP: $23,795.
Dealer’s invoice: $21,883.
Fair Purchase Price (based on actual recent transactions “in your area” for similar vehicles): $21,360.

2. NADA Guides: www.nadaguides.com.

NADA is the National Auto Dealers Association. NADA listed these prices for the new Toyota Camry:

MSRP: $23,795
Dealer’s invoice: $21,842.

Some observers say NADA Guides’ prices favor the dealers — as might be expected, since the service is run by the dealers’ association. However, as you can see, in our test case there was very little difference between Kelley and NADA.

3. Edmunds.com: www.edmunds.com.

Edmunds was founded in 1966. When the Internet emerged in the early 1990s, Edmunds was among the first businesses to begin redefining itself for the Internet age, posting auto information on the Electronic Newsstand in 1994 and launching Edmunds.com in 1997.

Here are prices Edmunds provided for the 2015 Toyota Camry:

MSRP: $24,803
Factory invoice: $22,648
Average Price Paid (based on actual recent transactions “in your area”): $22,665

As you can see, Edmunds’ listings for the Camry are about a thousand dollars more than Kelley and NADA. I triple-checked to look for a difference in how my Edmunds search was configured, but I couldn’t find an explanation. Then I did a Google search, but all I found were discussions of why Edmunds is usually lower. Interesting.

4. TrueCar.com: www.truecar.com.

I was not impressed with TrueCar.com, as you will see from my comments. Here are the prices TrueCar listed for the 2015 Toyota Camry:

MRSP: $24,085
Average paid (based on actual recent transactions nationwide): $21,964.
TrueCar estimate: $19,869.

Notice that the “average paid” is based on recent transactions nationwide, unlike Kelley’s Fair Purchase Price and Edmund’s Average Price Paid, which are based on transactions in your area. Unless you are willing to travel to another state to get an exceptional deal on your purchase, all you want to know are prices in your local market area.

Regarding the site’s “TrueCar estimate,” I could not find an explanation of what that is or how it is calculated, so that number is meaningless to me.

To get additional info, such as the dealer’s invoice price, TrueCar.com requires that you provide an email address and set up a free account with password. I didn’t want to mess with that, so that closed out my TrueCar experience.

5. Cars.com: www.cars.com.

Cars.com is first and foremost an automotive classifieds site. It is owned by Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper company. It was launched in 1998.

Cars.com listed these prices for our 2015 Toyota Camry:

MSRP: $23,795
Dealer’s invoice: $21,842
Smart Target Price: $22,187.

Cars.com says that its Smart Target Price is the result of quite a witch’s brew: “a complex proprietary formula” of “diverse and distinct data sources,” including the MSRP, invoice, market demand and availability.

As you can see, the MSRP and Dealer’s invoice are similar to those listed by Kelley and NADA Guides. As matter of fact, the numbers are exactly the same ones NADA lists (maybe not a coincidence).

Comparing All Five — and My Conclusions

Here is a chart of how these 5 sites stack up:

	Dealer’sinvoice	Recommendedprice	Explanation of “recommended price”
Kelley	$21,883	$21,360	“Fair Purchase Price”: based on area transactions
NADA	$21,842	—
Edmunds	$22,648	$22,665	“Avg. Price Paid”: based on area transactions
TrueCar	not available wo/ creating account	$21,964	“Avg. Paid”: based on national transactions
Cars.com	$21,842	$22,187	Smart Target Price: based on “proprietary formula”

After spending a lot of time interacting with all five of these websites, here are the two conclusions I have drawn:

* The most valuable data point is the one about which there is the least mystery: The dealer invoice price. As I discussed at the start of this article, dealer invoice is a good place to start when shopping for a new car. Dealer invoice is a solid number that a dealer cannot deny or explain away.

* For whatever reasons, Edmunds’ dealer invoice price is almost a thousand dollars more than the other three sites. That makes me leery of using Edmunds.

* What real value do these recommended prices provide? The above four recommended prices range from $21,360 to $22,665. That’s a difference of $1,305 — 6% of dealer invoice! Which one is right? Who knows! What good are those numbers when you are negotiating with a dealer.

* If you want a second number in addition to dealer invoice, I think a much better strategy is to research what your car is actually selling for in your local market. For more info about that, see: “Online Tools to Compare Actual New and Used Car Prices in Oklahoma City.”

After the Purchase

Good luck with your car shopping! After you purchase your new car, if the car gives you problems, don’t overlook the possibility that you have been a victim of auto fraud. Some scams involve vehicles that are sold as new.

If you have a problem and can’t get satisfaction from the dealer, you need an attorney. Contact Hasbrook & Hasbrook for a free consultation.