PA Truck Accident Lawyer Applauds Move to Kill Truck Bill

Scranton, PA, February 23, 2012 — Pennsylvania tractor-trailer accident lawyer Daniel W. Munley, chairman of the American Association of Justice’s Trucking Litigation Group, today applauded a Congressional committee’s move to kill part of a bill that would have reduced trucking safety on the nation’s highways.

“Proposals in the bill under consideration would have increased allowable weight and length of transfer trucks to dangerous levels,” said Munley, a partner in the regional law firm of Munley, Munley & Cartwright, whose Pennsylvania truck accident attorneys focus on tractor-trailer litigation throughout the Northeast.

“We’re glad the House transportation bill will move forward without measures that would have threatened safety on our highways,” Munley said.

Portions of a bill before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would have overturned the 1991 federal ban on triple tractor trailers and raised the weight limit on transfer trucks and other commercial vehicles (CMVs) to 97,000 pounds from the current limit of 80,000 pounds, according to a report in the Central Penn Business Journal.

Earlier this month, the committee approved a bipartisan amendment from Reps. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.) and Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) to require a study before an increase in the limit on CMV weight can be approved, effectively killing the proposal.

“It’s obvious that heavier types of trucks are harder to stop and to safely maneuver,” Munley said. “We also have broken and crumbling highways across the country, which would be damaged further under heavier weights. An increase in the weight of 18-wheelers and other big rigs makes no sense.”

In 2010, overall traffic fatalities declined, but truck crash fatalities increased by nearly 9 percent to 3,675, according to the Truck Safety Coalition. While large trucks make up only 3 percent of all registered vehicles, they represent 11 percent of annual motor vehicle crashes. In fatal crashes involving a large truck and a passenger vehicle, 97 percent of the deaths occur to the car occupants, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics show.

“Long-distance trucking is vitally important to the economy, but it must remain safe,” Munley said. “There is a physical limit to what is appropriate for commercial motor vehicles given the potential danger posed by a loaded semi-truck hurtling down the highway and the driver losing control of it because of equipment failure, a distracted driver or any unforeseen circumstance.”

The Pennsylvania tractor-trailer accident law firm of Munley Law has recovered millions of dollars in compensation for victims of trucking accidents and other commercial motor vehicle wrecks across the nation through personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits.

Munley said Munley Law is committed to safe public transportation and to helping individuals who are harmed when driver negligence contributes to tractor-trailer accidents.

“When someone is hurt or killed in a wreck involving a transfer truck or another commercial motor vehicle, those who have been harmed deserve to see their rights protected, and we are proud to provide that support,” Munley said.