Nuclear Verdicts Roil and Rile Trucking

There’s a lot of freight to haul, and some would have the public believe that unsafe players haul most of it.

Of course, there are still operators today that knowingly hire suspect CDL holders to operate 80,000-lb. machines that are old, poorly maintained, and still run a lot of miles. But this -- in no way -- represents trucking as a whole. Yet this does sound like one of those side-of-the-road billboards, doesn’t it?

With one broad brush, they help paint a caricature of a complex industry that struggles with a very expensive byproduct of this perception: ‘nuclear’ verdicts.

Injury and death occur in truck-involved accidents, despite current government goals of cutting this carnage down to zero -- but that’s something safety directors, fleet executives, or anyone in orbit around the issue of nuclear verdicts hear regularly.

Many internalize safety. Most make their missions to do better, to not only put their drivers in training but to build whole programs with the goals of constructing "safety cultures," preventing accidents, and staying well clear of plaintiffs’ lawyers, judges, and juries.