According to a recent press released from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a trucking company in Massachusetts has been ordered to reinstate one of its drivers and to pay more than $131,000 in compensation including payment of back wages and interest; compensatory damages and punitive damages. The truck company was ordered to reinstate the driver after firing him for failing to violate safety laws.

Our Boston injury attorneys know that trucking companies have a legal obligation to ensure that their drivers follow all safety rules and regulations. Unfortunately, some companies not only fail to enforce such regulations but actively encourage drivers to break the rules. The trucking company that fired this driver for a failure to disobey safety requirements is a clear example of the type of a trucking company that puts people at risk by prioritizing profits over safety.

Massachusetts Trucking Company Pressures Driver to Violate Hours of Service Rules

The OSHA press release reports that an agency investigation revealed that the company, Brillo Motor Transportation Inc., terminated a truck driver because he refused to exceed the number of hours allowed under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations.

In particular, the company had an issue with the driver's failure to violate the FMCSA's 60/7 rule. This rule mandated that a driver who operates his vehicle for a total of 60 hours over the course of seven days must have a rest break equal to at least 34 consecutive hours of rest before he is allowed to drive a motor vehicle again.

The FMCSA's hours-of-service rules are an attempt to prevent truck drivers from staying behind the wheel of large commercial vehicles when they are fatigued. Some FMCSA estimates indicate that as many as 6,000 drowsy-driving related truck accidents happen every year even though these hours-of-service limits are in place.  Drowsy driving is incredibly dangerous and a person who has been driving after being awake for too long can have an accident risk that is equal to the danger presented by drunk drivers.

Brillo Motor Transportation, unfortunately, did not put safety first, according to the government's allegations.  When the driver refused to drive a truck from Quincy Massachusetts to Milford Massachusetts because he had already exceeded his allowable driving hours, the company fired him.  The driver took legal action and OSHA has now ordered him reinstated.

Hopefully, the trucking company will learn several important lessons from this: that it shouldn't fire drivers for refusing to violate safety rules and that it shouldn't pressure drivers to violate safety rules in the first place.

Unfortunately, sometimes trucking companies do urge drivers to break the rules. Driver shortages and a desire for profits can prompt trucking companies to urge drivers to exceed maximum drive time limits. If drivers listen to employers and drive without sufficient rest, this creates a major risk for everyone on the roads.

If you've been hurt, call 1-800-WIN-WIN-1 for a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer at the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone.

Whether you are wearing a seat belt or not is one of the single biggest factors in determining whether you are able to survive in the event that you are in a traffic accident. Of course, in order for a seat belt to be effective at saving your life or preventing auto accident injuries, the seat belt needs to work correctly.

Unfortunately, the seat belts in many Toyota vehicles may not provide motorists with the protection that they deserve and expect. Because of problems with seat belts in certain vehicles, Toyota has recently announced that it will be recalling as many as 342,000 pickup trucks. Our Boston defective vehicle lawyers know that Toyota has initiated the recall to help prevent injuries, which the car company could potentially become liable for if someone is in a crash and the seat belt fails to work.

Toyota Recalls Pickup Trucks Because of Seatbelt Problems

MSN Autos reported on the Toyota recall early this August, alerting motorists to Toyota’s decision to take pickup trucks with faulty seatbelts off the roads.

The 342,000 vehicles that Toyota is recalling include Tacoma pickup trucks that were manufactured from 2004 to 2011.  MSN Auto reports that pickups with Access Cabs that were manufactured during this time period have screws that could be faulty. The screws attach the seatbelt pre-tensioners to the driver and front passenger seatbelt mechanisms, which are mounted on the truck’s rear doors.

If the rear doors of the pickup are opened and closed “repeatedly and forcefully,” the screws can become lose over time. As a result, the seat belts could detach and thus not protect motorists from flying through the windshield, ejecting from the vehicle, or otherwise sustaining injuries due to being unsecured in the event of a crash.  The pre-tensioners job is to cinch the seatbelt tightly when the car senses an impact, and of course the pre-tensioners will also not serve this function when the screws have become damaged.

This new recall is not the first time that Toyota has been forced to take a car off the market because of seatbelt problems. In March, the car company also recalled 209,000 FJ Cruiser SUVs because of a potential that the seatbelts would detach due to cracks in the rear door panel.

With all of these Toyota cars with dangerous seatbelts, motorists could be seriously hurt if they were involved in a crash and something went wrong.   Car companies are expected to provide reasonably safe vehicles that work as intended, which means that the seat belts need to work too.  If a motorist were to be involved in an accident and sustain injuries (or be injured more severely) because a problem with the seatbelt, Toyota could potentially be held legally liable in a product liability claim.  There is no requirement to prove the car company was negligent in order to win such a claim, but injured victims would need to show that the detached seat belt was the direct cause of harm they endured.

If you’ve been hurt, call 1-800-WIN-WIN-1 for a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer at the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone.