Corpus Christi, Texas Personal Injury Blog

Earlier this week two oilfield workers died in a vehicle rollover accident, and another was injured. This Texas motor vehicle accident is just the most recent in a string of crashes around the Eagle Ford Shale region.

The single-vehicle rollover happened in Atascosa County late Monday evening. The 36 year-old pickup driver from Arkansas veered off Interstate 37. His truck collided into the median and overturned. The two passengers in the truck were oilfield workers, also from Arkansas. Both were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The driver was brought to South Texas Regional Medical Center, but details about his condition were not available.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash. Investigators have not determined the cause of the accident. Officials stated none of the men were wearing seat belts.

The problem of fatigued driving among truck drivers has been well documented. Statistics from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) indicate that hundreds of motorists die each year, and thousands more are injured in accidents involving fatigued semi truck drivers.

In an effort to prevent these types of accidents, the FMCSA has developed new hours of service (HOS) rules in an attempt to minimize truck driver fatigue. After much debate, the new HOS rules have finally been released.

The new rules maintain the current daily driving limit of 11 hours, but decrease the total number of hours a truck driver can work each week from 82 hours to 70 hours. Additionally, truckers are required to take at least a 30 minute break during an eight hour window of driving time.

Truck collisions are some of the scariest road hazards out there. A fully-loaded semi can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, while the average automobile weighs only 5,000 pounds. In a car-versus-truck collision, this weight differential means that even if the truck only sustains minimal damage, the occupants of a car are often lucky to escape with their lives.

Texas motor vehicle accident attorneys see far too many accidents in which motorists are killed or suffer serious injury at the hands of a negligent commercial truck driver.

Fortunately, new data shows this trend is on the decline. According to the latest report from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), fatal crashes involving large trucks dropped by 31 percent between 2007 and 2009. During that same time period, the number of crashes resulting in injury fell by 30 percent.

The decrease means that the United States now sees one fatal truck crash for every 100 million miles driven.

Earlier this week an 18-wheeler caused a ten car pileup on northbound I-35 in Waco. The Texas truck accident  occurred when the driver pulling an oversized load realized he could not clear an overpass.

The truck driver then stopped on the interstate and attempted to back up. The 18-wheeler then caused a chain reaction of crashes among the vehicles behind it. This resulted in two people suffering injuries and being taken to an area hospital.

An explosion occurred at an oil rig last week on the Eagle Ford shale in Falls City. Two men were hospitalized following the Texas oil rig accident.

Authorities explained that the explosion occurred when a truck driver was transferring hot oil into the well as part of a process to clean the pipeline. Backflow caused the truck, carrying two propane tanks used to provide the heat, to ignite and explode.

The explosion engulfed the trucks at the oil well and sent flames 50 feet into the air. The cloud of black smoke was visible from over 15 miles away. Law enforcement and firefighters from two jurisdictions responded to the explosion. All those within a mile radius were given mandatory orders to evacuate.

In 2009, the number of people who died in accidents involving trucks was reduced by 1,217 from 2007, reaching a record low. The number of truck accidents involving injuries also dropped during this period, by over 20,000. Despite this reduction in both fatalities and injuries, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is doing its best to try to shrink this number even further, by proposing a rule that would keep tired drivers off the roads.

Truck drivers who work too many daily or weekly hours become fatigued. When this occurs, the chance that they will become involved in a wreck that causes death or injury increases. In fact, the FMCSA blames "truck-driver fatigue" as the cause of more than 740 fatalities and 20,000 injuries annually.

Searching for a better cellular signal so that phone calls could be made, three Oklahoma oil field workers left the oil well they were working at. When they attempted to return to the oil well on the same unlit, unmarked access road, the three men missed a sharp turn that led to the well and continued straight. Seeing that the road appeared to continue, the men kept driving and looking for the well.

Their drive back to work didn't end at the well, however. Instead their journey ended at the bottom of an unmarked drop-off. The accident resulted in all three men suffering serious injuries.

The three injured workers filed a personal injury lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, against the owners of the oil well for maintaining premises that presented an unreasonable risk of harm to workers. They claim that the owners' property was improperly maintained, inadequately lit and unmarked.

Each year the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) unveils its list of the most important transportation issues requiring attention to improve safety and prevent fatalities. The agency has issued the list since 1990, but this year the NTSB adjusted the format. Instead of listing specific recommendations to federal agencies, it is highlighting broader transportation issues requiring attention.

The year's the NTSB's list includes the following issues:

• Improve the professionalism of air traffic controllers and pilots
• Bring increased attention to safe driving practices for teens
• Address the problem of human fatigue
• Improve motorcycle safety
• Improve the safety of bus passengers
• Require onboard data and image recorders
• Address drunk driving
• Mandate safety management systems
• Improve safety on runways
• Improve aviation safety as a whole

The list serves to both draw attention to safety issues and push for important improvements to the nation's transportation system. By addressing safety issues on the list hopefully car, bus, truck and airplane accidents will be prevented.