At approximately 5:00 am this morning, February 23, 2011, a 31-car pileup occurred on I-40/64 in St. Louis.  The string of destruction extended from Grand to Kingshighway.  Now, I used to work downtown and drove this stretch every day for years.  I know what traffic is like at 5:00 am - it's not that heavy. 

What struck me odd about reports I have been reading about the accident is that much of the focus has been on the fact that MoDot did not get the roads salted because they had no knowledge of the coming ice.  All the reports are making it sound like this was a totally unavoidable accident. 

Here's the thing.  Perhaps MoDOT had no notice of the impending precipitation.  But so what!  Perhaps my take is so different than the reporters focus because I am a St. Louis Truck Accident Attorney.


This crash all started when a UPS tractor-trailer jack-knifed on the road.  Now, hundreds of other cars had passed through this stretch of road without causing a huge pile-up.  So why did the UPS truck not do the same.  First, it's obvious that the sheer size means that the truck is not going to recover should it lose just the slightest bit of control.  But that's the point.  Truck drivers are supposed to know that.

Here's the bigger catch.  As a St. Louis Truck Crash Lawyer, I am intimately aware of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.  They are a part of every successful truck accident case.  These safety regulations govern virtually every aspect of a truck driver's operation of the truck.  Foremost, regulation 392.14 requires tractor-trailer truck drivers to reduce their speed if conditions become hazardous due to rain, sleet, snow, ice, etc.  If conditions become sufficiently dangerous, the driver is required to pull over. 

At the end of the day, the UPS truck driver should have recognized the danger of continuing to drive that tractor-trailer on the slippery and should have pulled over.  In my opinion, it was not the unforcasted precipitation that caused all this destruction, it was the violation of the safety regulation by the UPS truck driver!

Of course, there are many other issues that a truck accident lawyer would investigate as well.  For instance, there are safety regulations that govern the conditions of the tires, brakes, as well as the number of hours that the driver can drive.

Because of these types of things, people involved in a crash involving a tractor-trailer should retain an experienced tractor-trailer accident lawyer immediately.  Not just any lawyer, but someone intimately familiar with the federal safety regulations.

The first thing our firm does in crashes such as this is to send a very detailed preservation of evidence letter to the truck driver, the truck company, and the insurance company.  Our letter demands that the company and driver retain and not destroy a number of documents which are vital to fully evaluate who was at fault.  More importantly, we demand an immediate inspection of the truck so we can evaluate whether the tires and brakes played any role in the collision. 

For now, I wish the best to all of those involved and a speedy recovery.  More importantly, I hope that UPS steps up to the plate.  But, I know from experience that their insurance company is already working hard to limit what they pay out on these claims.  They are probably already working on getting statements from all types of witnesses and doing all they can to mold the evidence in the light most favorable to them.