A mother in Memphis, Tennessee who lost her son in a tractor trailer accident is working with the Truck Safety Coalition this year to convince insurance and trucking companies to increase safety rules on tractor trailers.

Rachel Higginbotham is trying to get trucking companies to adopt better safety solutions to reduce the number of car and truck crashes every year.

According to the Truck Safety Coalition, safety standards including automatic emergency braking, 60 MPH speed limits for trucks and underside guards on the sides of trucks would save hundreds of lives per year. 

The woman believes that some of these rules might have saved her son’s life in 2014. Michael Higginbotham died near Yates, Tennessee in November 2014 when a tractor trailer made a sudden, illegal U turn in front of his car. His car slammed into the side of the truck and he died upon impact.

She is hoping that by continuing to work with the Truck Safety Coalition, she will be able to encourage trucking companies to adopt some of the above safety measures to reduce the chances of fatal truck accidents.

Our View

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration or FMCSA, there were 3802 fatal tractor trailer crashes in 2012. Our personal injury attorneys in Virginia would argue that some of the above safety measures would reduce some of the annual carnage with truck crashes.

Reducing the maximum speed of tractor trailers, for example, would definitely make truck crashes less deadly. We hope that these safety rules are implemented in the near future so that fewer people are killed in preventable truck crashes.

Those who lose loved ones in tragic truck accidents do have the option of suing for damages in civil court. With the help of a personal injury or wrongful death attorney who is experienced in tractor trailer crashes, you have the possibility of being compensated for pain and suffering, lost wages, medical expenses and more.

Our Virginia personal injury attorneys helped a family to obtain a $410,000 settlement in a tractor trailer crash in Virginia a few years ago. This case was unusual because the deceased had just had an accident on black ice where his car ran off the road. He was getting things out of the car when a truck came along and slid on the same black ice. Even though the accident was caused by the same ice, we successfully argued that the truck driver should have been able to prevent the crash because he carried a commercial driver’s license.