Trucking Companies Will Soon Have Better Access to Truck Drivers' Accident Histories
When a trucking company evaluates an applicant for the position of tractor trailer driver, there are many things that company is supposed to do to verify that the truck driver is qualified to safely operate a large tractor trailer. One of the things the trucking company is supposed to do is check that applicants driving and accident history. Obviously, if the applicant has a significant history of traffic tickets or accidents, he/she should not be hired to drive a semi truck.
Unfortunately, many trucking companies fail to do the proper background check and hire truck drivers with poor driving and traffic crash histories. It is only after a serious accident when we, as personal injury and wrongful death lawyers, investigate the trucking company's records and question the truck driver and trucking company employees, when we find out that the trucking company did not perform the proper background check and hired a truck driver that was a dangerous risk to other drivers on the roads.
Other times, the trucking company makes some effort to determine a potential truck driver's driving record and traffic accident history but is unable to get complete and accurate information. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will soon be offering electronic access to a truck driver's crash records and inspection reports. This will allow diligent trucking companies to more easily find out what kind of, and how many, traffic accidents a particular truck driver applicant has had. It will also allow the trucking company to view inspection reports to see if a truck driver has had a large number of safety violations.
Hopefully, with the new system, responsible trucking companies will have better access to the safety information they are looking for and less responsible trucking companies who do not make an effort to obtain that information and hire unsafe truck drivers will be more easily held accountable for serious injury accidents that are caused by truck drivers who should have never been hired.
