Toward the end of the summer, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) together were proposing to equip "heavy-duty vehicles with devices that limit their speeds on U.S. roadways, and requiring those devices to be set to a maximum speed," according to a news release from the FMCSA. The speed limiters, the agencies believe, could have the ability to prevent deadly trucking accidents in addition to saving more than $1 billion in the cost of fuel due to lower traveling speeds.

According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, "in addition to saving lives, the projected fuel and emissions savings make this proposal a win for safety, energy conservation, and our environment." Can the requirement of speed limiters truly make the difference?

Safety Standards Under the Proposed Rules

Under the proposed rules, "all newly manufactured U.S. trucks, buses, and multipurpose passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating more than 26,000 pounds" would have to "come equipped with speed limiting devices." Would all vehicles have the same speed limits? In its current incarnation, the agencies have proposed three different maximum speed levels of 60 miles per hour, 65 miles per hour, and 68 miles per hour—the vehicle's speed limiter could be set accordingly. At the same time, the agencies have indicated that they are open to public input concerning the maximum speeds permitted by the devices.

Most of us know that pedestrians in Chicago are at risk of being struck by speeding automobiles. While we can pay attention to "Walk/Don't Walk" signs and can obey pedestrian safety tips, such as those offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when we cross streets, we may not be able to avoid the risk of a fatal pedestrian accident altogether. According to a recent report from ProPublica, cars may be even more dangerous to pedestrians than we tend to believe. Indeed, the chances of sustaining fatal injuries in a pedestrian accident rise not only with the increasing speed of the vehicle, but also with the age of the pedestrian. In other words, the faster a car is traveling, the more likely a pedestrian is to be killed in a collision. And the older the pedestrian, the more likely that she or he is to suffer fatal injuries in that crash.

What else do you need to know about pedestrian accident fatalities and filing a wrongful death claim?

"Faster Cars Are Deadlier," Report Says

The ProPublica article focuses on a report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which shows that a pedestrian's risk of fatal injuries increases as the speed of an automobile increases. When a car traveling 25 miles per hour strikes a pedestrian, the average pedestrian is at a 12 percent risk of sustaining fatal injuries in the accident.

When most of us think abouttrucking accidents, we do not immediately consider the risks that come with unsecured loads. Yet if you imagine driving behind large trucks on the highways around Chicago, you likely have seen a number of semi-trucks carrying particularly heavy or wide loads. Sometimes, it might look as though these loads are improperly secured, particularly if you witness debris hitting the road or your windshield. According to areportfromABC News,poorly secured truck loadsoften result in serious crashes. To be sure, astudyfrom the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety estimates that poorly secured loads cause "more than 25,000 crashes each year in North America."

Are there ways for automobile drivers to avoid a serious accident caused by a poorly secured truck load? Or do we need to focus on urging trucking companies to make changes to the way they load and secure their vehicles?

Federal Rules for Cargo Securement

As the report explains, there are federal rules for commercial trucks when it comes to securing loads. TheFederal Motor Carrier Safety Administration(FMCSA) explains that the general rule for commercial carriers is this: "Cargo must be firmly immobilized or secured on or within a vehicle by structures of adequate strength, dunnage (loose materials used to support and protect cargo) or dunnage bags (inflatable bags intended to fill space between articles of cargo or between cargo and the wall of the vehicle), shoring bars, tiedowns, or a combination of these." Commercial trucks must have a minimum number of tie-downs depending upon the length and weight of the load, and there are specific rules when it comes to transporting logs, metal coils, concrete piping, automobiles, containers, and other types of loads.

Auto accidents involving semis and other large trucks are dangerous, due to the size of the vehicles involved. They often result in more serious injuries and a higher mortality rate, especially if a smaller vehicle is involved. Generally, only the driver is held liable in an auto accident. But in some cases, if the driver is not the owner of the truck, the doctrine of negligent entrustment applies, and the owner can be held legally responsible. If you have been injured in a trucking accident, an attorney can help you navigate the complex legal issues involved in recovering compensation for your injuries.

Negligent Entrustment

If the owner of a truck allows someone else to drive his or her vehicle, the owner must take reasonable care to make sure that the driver is competent and safe. In Illinois, the doctrine of negligent entrustment allows the owners of a truck, often a trucking company, to be held liable if they allowed an unsafe driver to use their vehicle. To prove negligent entrustment, an accident victim must demonstrate that:

• The owner owned the truck;
• The owner knew or should have known that driver could not operate the truck safely, but let the driver drive anyway; and
• That entrustment was the proximate cause of the victim's injuries.

Negligent entrustment is useful to trucking accident victims because individual drivers often do not have the funds or insurance coverage necessary to compensate the victims for all their losses. Trucking companies, on the other hand, generally have more resources.