Louisiana State Sen. Patrick McMath (R-Covington) says drivers across the state shouldn’t unduly worry about a restriction underscored in a would-be law currently under consideration in the State Legislature.
That legislation – presently with the status of an approved Senate bill now moving over to the House – spotlights behind-the-wheel cellphone usage. McMath stresses that new law would not prohibit motorists from using their phones altogether when out in traffic.
Human error, mechanical problems and other issues can affect a truck driver's ability to drive safely. As you travel the roads of Louisiana with the mammoth vehicles driven by these men and women, you have no way of knowing whether the driver or the truck has a problem that could put your life in jeopardy.
For instance, a sizable number of truck drivers suffer from an undiagnosed and/or untreated condition that would certainly put your life in danger. Sleep apnea is a serious condition even without the person suffering from it driving a vehicle that can weigh up to 80,000 pounds.
Informed people across the country know how critically important maritime workers are in promoting the nation’s economy and security.
We underscored the central role they play in a recent blog post on our website at the tenured Louisiana business and personal injury law firm of Simien & Simien. We noted in our April 22 entry that, “The work that maritime workers do across a broad spectrum is vitally important.”
Distracted driving is one of the biggest threats to the safety and well-being of every Louisiana motorist. Most people are aware of the dangers of picking up their phones or engaging in distracting behaviors while driving, but people still believe they can safely multitask. As a result, distraction is now one of the leading causes of car accidents.
Automakers are working to make their vehicles safer than ever, and that means implementing tools that will help keep drivers focused. Through certain types of technology, vehicles will be able to alert drivers to hazards and particularly dangerous behaviors. It's possible this could help drivers make better choices and reduce distracted driving accidents. However, every driver is still responsible for choices made while operating a vehicle.
Roads of all types – city streets, rural byways, freeways and more – are notably quiet these days across Louisiana. The steady and sometimes frenetic traffic level that typically defines them seems more than muted.
In fact, there is often no traffic at all.
Officials from a key federal government office who are focused on roadway safety likely have a few choice synonyms to describe the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
And they almost certainly don’t include the terms proactive or farsighted.
Anyone even remotely linked with the vast and varied maritime industry in Louisiana or elsewhere in the United States knows intimately well how important it is to the nation’s economy and security.
That realization unquestionably extends to federal regulators tasked with broad oversight of things like energy transportation, port activities, storage of vital materials, raw resources exploration and myriad other matters centrally linked with the country’s waterways.
No matter a person's job, the chance exists that he or she could suffer injuries or illness as a result of that job. Some people may think that workplace injuries are more likely to occur to people who work in construction or with dangerous machines or materials, and while that may be true, it does not mean that someone working in an office at a desk is immune to harm.
You may not believe that you have an extremely dangerous job, but you do understand that one day that job could leave you suffering. As a result, you likely have some appreciation for the fact that workers' compensation exists. However, you may not fully understand what it means, who pays for it, and how it helps injured or ill workers.
It’s akin to a great divide.
We suspect at Simien & Simien that readers of our legal personal injury blogs in Louisiana and other states will solidly align on both sides of what is truly a wide difference in opinion.
There is no lack of consensus across America’s sprawling commercial trucking industry that something needs to be done to curb accidents involving big rigs and materially promote the public’s safety.
Conversely, though that same degree of aligned thinking essentially disintegrates when it comes to uniformity of thought concerning precisely how to secure more salutary outcomes.
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