I have written previously about the very sobering statistics on truck drivers and their unusually high propensity to suffer from sleep apnea — commercial vehicle drivers are four to five more times likely to suffer from sleep apnea, and those suffering from untreated sleep apnea are seven times more likely to be involved in a…
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According to statistics released recently, 457 workers died from workplace accidents last year. This number represents a decline from 2007, and about a 20% drop from the highest level of 2000. (After a drop from 2000 to 2002, workplace deaths increased until 2007.) The four most frequent ways that workers were killed were: motor vehicle…
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Recently, I did a podcast where I was asked questions regarding what I felt were essential insurance coverages for Texans. The podcast was conducted in a question-and-answer format and ended up running about twenty minutes long. That podcast can be reached by navigating my firm’s website (www.abrahamwatkins.com) and it should be posted soon for all…
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In my last entry, I started to introduce the significant impact fatigue can have on drivers of 18 wheelers. The medical community, the federal and state governments and the trucking industry recognize the prevalence of drivers who push it passed the limits, and simultaneously decrease their attentiveness and effectiveness as professional drivers. The National Highway…
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The research is now definitive: Commercial drivers are all too often impaired in their driving performance as a result of the medical condition of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a medical syndrome that is caused by the complete, or near complete, obstruction of the upper airway by redundant tissue and/or relaxed musculature just above the…
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Tens of thousands of people are injured or killed in accidents with big trucks — 18 wheelers, big rigs, tractor-trailers — every year. It is no surprise that when a fully loaded big rig (weighing as much as 80,000 pounds) collides with a passenger automobile (weighing 3,500 pounds), the occupants of the passenger vehicle are…
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I have just attended a State Bar of Texas seminar on “Understanding Juries.” At the program, there was a mock trial presented to a mock jury to help us (the attendees) better understand how juries think and analyze cases. The case presented dealt with a manufacturing business (the plaintiff) that was having financial difficulties when…
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I think we have all seen the commercials and read the magazine advertisements created by the insurance companies. Some insurance companies take a cost approach to their marketing and stress the savings that can be had by the average consumer. For example, Geico markets to the public by representing that you can save lots of…
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