Our office serves both Oregon and Washington Clients.

Tel: 503-228-7020
Fax: 503-334-2303

6110 North Lombard
Suite B
Portland, OR 97203

The Stewart Law Firm is a proud sponsor of

join logo

Accidents involving large trucks are among the most serious and most deadly in the United States. At the Stewart Law Firm, we recognize that handling these cases requires a thorough understanding of commercial vehicle regulations on both the federal and state level. Trucking companies are required to follow Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations concerning their equipment and their drivers’ hours of service. Driver fatigue is a common problem, as hours of service regulations are routinely violated. Careful examination of records after an accident often shows serious and even fraudulent violations of those safety regulations. However, trucking companies are only required to maintain many of those records for six months. Without obtaining those records before they are destroyed, the injured person or survivors of a person killed in a truck wreck has a much more difficult time proving the trucking company’s negligence.

Large trucks were much more likely to be involved in a fatal multiple-vehicle crash – as opposed to a fatal single-vehicle crash – than were passenger vehicles (83 percent of all large trucks involved in fatal crashes, compared with 61 percent of all passenger vehicles). Most of the fatal crashes involving large trucks occurred in rural areas (61%), during the daytime (67%), and on weekdays (81%). The percentage of large-truck drivers involved in fatal crashes who had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter (g/dL) or higher was 1 percent in 2005.

In all automobile accident cases it is essential that measures be taken promptly to preserve evidence, investigate the accident in question, and to enable physicians or other expert witnesses to thoroughly evaluate any injuries. If you or a loved one is a victim of an automobile accident, call Stewart Shadduck Robinson at 503-228-7020.