Star-Telegram [Fort Worth, TX], "Recent court cases raise questions about trucking safety"

         In what one attorney says is an indication of a “disturbing pattern of dangerous activity” by the nation’s trucking industry, a Fort Worth waste-disposal company became the second local trucking firm this month to be hit with a multimillion-dollar payout after one of its vehicles was involved in a fatal crash.

          IESITX agreed to pay the family of Jimmy D. Jordan of Fort Worth $2.25 million in an out-of-court settlement reached late Thursday. The waste-disposal company and the family were scheduled to go to trial in a Tarrant County civil court next week. Jordan was killed in a March 2004 accident on Interstate 30.

          This month a Tarrant County jury returned a $2 million verdict against the Fort Worth Carrier Corporation stemming from a 2001 crash in Missouri that killed a Tennessee man and injured his wife.

          In the Texas crash, questions were raised about the garbage truck’s maintenance record as well as the driver’s qualifications. In the Missouri accident, the amount of time the driver had been allowed to stay behind the wheel, ultimately resulting in fatigue, was raised during the trial, he said. In both cases, the trucking company is responsible for monitoring vehicle maintenance and driver safety, he said.

          In the Fort Worth crash, Jordan, 39, was killed instantly when the dump truck he was driving slammed into the rear of IESITX’s garbage truck after it had run out of gas in the 6400 block of Interstate 30 near Ridgmar mall. The collision spun the garbage truck around, nearly blocking the eastbound lanes during the noon rush hour.

          Jordan’s dump truck was so badly damaged that Fort Worth police towed it to their auto impound lot so investigators could properly examine the wreckage, police said.