Jerry Maldonado, director of Laredo and Mexico operations for Warren Transport Inc., said installing forward-facing cameras on his company’s fleet of trucks saved them from a lawsuit several years ago.
“One of our drivers was involved in an accident,” Maldonado testified during a Texas Senate committee on state affairs for Senate Bill 30 on April 8. “We had just installed our forward-facing cameras on the trucks and that camera saved us, because we got a lawsuit. That video was the first thing we sent to the attorney that sued us. He left us alone, because it clearly proved that our driver did nothing wrong.”
Senate Bill 30, and its companion piece, House Bill 4806, both died in the most recent Texas legislative session as lawmakers couldn’t agree on final versions of the proposed new laws.
The failure of the two bills meant that Maldonado and other trucking industry stakeholders would have to try again next year for tort reforms that put restrictions on injury lawsuit payouts.
“Its one of those battles that we lost, but we haven’t lost the war,” Maldonado told FreightWaves in an interview.
Maldonado said trucking companies are concerned about insurance rates rising because of massive lawsuit rewards.
“All of us that have commercial insurance, we have a minimum of $1 million rate liability insurance, so if there is ever an accident, whether it’s our fault or not, we immediately get a lawsuit for a million dollars,” Maldonado said. “What we consider abuse … where a fender bender that was our fault or wasn’t, could potentially have a $100,000 credible claim, gets a million dollars lawsuit, which is then settled for half a million. What are we doing here? We’ve been fighting that as an industry. Why? Because it affects us all.”
Maldonado said trucking companies even with no accident reports are affected by lawsuit payouts.
“All our premiums are going to go up a little higher, and every year they continue to go higher,” Maldonado said. “That is one of those expenses whether you are a safe carrier or not, and there’s a lot of instances where a carrier is very safe, that they don’t have any accidents, no fatalities, no claims, yet the insurance premium goes up year over year because we are measured by our peers.”
Related: Last-ditch attempt at tort reform in Texas falls short as second bill fails
The original version of Senate Bill 30 would have made significant changes in the financial penalties that could be levied against a defendant in a lawsuit involving injury.
However, the San Antonio Express News said the death of SB30/HB4806 “came after it already had been pared down to an unrecognizable version that only required disclosure of referrals between lawyers and health care providers. It also would have expanded the options for what evidence could be admitted to estimate damages.”
“By the time it was going to end, the language … how they changed them and did amendments, it would have potentially hurt us more than help us,” Maldonado said.
In 2023, 5,375 large trucks were involved in a fatal crash, an 8.4% year-over-year decrease from 2022, according to the latest data analyzed by the National Safety Council, a nonprofit promoting health and safety in the U.S.
A total of 5,472 people died in large-truck crashes in 2023, NSC said in its report. The number of deaths decreased 8% year-over-year from 2022, but is up 40% in the last 10 years. The majority of deaths in large-truck crashes are occupants of other vehicles (70%), followed by truck occupants (18%), and non-occupants, primarily pedestrians and bicyclists (12%).
Also in 2023, 114,552 large trucks were involved in crashes resulting in an injury, a 4.7% decrease from 2022.
Maldonado said truck drivers are never looking to get into accidents or make mistakes.
“Our drivers are on the clock, that’s how they make a living. Their job, their goal is to get from point A to point B safely,” Maldonado said. “Yes, there are mistakes. Why? Because they’re exposed 10 times more than you and I. Our drivers are on the road every single day for 11 hours.”
Pro-business lobby Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) prioritized SB30 in the Texas Legislature, aiming to limit the amount of damages accident victims could claim in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits.
“We urge the Texas Legislature to prioritize this issue in the 90th Texas Legislative Session, and to put an end to the blatant fraud on the legal system which jeopardizes Texas’s longstanding reputation as the best place in the nation to do business and create jobs,” TLR said in a prepared statement to FreightWaves.
Lara Brock, president of the San Antonio Trial Lawyers Association and an attorney with Espinoza & Brock, said the bills could have made roadways less safe.
“Texas is the most dangerous state to be on the roads. We have almost twice as many deaths than in any other state in the entire country,” Brock told News 4 San Antonio on April 25.
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