Werner hit with $90 million dollar verdict

Werner [and others to be fair] will take drivers fresh off the trainee circuit and put them on Dollar Store dedicated because they don't know any better. That tells you a lot about the mindset of top management at these megas

They put them in situations where 7 out of 10 are pretty much guaranteed to fail, let them go, hire another at student rates and no benefits, and the cycle continues.

 

There are numerous articles describing the case, each with a different spin. Heres from the second link on the first page. This is critical. Note how the first thing that is spun is what the CDL manual says about ICY conditions and how if the driver had obeyed what the Manual said, then there would have been no accident. I wonder what the civilian manual says about ice conditions. But an important thing to note was how they went after the company and blamed them for everything that a professional driver is supposed to be taking care of himself. The pickup made the error and spun out and was struck and they blamed the road conditions. But a rookie driver was able to maintain control after the impact and safely stop the truck without crashing. They couldnt pin the driver as he was not cited for fault. This is how it will proceed. they will fault the company, because somehow, somewhere, there will be something they can exploit. They went back and built a history of his actions, even though it had nothing to do with what happened. Pull data from the pickup and see how fast it was going. I cant see how the jury can believe that the truck no business on the road because of the icy conditions, and in the same breath, say that it was ok for the pickup to there as well.

Ive spent ALOT on texas roads and Texans fly off the road in pefect weather all the time. I spent a year and a half just running I20 from Shreveport to Midland and They cant repair guard rails fast enough there because people keep taking them out. There is alot of drinking, horribly maintained person vehicles(namely tires), and just plain bad driving in general. People dont drive well there, especially when you get out of the big cities





May 18, 2018 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A civil jury found Werner Enterprises, one of the largest trucking companies in the U.S., negligent in a 2014 vehicle collision involving a student truck driver, Shiraz Ali, and the Blake family of Houston, Texas. Jennifer Blake lost her 7-year-old son, Zack, in the crash. Brianna “Destiny” Blake, Jennifer’s 12-year-old daughter, suffered a traumatic brain injury that rendered her a quadriplegic, requiring 24-hour care for the rest of her life. And both Jennifer and her older son, Nathan, suffered extensive brain injuries.

“The tragic losses the Blake family has endured since the crash are heart-breaking. Nothing will ever return what has been lost, but justice has been served.”

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According to court documents, the evidence in the six-week trial showed that Werner displayed systematic disregard for basic safety policies across the organization and engaged in irresponsible training mechanisms for new student drivers. Werner, a company with over $2 billion in annual gross revenue, each year hires approximately 4,000 new drivers with no prior truck driving experience. According to a February 2015 US DOT Compliance Review conducted less than two months after this crash, Werner reported to the federal government that its annual driver turnover rate was over 100%.

“Werner’s lack of basic safety systems and its inadequate training processes for student drivers - combined with its business model of assigning student drivers on expedited deliveries - is creating a highly dangerous and unsustainable dynamic on U.S. Highways,” said the Blakes’ co-lead counsel, Eric Penn of the Penn Law Firm in Jacksonville, Texas. In total, Werner drivers log more than 950 million miles annually on public roadways in all 48 contiguous states.

“The public has spoken in this trial. Werner’s business model is deadly, dangerous, and absolutely must change. Werner is placing the lives of everyone who drives on U.S. roads at serious risk,” said Penn.

The Blakes’ co-lead counsel, Zollie C. Steakley of Harrison Davis Steakley Morrison Jones of Waco, Texas, said, “The tragic losses the Blake family has endured since the crash are heart-breaking. Nothing will ever return what has been lost, but justice has been served.”

According to court documents, the collision occurred on I-20 in Texas during freezing rain and black ice conditions. Every state’s Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) manual instructs 18-wheeler drivers to slow to a crawl and get off the road during icy conditions. Shiraz Ali, the Werner student truck driver in this case, did not get off the interstate. Instead, Ali averaged in excess of 60 mph for the 52 miles he was driving in icy conditions prior to the crash, and was traveling over 50 mph seconds prior to the collision. It was undisputed that had Ali complied with the CDL manual the crash would not have occurred.

Evidence presented in court demonstrated Werner’s lack of basic safety systems and policies, which led to Ali driving Werner’s 18-wheeler on black ice for approximately an hour leading up to the crash. The icy road conditions in the area that day caused hundreds of other crashes. Yet Werner’s witnesses testified that Werner did not allow Ali, its student driver, to have access to basic safety equipment, such as an outside temperature gauge or the CB radio, either of which would have alerted him to the dangerous road conditions at the time. Ali and the rest of the Werner witnesses all denied that ice existed on the roadway, despite testimony to the contrary from 14 independent witnesses and a National Weather Service warning indicating that freezing rain had developed in the area.

According to court documents, at 4:26 a.m. the day of the collision, a full 12 hours prior to the collision, the National Weather Service issued a Winter Storm Warning stating that freezing rain would develop along I-20 in a large area in west Texas. Despite this National Weather Service Winter Storm Warning, Werner directed Ali to take the I-20 route through the icy conditions rather than a safer alternative route.

At 2:50 p.m., one hour and 40 minutes prior to the collision, the National Weather Service issued an updated Winter Storm Warning stating the freezing rain had developed. Yet Werner never communicated this update to its student driver, allowing Ali to average over 60 mph while driving unsupervised through the icy conditions because Ali was on a Just-In-Time (JIT) load, requiring delivery to California by the next day. A JIT delivery is one with an expedited delivery deadline. These are priority deliveries for which Werner expects its drivers to provide 100% on-time delivery.

“The jury’s verdict is not surprising. I think everyone in the courtroom was stunned to hear Werner’s executives and experts testify that they were ‘happy’ with Ali’s choices, Ali and Ackerman made ‘perfect’ decisions, and Werner has learned no safety lessons and would make no changes to its operations as a result of this crash,” said Steakley.

People are encouraged to send letters, emails, or direct calls to Werner Enterprises Executive Chairman and founder Clarence L. “CL” Werner, demanding that Werner take action to change its safety processes and training policies, change its JIT staffing policies, and improve its truck driver employee retention program.

The cause number for this trial is 2015-36666. The trial team for the Blake family was Eric Penn and Kelley Peacock of The Penn Law Firm, Zollie Steakley of Harrison Davis Steakley Morrison Jones P.C., and Darrin Walker of Kingwood, Texas. Eldrige Moak attended the trial in his capacity as guardian of Brianna Blake’s estate.

 

I am never going trucking in the US again. What happened to personal accountability?

I know this is a complex case, loaded with a "bigger picture" and my simplistic opinion isn't worth much..... however what if it was a tree that the car hit ? Gonna sue the tree? The municipality? The guy who planted it? Got it! Let's sue God. Many would argue he made the tree, or is at least responsible for the wind that carried the seed to it's settling place where it grew into said tree.

Ya megas are bad, but that company didn't cause that crash.... the driver of the car did. What a joke.

 

I'm inclined to agree but Werner legal should have never allowed a trial in Houston. A major loss was a foregone conclusion no matter the circumstances.

And I'll also say that this outcome [if it stands] is scary for both drivers and carriers, but this sadly is where we have arrived. People want to be a victim, and others want to feed the victim if there's someone else's money they can take.

 

That's easy- Arbour Day Foundation has the deep pockets.

 

But I'm sorry for the family and what they are dealing with and suffered, but whatever happened to personal responsibility?

 

I guess my point is, is that there should have never been a trial to begin with. Werners and other megas policies etc are a separate issue.

I feel horrible for the family, such an awful outcome from a seemingly preventable accident. But I also feel that the family, the lawyers, and anyone in general that sues any person or company or entity just because they can, is absolute scum. A little less scummy than sexual predators and murderers etc, but not by much. This type of thing goes against the rule of 'being a good human' and in my opinion, is totally disgusting.

It just sucks where the world is headed!

 

just unbeliveable , WOW !!!

 

This case demonstrates the importance of doing everything you do in truck exactly by the book. I have stressed and argued that drivers should properly log their sleeper berth and off duty times exactly right because doing otherwise can result in ridiculous verdicts like this.

 

Werner is Self Insured which is going to hurt the company more than you could even think. The problem here is that if this blasphemy goes through, everyone on the roads driving is at risk of liabilities because some idiot lost control of their vehicles and made a big mess. Not just mega carriers, everyone is going to be affected by this, Mega, O/O, Independent, Rentals, Private and so on, literally anyone who drives even 4 wheelers.