Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/535950
VOICES CHANNEL 19 6 | Overdrive | July 2015 Visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' CHANNEL 19 BLOG at OverdriveOnline.com/channel19 Write him at tdills@randallreilly.com. If you weren't convinced that truckers are a target for ambulance-chasing at- torneys, early-June press releases about a project of the so-called "America's Watchdog" group might sway you. The group's "Semi Truck Accident Victims' Center" website purports to link those injured in large-truck acci- dents to "the best possible legal team." The project's principal contact is Michael Thomas Martin. His group claims to advocate fraud-related issues, from renewable- and other energy-re- lated claims and home construction materials health issues to real estate and fi nancial fraud. Martin has done time for fraud himself, back in the 1990s. As reported in investigations over the years in the Guardian and other newspapers, he says he views the project as atonement for past sins. The recent press releases make it sound like the truck-accident site is a new venture, but it's easy to fi nd online references to it going back years. Given all the head-spinning "tired truckers" headlines in the na- tional media leading into those June releases, it's easy to see the org's push as no less than more all-too-familiar capitalization on grief for profi t. To the organization's credit, its claims come with a caveat: "Our only conditions are the victim was not responsible for the accident." Website solicits fodder for ambulance chasers Emergency! Two days prior to the May 8 plane crash on I-285 near Peachtree Indus- trial Boulevard that snarled traffi c around Atlanta, I caught part of an emergency of a diff erent sort on I-85 headed southwest into Atlanta with a fi nal destination of Nashville, Tenn. Turns out a few roadside brushfi res were to blame for traffi c grinding to a halt around Mile Marker 125 for a couple of hours. With some protract- ed slowdowns around Atlanta and in Chattanooga, I arrived in Nashville at rush hour, just getting ahead of a multivehicle accident on I-24W, only to hit standstill traffi c in the down- town area. By the time I parked, I was close to what would have been the close of my 14-hour window in a diff erent life – drive time I might have maxed out entirely. Sound familiar? Here's hoping your recent runs have gone more smoothly. Catch a series of photos from the day in the May 7 post on the blog. The fire department is the worst when it comes to blocking more lanes than they need. — Allan McCullough, via OverdriveOnline.com Todd Dills " TV attorneys have increased com- mercials in some areas to 25 percent of the advertisement market. I feel they are mostly targeting audiences who are looking for an easy buck, making it appear that causing a fender-bender with a big rig pays off. While trying to stage one of those slight fender-bend- ers, the situation may quickly become a deadly uncontrollable major accident on the highway. I see these people all the time. They pass, hit the brakes, stop in front to make a turn, no signal, linger just long enough hoping to be tapped slightly by you. Most target low-speed accidents, but some of these brain- washed idiots actually believe they can easily walk away from a high-speed free- way encounter with a big truck and ca$h that big-win check within a few weeks. " — Jim Stewart, via OverdriveOnline.com SPEAKING OF VICTIMS "I am truly sorry for how you've been treated," says Combined Transport's Tony Keller in a video you can find in the June 4 post to the Channel 19 blog. Keller sees companies across the country that "have the heart for their drivers" as the exception, not the rule. He's made what he calls the "abused driver syndrome" diagnosis part of his routine discussions with drivers joining his company. It's a phenomenon Keller says he began understanding after joining Combined Transport and seeing how driver applicants had hopped from fleet to fleet to fleet, ever in search of something better.