Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/708027
"I like the camera pointing both ways," he says as an attorney. "You're able to eliminate that you're not on the phone," among other things. "You're going to be criticized [by plaintiff's attorneys] if you don't have the driver- facing camera as well." Moseley believes the same logic that underpins why "the big companies get cameras ought to apply to the small companies. I would think that, to me, there's no difference from small versus large in terms of what the event record- ers can do for you." ELDs can have a similar effect in eliminating operator wrongdoing as a debatable contributing factor in a crash, Moseley says. Plaintiff's attor- neys have shown great skill at mining the public CSA system for recent-past violations to tell a story about com- pany negligence. "The last thing you want is an inspec- tion report from transport police writ- ing you up for false logs right after the highway patrol writes you up for the accident," Moseley says. But even with e-logs, a problem can happen. Strimbu tells the story of an early-morning accident in March. Pull- ing a reefer, the Strimbu driver came upon an automobile in the median that had gotten stuck in snow. The four- wheeler was "rocking the car back and forth, and when the truck got even with the car, it turned right over the snowbank and drove head-on into our truck," Strimbu says. In-vehicle cameras showed the truck driver was not at fault. Later, it was learned that the auto driver was a "convicted felon who borrowed his girlfriend's car, with no insurance, wanted for an armed robbery the day before," Strimbu says, but that wasn't the end of it. "Our driver, on e-logs, had just had his 34-hour restart and had only been driving four hours," says Strimbu. The post-crash inspection showed no equipment violations, but the U.S. Department of Transportation inspec- tor went back four days on the logs. The fourth day before the accident, he "found the driver was loading at a shipper near the trooper's geographical area and went off-duty for 8.5 min- utes," Strimbu says. "He said, 'no way you were in the sleeper berth'" and fined the driver $650. So there's "now a chink in the armor," says Strimbu, which the company is aggressively challenging via the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administra- tion's DataQs system. "Our insurance company's saying we've got to win that, because the ambulance-chasing attorneys" will no doubt be circling. • 8 www.bigrigowner.com A U G U S T 2 0 1 6 Cover Story Protect yourself • Buy as much liability insurance as you can afford and still maintain a healthy profit margin. • Get a forward-facing camera (or dual- view, with in-cab vid capability) to record accidents. • Begin using electronic logs to encourage and cams. • Get proper treatment for any medical conditions, especially sleep apnea, to remove any hint of impairment. Cover Story 0816.indd 3 7/8/16 9:19 AM