canaryinthemine
Retirement....The Job I Was Born To Have!
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Many years back there were two sleeper teams, (not ABF), left their domicile together & a few miles out, a drive wheel assembly came off of the the lead team's tractor. That driver did not lose control & pulled off on the shoulder but the team in the rear crashed. That driver ran off the shoulder, overturned & the rig caught fire. Both of the team members were killed in the fire. Some speculated that driver was distracted by the lost wheel.
The widows sued every company that had a connection to the tractor/trailer. Those that were sued were Freightliner, Stemco,( the wheel seal was Stemco), Timken, (the tractor had Timken bearings), Rockwell, (the Freightliner was speced with Rockwell axle assemblies, the tire manufacturer(s), I think there was a combination of tire brands on the tractor & trailer & the trailer had Bandag caps so they were also brought into the lawsuit. The maintenance records on the wrecked tractor/trailer were also used in the trial.
Anyway all who were sued had to hire an attorney to prove their product was not at fault. See how complicated doing business with anything pertaining to trucks can be? I don't remember how the jury ruled but an engineer, was hired to represent one of the product manufacturers. That engineer proved the product of the company he represented did not cause the wheel assembly to come off.
Many times however, a company will pay a settlement just to rid itself of liability.
And,...like the example I gave,....when the lawyers get involved,...you'd better have some sort of written language saying the company subsumes your Liability Exposure,...if you were performing your job duties in a legal manner.
If not,......your life might become a Liability Hell,.....especially if your company feels you've become "too expensive" in a Lawyerly way.
There was a small town in our area that changed access for trucks over 25' for their downtown area........Cops had a crackdown and a "surprise" sign limiting access one day....Many tickets written. Union attorneys showed up with Union drivers,....non-Union drivers stood there by themselves.
Guess who paid fines......