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37 Brief 23 (2007-2008)
Limiting Liability for Trucking Accidents by Uniting Safety and Claims Departments When Addressing the Preventability of Accidents

handle is hein.journals/tbrief37 and id is 25 raw text is: By Donna L. Burden In most trucking companies, both a safety department and a claims or risk management department can be found. Each department has different functions and goals for the well-being of a company. However, when determining whether an accident was pre- ventable, a disconnect between these departments may often severely affect the litiga- tion defense of the company that both departments strive to best serve. n this article, I highlight this disconnect and propose solu- tions enabling both depart- ments to complete their responsibilities successfully for the company. These solutions pro- vide a company with a cohesive strategy for evaluating and manag- ing driver risk while best position- ing it to avoid the impending allegations of liability based on driver negligence. In most cases, a much better synergy between the two departments is vital to preserv- ing the company's ability to moni- tor the safety records of its drivers and for protecting itself from unnecessary liability. The Role of the Safety Department Given the substantial amount of regulation of the trucking industry and the increased number of com- mercial vehicles on America's roadways, trucking companies inevitably face an array of traffic violations, violations of Depart- ment of Transportation regula- photo by Michael Winokur/Getty Images THE BRIEF * FALL 2007 tions, and accidents. Safety man- agement combines risk evaluation and management, with the goal of reducing losses now and in the future. To do this, persons in inter- nal safety departments must remain current with all federal, state, and industry regulations. In addition, safety managers must also work with customers to identify loss exposures and to offer tech- niques to mitigate and alleviate these situations. That a trucking company needs to evaluate drivers is obvious, and the best way to do so is to monitor the number of collisions in which drivers are involved, the loss of product associated with their driv- ing, and the number of violations of federal and state regulations that they have accrued. Perhaps the most important of these is a dri- ver's accident record. Although each accident affects the driver's overall safety record, the preventa- bility of the accident, from the dri- ver's perspective, is often the most important factor in quantifying the 23

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