IST Analysis of H.R. 6151
H.R. 6151 Will Increase Hurdles to Justice for Victims and Survivors of Large Truck Crashes
Representatives Garrett Graves (R-LA) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) recently introduced H.R. 6151, the Highway Accident Fairness Act of 2021.
The authors of the bill have presented it as a way to prevent "staged collisions between passenger cars and commercial motor vehicles," which are already illegal in the United States. The bill’s true purpose is to prevent people who were injured or killed in large truck crashes from having a fair chance at recovery.
Summary of H.R. 6151
Create a penalty (fine and/or imprisonment for not more than 20 years) for staging a collision involving a commercial motor vehicle.
Grant original jurisdiction to district courts in any civil action alleging bodily harm or loss of life involving one or more commercial motor vehicles, operating on a public road in interstate commerce, in which the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $5,000,000, and any plaintiff is a citizen of a state different from any defendant.
Require a plaintiff or plaintiff's attorney to disclose in writing to the court the identity of any commercial enterprise, other than a plaintiff or plaintiff’s counsel of record, that has a right to receive payment that is contingent on the receipt of monetary relief in the action by settlement, judgment, or otherwise; and produce for inspection and copying, except as otherwise stipulated or ordered by the court, any agreement creating the contingent right.
Key Points:
The first provision in H.R. 6151 is completely unnecessary as it is already illegal to stage crashes.
The bill was written in response to a federal investigation that uncovered an extensive car crash staging operation in New Orleans. So far, 29 people have been convicted for intentionally causing more than 100 wrecks. This clearly undercuts the claim that justice is not being served.
The reality is that staged truck crashes are both rare and already prohibited. Nevertheless, the authors are using this first provision to introduce two other provisions that will make it more difficult for families harmed in truck crashes to get justice.
The second provision in H.R. 6151 wants to restrict families of victims and survivors of truck crashes to seek recovery in Federal court rather than state courts, which is what most trucking companies and corporate interests prefer.
A recent report from the American Transportation Research Institute (funded by the American Trucking Association), titled “The Impact of Small Verdicts and Settlements on the Trucking Industry” admitted that most defendant motor carriers prefer Federal courts:
“According to subject matter experts, state courts are notorious for unpredictable outcomes in court trials,” the report said. “More diverse jury pools and the use of appointed rather than elected judges fuel the perception that federal court is more disinterested in truck crash cases. For this reason, defendants often find federal court a preferable venue.”
At a time when truck crash deaths and injuries have continued to rise, lawmakers should be focusing their efforts on helping reverse these trends. This attempt to erect even more hurdles to justice for families who are harmed by corporations shows the bill’s true purpose: prioritizing profits over people. Advocating for a switch to a “more disinterested” court is not justice.
The third provision in H.R. 6151 wants to impose additional requirements for families of victims and survivors of truck crashes if they choose to hold a trucking company accountable in court.
This provision is a handout to multi-million-dollar motor carriers that have been complaining to Congress that they (and their defense attorneys) are the victims of plaintiff’s attorneys who make jurors sympathetic to people who were killed or seriously injured because of one of their trucks.
The facts belie this false narrative. Not only are more Americans dying in large truck crashes (a 36% increase in truck crash deaths since 2010) but most of them are car occupants, who make up 96% of fatalities in two-vehicle fatal crashes involving a large truck and a passenger vehicle.
During this period of worsening truck safety, several families have sued trucking companies and been awarded a verdict by the courts or secured settlements that go to covering the cost they incurred from being involved in a truck crash. In response, some folks have taken to misrepresenting these few hundred civil cases (out of nearly half a million truck crashes per year) by referring to them as “nuclear verdicts” that have been financed by third parties with financial interests. This is done to trick the public into thinking that these cases unfairly cause trucking companies to go out of business and that – in response – the law should be changed to make it even more difficult for families to attain justice after their crash.
The reality is that when a large trucking company is involved in a lawsuit, it can last for years. While many large trucking companies, insurance companies, and the multi-million-dollar defense firms that they hire can afford to be in court for half a decade, many people cannot.
The Institute for Safer Trucking reviewed ten such truck crashes, some of which involved fatalities and some of which involved serious injuries. These cases lasted anywhere from 2 to 10 years, with an average length of 5.2 years. While none of the companies involved in these cases went out of business, most of the injured people and every person killed did.
This bill does nothing to improve truck safety and will harm the people our organization is committed to helping - families of victims and survivors of large truck crashes.