Making
Highways Safer
> Back To Top
Michigan must adopt an aggressive program to
widen two-lane highways throughout areas to make high-speed
travel safer for all. Law enforcement officials must regularly
our highways to enforce speed limits rather than tolerating
drivers traveling 80 m.p.h. or higher.
Cochran, Foley & Associates has gone on
record as a truck accident lawyer in Michigan and an advocate
for actions such as these to reduce the number of car-truck
collisions after representing the family of a 5-year-old boy
was killed when a semi-tractor truck struck from behind a
vehicle being driven by his mother.
Paving construction to widen our two-lane
highways or at lest provide for more left-turn flare lanes,
increased speed enforcement on two-lane highways, and stricter
enforcement of truck driver's driving time limits can prevent
deaths. Human life is so valuable that we must make these
efforts.
A settlement was reached for $1,300,000 in a
wrongful death civil lawsuit. Earlier the truck driver had been
found criminally negligent and was imprisoned for 18 months in
his home on an electronic tether.
"As counsel for the plaintiff, I cannot be at
ease with the finding of criminal neglect or with the wrongful
death civil settlement," says Terry Cochran, attorney and
senior partner of Cochran, Foley & Associates, PC, in Livonia,
MI.
"I cannot rest at peace because I know with
certainty that before the year ends someone else will
needlessly die somewhere on a highway. I am certain of this
because federal officials, state and county governments, and
law enforcement won't take any actions beyond the civil and
criminal judgments recorded. None of us should be at peace
until certain actions are taken."
If truck driver makes a mistake, adds
Cochran, it is very hard to correct because of the mass and
size of a truck. "Most truck drivers are good drivers who drive
defensively and are qualified and trained to be good drivers,"
says Cochran. "But only a single driver error in a lifetime of
driving can have tragic results. If you are involved in a truck
accident it will be serious. If you are driving and see a truck
behaving erratically, call the state police who will come out
and check driver's log."
