Energy On The Offensive #032 - Werner Earns Review of $100M Verdict by Texas High Court

Facts of the case if you don’t know or forgot:

A pickup truck lost control on a slick interstate, traveled across the highway median, and collided with a Werner tractor traveling on the opposite stretch of road below the speed limit. Although the third party was the one who lost control and hit Werner’s truck, the plaintiff’s attorney still obtained a $100M verdict against Werner.

During the trial, the jury heard the following facts:

• Two weeks before the crash, Ali (Werner’s driver) received the second-lowest possible score on an evaluation from a Werner supervisor (an 8 out of 21).

• Ali knew he was driving in “freezing rain” and there was black ice at the scene of Ali’s collision – “it was like a skating rink.”

• Ali drove past a collision Texas State Trooper Corey Vanderwilt was working, four and a half minutes before the crash. Officer Chad Matlock testified that he traveled to the site of the collision on I-20 and recalled with “hundred percent” certainty that “the roads were icy.”

• James Wampler (a local tow truck driver) was driving between 10 and 15 miles per hour on I-20 that day due to the weather conditions; despite these conditions, Ali was driving his 18-wheeler at approximately 43 miles per hour at the time of the collision.

• Ali’s Werner supervisor (who was in the truck with him) was asleep at the time of the collision. Werner’s director of safety testified that, even with low scores, Ali had “a commercial driver’s license from the state of Texas, so he could drive a truck by himself without anybody in it.”

• There were at least 10 truck stops at which Ali could have stopped between Midland and Odessa.

• Section 2.6.2 in Texas’ CDL manual instructs drivers to reduce their speed to a crawl when they encounter icy roads. A “crawl” in the trucking industry means between 10 and 15 miles per hour.

Takeaways:

1. Be able to demonstrate and prove that your company has a culture of encouraging drivers to make safe choices, regardless of whether the load gets to its destination on time. An example is a Right To Decide Policy, which gives every employee the responsibility and the authority to discontinue any task they feel is unsafe.

2. Have frequent and documented training on inclement weather, what speed a “crawl” is, and when to get off the road safely.

Significant change positively impacting the litigious landscape in which we operate will probably never come. That does not mean giving up or accepting the way things are - rolling the dice with your company and employees livelihood every day. We must do everything we can to counter and deter the plaintiff’s tactics and theories of negligence. Reply to this email to get access to our Plaintiff’s Playbook Assessment. Your company will learn the tactics a plaintiff’s attorney will use against your company and how to close the gaps. A company has not scored better than a 68% yet…