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A comment on NTSB Recognizes Need to Better Monitor Truck Driver Fatigue

redladyca — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:21:51 GMT

Basically the difference between a convicted felon and a truck driver is that the convicted felon gets three hot meals a day cable TV, recreation time and an 8' X 10' cell.

Truckers have to work and pay for everything (it's always more expensive at a truck stop, because it's usually the only place we can park a big truck and they know it and take advantage ) We get no cable, no recreation time maybe 1 hot meal a day, usually it's every other day and fast food (that we have to pay for!!) and live in an 8' X 5' box on wheels that is our office.

We also get told we're number one on an almost daily basis (flipped the bird) but without trucks there would be no fuel at the gas stations, or food in the grocery stores.

Did you know that driving a Big Rig is more dangerous than being a law enforcement officer and that it shortens our expected life span by an average of 15 years???

A comment on NTSB Recognizes Need to Better Monitor Truck Driver Fatigue

redladyca — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:24:34 GMT

It's more like slaves. I've waited between 14 to 36 hours at a shipper to get loaded with no facilities food or water (other than what I have in the truck) only to have the company dispatcher order me to give it to a team and I loose all the miles/ pay for the load. Now I know my company charged that shipper for detention but then they tell me that the contract with the shipper is that they do not pay detention. At the very best I might get $8 an hour detention but when i'm rolling I make $30 an hour. Do the math that's $22 an hour I lose.
They do not get you home when you ask even when given weeks notice. Then we only get 1 day off for every 6 days on the road not 2 out of every 7.
Don't get me wrong I love what I do but I'm a professional and deserve to be paid as such. Would you really want your family on the road anywhere near a 18 wheeler that was driven by an untrained/ unskilled hand?? This country would come to a complete stop were it not for the truckers on the road every day. Can you think of anything in your home that has not at some point been on a truck?

A comment on NTSB Recognizes Need to Better Monitor Truck Driver Fatigue

michael phelan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:07:25 GMT

redladyca makes an excellent point. The trucking companies treat the drivers like indentured servants and force them to choose between adequate rest and making a fair living.

A comment on NTSB Recognizes Need to Better Monitor Truck Driver Fatigue

redladyca — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:59:06 GMT

the best way to eliminate driver fatigue is to change the way the industry pays drivers. Throw the cents per mile game out the window and pay them by the hour or on salary thereby eliminating the use of multipal log books by many drivers (illegal) so they can run as many miles as possible and make as much money as possible. Every minute they spend at a shipper or receiver and in a dock is an income loss to a driver

A comment on Experts Not Permitted to Testify Plaintiff is Faking or Exaggerating Symptoms

Mike Bryant — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:55:18 GMT

Pain is physiological, that is always the thing that this paid for medical defense tactic misses or ignores. It is nice to see a court recognize the defense for what it is. Thanks for pointing this important case out.

A comment on Experts Not Permitted to Testify Plaintiff is Faking or Exaggerating Symptoms

Gerry McGill — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:55:37 GMT

Why am I not surprised Walmart and its lawyers employed such tactics? In my part of the country "Walmart lawyers" is a term usually reserved for the bottom feeders in the defense bar.

A comment on NFL Concussion Policy: a Very Slow Work in Progress

michael phelan — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:35:38 GMT

Dear NFL Fan:
I couldn't agree more that the federal government should stay out of this issue. I happen to thing the federal government should stay out of just about everything except national defense, infrastructure, and the monetary system. I do think the NFL should police itself and hope that it stops ignoring science and starts setting a better example for college and high school programs.
M Phelan

A comment on NFL Concussion Policy: a Very Slow Work in Progress

NFL Fan — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:08:53 GMT

A message to the "something must be done" crowd:

Be honest. "There's a long way to go" is a euphemism for "we will not be satisfied until the federal government regulates every aspect of the NFL."

And only a dupe or blatant liar would have you believe that government-run-anything — with its decrees, mandates, and bureaucracy — is a more efficient undertaking than what is produced voluntarily in the free market (what's left of it anyway).

The discussion of how to deal with sports injuries is as much about freedom and personal responsibility as it is safety.

Players and teams enter into contracts, each fully knowing the risks involved on and off the field.

The only thing that should constitute a government intervention is when there is a breach of contract. In which case, the sides settle out of court, or one side sues the other (wherein, you don't need Congress or the president to issue draconian mandates; the pertinent local or state judiciary would prosecute the case according to the laws already on the books).

And what make us so sure that those team doctors are driven by the incentive to label a player ready when, in fact, the team's coach and owner could very well lose that player for the season or longer? Do team doctors never lose their jobs over such irresponsible actions?

Do we take every coach and front office as not only callous megalomaniacs but completely ignorant fools? Are they all so dull to the risks of re-inserting a dinged-up and dumbfounded player into the game, knowing that he is likely to get re-injured — or that a lawsuit could follow?

If they are, then they deserve to lose games, fans, and perhaps their team — but NOT via the federal government mandate. More government intervention is not the answer.

Public awareness is good. Public fleecing is bad.

It is immoral and unconstitutional to use taxpayer funds to run this Utopian charade down that "slippery slope."

Keep the government out of the NFL.

A comment on Coping with Brain Injury During the Holidays

Mike Bryant — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:19:31 GMT

This is really great information. It truly makes a difference to understand these injures and to help people cope with them.

A comment on Defense Neuropsychologists Want to Replace Jurors

Mike Bryant — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:55:44 GMT

What about the reality that there maybe physiological issues that need to dealt with. When you throw in that pain itself is in your head, doesn't that make it harder for them to make up these opinions. Finally, it is interested when the paid expert points to the use of secondary gain (financial reward) as the basis.