Our Texas truck wreck attorneys help families pursue justice in holding oil and gas trucking companies responsible for accidents. Unfortunately for many grieving families, the sad truth is that oil and gas companies routinely put profits before safety especially in the trucking aspects of this industry. In the last few years, our country has experienced unprecedented oil and gas production as a result of oil and natural gas shale formation discoveries and fracking technology, especially in Texas, North Dakota, and Colorado. According to a March 11, 2013 report from the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas recently had 839 drilling rigs operating which represents nearly half of all the rigs in the U.S. and 22.7 percent of rigs worldwide. With this good comes the bad of more truck wrecks involving trucks servicing the oil and gas industry. Our truck wreck attorneys are here to help you.
The transportation service needs of the oil and gas industry in remote areas of Texas and other parts of the country have led to enormous growth not only in local economies, but also enormous growth in the amounts of commercial and personal traffic, deterioration of county farm roads which were not designed or planned to handle this volume of traffic, and more people on the roads.
For example, the Eagle Ford Shale exploration in South Texas exploded onto the Texas landscape in 2008. In 2011, there were approximately 368 producing oil leases and 550 natural gas wells. A UTSA study predicts 5,000 new wells by 2020. According to a report from the Texas Department of Transportation, commercial vehicle accidents in the Eagle Ford region have climbed from 6 fatalities in 2008 to 24 fatalities in 2011. According to preliminary data provided by the Texas Department of Safety for 2012, there were 2,710 fatal and serious injury truck wrecks and 248 fatal truck wrecks in the Eagle Ford region. Comparing 2008 to 2011 truck wreck data, the counties such as Lasalle County have seen over a 1000% increase in these types of accidents. The preliminary data from Texas DOT indicates a 40% increase in fatalities from 177 in 2011 to 248 in 2012, representing a 40 percent increase.
The statistics are staggering and the budget requirements to repair highways, overpasses, expand highways are not being met by a cash strapped state. Many of these county and farm roads in the Eagle Ford and Permian Basin drilling regions were built in the 1950’s and were not designed for heavy commercial traffic required for the drilling and production requirements in these oil and gas drilling regions.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, one oil and gas well using fracking technology requires 1,184 loaded trucks to start production, 353 loaded trucks a year to maintain production, and 997 loaded trucks every five years in order to re-frack the well. If you incorporate the predictions of the UTSA study, that is 23,680,000 loaded trucks to start production over the next few years. You may read the full
Time and time again in cases we handle, we learn that truck drivers are violating federal motor carrier laws by being on-duty in excess of the legal limitations. We also learn time and time again that these trucking companies also improperly load or overload their cargo, speed, and falsify their driver logs. These rigs operate 24 hours a day and we oftentimes discover the truck driver was fatigued.
It should come as no surprise that many oil and gas companies and other potential defendants involved in the wreck are based or have offices in Houston, Texas and Dallas, Texas. When it comes to filing the lawsuit, the potential venue options must be evaluated in order to assess the most efficient courts to bring justice to you or your loved one in a timely manner. Our truck wreck lawyers have experience litigating and trying cases across Texas. Also, we have been admitted pro hac vice in federal courts outside of Texas to assist other law firms in lawsuits which occur outside of Texas with non-Texas based corporations.
If you or a loved one have been injured or killed as a result of a truck wreck in Texas, please contact our truck accident lawyers immediately for a free and confidential consultation. There are no fees if there is no recovery.