Texas Senate Passes Commercial Auto Tort Reform Bill
A bill that proponents say will help control abusive lawsuits against commercial motor vehicle operators following accidents has passed the Texas Senate.
House Bill 19 would have a big impact on the commercial auto insurance market, as it aims to limit lawsuits following commercial vehicle crashes its supporters say. The insurance industry-supported measure by Rep. Jeff Leach would, among other things, require a two-part trial in civil actions involving a commercial motor vehicle if requested in a motion by the defendant.
In the bifurcated trial system, the driver of the vehicle subject to the civil action must be found “negligent in operating an employer defendant’s commercial motor vehicle” before the lawsuit can proceed to the second phase, which involves a claim against the driver’s employer, according to a House summary of the bill.
Trucking Applauds Passage of Lawsuit Abuse Reform Bill in Texas Senate
Industry says HB 19 restores balance and fairness to a civil justice system in dire need of reform
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ARLINGTON, Va., May 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Today, by a unanimous and bipartisan vote of 31-0, the Texas Senate passed House Bill 19 a comprehensive reform bill to reduce frivolous and abusive lawsuits targeting commercial motor vehicles. The bill s passage earned widespread praise from the trucking industry and a broad coalition of supporters from every corner of the Texas economy, who say reforms like HB 19 are needed to prevent a growing trend of lawsuit abuse that has sent insurance levels skyrocketing to unsustainable levels, putting enormous strain on the supply chain.
May 19, 2021
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) suggested method would levy 25-cents for every mile driven, tracked via government-mandated devices that report the data back to the IRS.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday suggested using a truck-only vehicle miles traveled tax during the Senate Finance Committee s hearing on infrastructure funding.
His suggested method would levy a tax of 25-cents for every mile driven. The mileage would be tracked via government-mandated devices that report the data back to the IRS.
Tuesday marked at least the second time Cornyn has eyed a potential trucking-exclusive tax, having previously floated the idea in 2019 to support a five-year highway bill.
Mar 31, 2021
The American Jobs Plan would invest $621 billion in infrastructure but only $135 billion would go toward repairing roads and bridges and improving highway safety.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled his nearly $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, dubbed the American Jobs Plan.
While Biden s plan – one he called a once in a generation investment in America – boasts a hefty price tag for American taxpayers, less than 10% of the proposed funding would be allocated to improve the nation’s highways and bridges.
The U.S. infrastructure recently earned a score of C- from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the nation s infrastructure quality has dropped from fifth to thirteenth in the world over the last 15 years.
The American Transportation Research Institute recently released its annual list highlighting the most congested bottlenecks for trucks in America.
“While everyone else sheltered in place in 2020, trucks kept rolling, delivering essential goods to communities large and small,” said CRST International President and CEO Hugh Ekberg. “Unfortunately, congestion continues to impact our operations and affect our drivers’ ability to deliver for America.”
The
2021 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at over 300 locations on the national highway system. The analysis, based on truck GPS data from over 1 million freight trucks uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. ATRI’s truck GPS data is also used to support the U.S. DOT’s Freight Mobility Initiative. The bottleneck locations detailed in