Hours of service violations and the resulting fatigued truck drivers constitute a national safety crisis of epic proportions. Every time we get behind the wheel of our vehicle we are likely to be sharing the roadways with huge commercial trucks, delivering goods across the United States. Despite the best efforts of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the profit-driven motives of trucking companies keep exhausted drivers behind the wheel of 80,000 pound trucks, threatening the safety of everyone else on the road. When a Texas truck wreck occurs, it is fairly likely the crash is the result of an overly-tired driver who has logged too many hours behind the wheel. Alarmingly, the number of truck accident fatalities increased in 2011 while overall traffic collision fatalities decreased.

While most truck accidents are serious—due to the sheer size of the truck—no matter how large or small the resulting damages and injuries, a Houston trucking accident is always treated differently than a “regular” car crash. Further, trucking accidents bring a host of new complexities into the mix. If your chosen attorney is inexperienced, your claim, as well as your future, can suffer irreparable harm.  Interstate trucking cases are unique, time consuming and expensive to prosecute, placing them in a very narrow legal niche.

Those who have been involved in a truck accident are fully aware of the trauma involved, both in the collision itself as well as in the aftermath of injuries and damages. An 80,000 pound loaded truck can—and does—do immense damage to the much smaller passenger vehicles involved in the accident. In fact, the vast majority of fatalities in truck accidents are the occupants of the passenger vehicle rather than the driver of the large commercial truck.

Should Congress agree on a comprehensive immigration reform bill, the requirement to build a 2,000 mile steel-column fence on the Southwest border of the United States could be included in that bill. Many land owners in the area are offended by the prospect of the government seizing more land in the southernmost tip of Texas and most would prefer to simply increase the number of agents patrolling the border rather than have the fence built on their land.

Members of Congress are headed home for their annual August recess, yet will continue to hear from Americans with strong opinions on immigration reform. Both Democrats and Republicans are asking their representatives to fix our broken legislation system. Many are asking for commonsense immigration reform which offers a “tough but fair” path to U.S. citizenship. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has voiced support for commonsense immigration reform stating he feels it is bad for America’s economy as well as bad for those immigrants who have had children and grandchildren in this country to allow the system to continue in the same way it has in the past. The White House released a series of reports which contribute to the mounting evidence that allowing an earned path to citizenship will boost the economy, strengthen Social Security and modernize America’s legal immigration system.