Volvo to pay $5 million for negligence in tractor-trailer crash

[kscarbel2]

Surrey Leader  /  June 24, 2016

Volvo Trucks North America has been ordered to pay a Surrey couple nearly US$5 million after being found negligent in a tractor-trailer crash in 2009.

The B.C. Supreme Court ruling, released Friday, found Volvo was negligent in installing hardware on the tractor’s engine, causing the loss of electrical power.

Amandeep and Pavandeep Hans were travelling along a highway, returning to their home following a long trip that extended from the U.S. to Eastern Canada and Manitoba.

Amandeep was pulling a fully-loaded trailer about 65 to 70 km/h (40-44 mph).

Without warning, all electrical power in the truck was lost, including the power steering, headlights and interior lights.

According to the ruling, Amandeep saw the trailer begin to jack-knife, and heard the sound of tires squealing, and sparks flying from the trailer’s landing gear hitting the pavement.

The truck was forced off the road and into a ditch, coming to rest on the driver’s side of the cab.

He and his wife managed to get out and onto the roadway in the freezing night, but a Manitoba Hydro vehicle happened by shortly after the crash, and gave the couple shelter.

While neither suffered serious physical injuries, their lives have changed dramatically, the judgement said.

Amandeep is now “a shadow of his former self physically, emotionally and socially,” and is “incapable of enjoying life as he formerly did.”

During court hearings, medical experts said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the crash and his reaction to it.

Justice Barry Davies awarded the couple US$4.86 million, including US$1.45 million to Amandeep for loss of future earning capacity, and US$1.78 million for his future care and supervision, medication and rehabilitation therapies.

Lawyer Les Mackoff said his clients have lived very modestly since the 2009 crash, with Pavandeep working in the early mornings, and after school, every day of the week, with her days commonly 20 hours.

Amandeep has been diagnosed with a very serious chronic form of PTSD, and all treatment modes have failed so far, Mackoff said.

“There’s some small hope that his function will improve somewhat, but there’s a great danger of him harming himself in the future as well,” he said. “It’s a very delicate situation.”

Mackoff said post-traumatic stress disorder “actually physically changes the way the human brain works.”

But not everybody reacts the same way to the same stressful incident.

“Two veterans can be involved in an IED (improvised explosive device) exploding in front of them and watching a comrade be blown to bits. One guy goes on and never recovers and another person says gee that was a horrible thing, but it has no appreciable affect on them,” Mackoff said.

Volvo’s engineer admitted, Mackoff said, that they knew there were some trucks that had left the factory without a nut properly tightened on a critical joint where the electrical cables pass through a bulkhead between the engine compartment and the passenger cab.

All the electrical wires from the truck’s engine terminate on what’s known as a pass-through plate, he said, and an improperly fastened nut loosened up and caused a failure of the electrical connection as the couple drove through Manitoba.

The judge found that Volvo had notice of the potential problems with the electrical defect, but failed to warn people.

The power failure that led to the accident wasn’t the first for the Hans’ in their Volvo truck which they bought new in 2008.

On July 4, 2008 they were heading into Regina when they suffered a catastrophic failure in the middle of a sunny day.

But Mackoff said they were lucky as they were travelling at low speeds and there was no traffic.

They brought the truck to Volvo, who attributed the problem to a master fuse blowing.

Volvo replaced the fuse, and the couple were told not to worry about it, Mackoff said.

[kscarbel2]

Truckers awarded $5 million for crash

The Vancouver Sun  /  June 24, 2016

“On a dark, cold, snowy winter night, a long-haul trucker was driving his fully loaded tractor-trailer on the Trans-Canada Highway in Manitoba. Without warning all electrical power was lost. All lights were extinguished.

“Darkness enveloped the truck. The driver lost all control of the steering and the trailer. Sparks began to fly amid the sound of screaming tires as the landing gear of the trailer scraped along the highway. The trailer jack-knifed and came towards the driver’s side of the truck’s cab. The driver and his wife, who had been resting in a bunk to the rear of the cab, both feared they would die…

“(Amandeep) Hans screamed ‘what happened … what happened?’ and then ‘we are going to die … we are going to die.’”

Far from the start of a bad novel, seven-and-a-half years after the Jan. 31, 2009 accident, the melodramatic opening was B.C. Supreme Court Justice Barry Davies’ way of beginning his judgment against Volvo Trucks, awarding the couple $4,867,694.75.

Fortunately, Hans and his wife Pavandeep suffered no serious physical injuries but their lives were ruined by the crash.

“The totality of the evidence establishes that Mr. Hans is now a shadow of his former self physically, emotionally and socially who is now incapable of enjoying life as he formerly did,” Justice Davies wrote.

“He is also now incapable of maintaining gainful employment either as a long haul truck driver or by alternative means. The plaintiffs’ medical experts attribute Mr. Hans’ ongoing debilitating symptomology to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) caused by the collision and his reaction to it.”

A long-haul driving team, the couple launched the lawsuit alleging that Volvo was negligent in designing, manufacturing and installing a critical electrical connection in the truck that failed causing the collision.

The province also sued Volvo to recover the medical costs — nearly $200,000.

In June of 2005, the couple began driving as a team for Right Choice Transport Ltd. out of Surrey, driving flatbed trailers primarily into the lower U.S.

Over the next few years they worked for a number of small-sized, long-haul flatbed trucking companies.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hans shared the driving with each being limited by regulation as to the number of hours they could drive,” Justice Davies explained.

“As a team they could double the potential income for the use of their vehicle. At the same time they were able to enjoy their travel to new places which they had never seen and enjoy time together pursuing what they loved to do. From time to time they were also able to take one or both of their children with them on their travels.”

On Dec. 18, 2007, the couple traded in their 2005 Volvo 670 for a new 2009 Volvo 780, in part because the sleeping/living compartment was larger and more accommodating. 

But the truck developed electrical trouble and on July 4, 2008, the electrical system shut down during daylight hours without causing a crash. The problems persisted until the Manitoba mishap.

As a result of the accident, although Hans suffered only minor physical injuries, his mental health issues were significant.

Justice Davies concluded Volvo was negligent installing equipment that caused electrical power to fail.

“More specifically, I find that it is more likely than not that the loose nut on the cab positive terminal that caused the loss of electrical power was not tightened to the requisite torque value when the truck left the factory,” he said. “I find the totality of the evidence leads to the irresistible inference that the nut on the cab positive terminal of the truck was negligently installed by Volvo.”

The judge also found that Amandeep’s PTSD was caused by the collision.

The more than $4 million he awarded the couple included the cost of medical care payable to the province.

The total will change, Justice Davies said, because there are still several tax and cost issues to be resolved, including whether another company that did work on the truck should share liability.

[BC Mack]

I knew I could re-purpose this old photo....

BC Mack