The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) enforces a set of statutes for all commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). The Georgia Department of Transportation establishes and enforces certain provisions in support of federal USDOT regulations and enforces basic provisions at the state level such as registration, safety inspections, weigh stations, and tags.
Like Florida and most other states, Georgia has adopted the bulk of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for its regulation of intrastate trucking. Interstate trucking is subject to all laws and provisions of the FMCSA with some limited exceptions.
Georgia Department of Transportation Key Points
Georgia Forest Products: Intrastate hauling within the state of Georgia of logs, pulpwood, untreated posts or poles, pine straw, or stumps is governed by the Georgia Forest Products Trucking Rules.
Georgia Carrier Insurance Requirements: Georgia requires only $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident for intrastate motor carriers. However, the majority of GA intrastate carriers typically carry $1 million in liability coverage or more for practicality and asset protection.
Direct Legal Action against a Liability Insurer: It is permissible under Georgia law for an injured person to make a claim on the motor carrier and the motor carrier’s liability insurer in the same action. Georgia law authorizes “an independent cause of action against the carrier’s insurer on behalf of a member of the public injured by the carrier’s negligence.”
Georgia and US Trucking Accident Statistics
- Every 16 minutes, somebody is either killed or injured in an accident involving an 18-wheeler, semi-truck, or other commercial motor vehicle in the US
- Georgia truck accident locations resulting in injury or fatality: 57% rural, 33% urban
- The Georgia trucking accident fatality average remains steady at 200 or more each year
- Georgia non-fatal truck accidents exceed 5,200 each year
- At least half of 18-wheeler accidents in Georgia involve out-of-state carriers
- Georgia’s Largest Trucking Operators are:
- B-H Transfer Co.
- Colonial Cartage Corporation
- Energy Dispatch, LLC
- Hills Transport, Inc.
- Howard Sheppard, Inc.
- Kennesaw Transportation, Inc.
- Nationwide Southeast, Inc.
- Southern AG Carriers, Inc.
- Southern Freight, Inc.
- Transus Intermodal, LLC
- Semi-trucks are involved in nearly 500,000 motor vehicle accidents each year, according to the FMCSA
- Approximately 20,000 accident-related injuries are officially linked to truck driver fatigue each year, but experts feel that many more cases go unreported or unconfirmed
- A fully-loaded tractor trailer travelling at 55mph requires 300 ft. (length of a football field) to come to a complete stop
- About 65% of fatal commercial truck accidents occur in the hours after sunrise, typically following late night or all-night runs
- The majority of catastrophic injury-related trucking accidents involved drivers who were awake for 24 consecutive hours or longer
- There were 4,018 fatalities and 112,000 total injuries in 2011 related to large truck and bus accidents (including truck drivers)
- Approximately 2% of trucking accident fatalities are drivers/operators, 98% are occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians, or cyclists
References:
GDOT
Avvo
FMCSA
