Yes, Crete Carrier Corporation is a major trucking line with a two-year crash history of more than 500 wrecks across the country. As of the end of February, 2019, 16 people had been killed and 134 injured in semi-truck crashes involving Crete and Shaffer Trucking, an affiliate.
Obtain a free legal consultation if you or a loved one has been injured in a crash involving a Crete driver or vehicle. If a loved one died in the crash, you can potentially file a Crete trucking lawsuit on the basis of “wrongful death.’’
The details of your crash matter to us and our independent investigations help obtain justice from an industry that is weakly regulated and dangerous to passenger vehicles. It doesn’t matter where your crash happened.
Trucking lawsuits seek compensation for injury or death under a unique area of law requiring swift legal action by the attorney handling your case. Speed is important to preserve evidence. At Pritzker Hageman, P.A., the legal team assigned to large truck and bus accidents has decades of experience demanding accountability from commercial carriers, drivers, freight brokers, shippers, insurance companies, equipment manufacturers and other responsible parties.
We represent motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists at a time when there is ever-increasing pressure on trucking companies to move goods faster and cheaper. We have recovered tens of millions of dollars in damages for our clients. The money fills gaps created by negligence, but no amount of financial compensation is truly adequate to replace the loss of health and life.
Crete Trucking Lawsuit
Crete Carrier/Shaffer Trucking is based in Lincoln, Nebraska, and recently was listed by the U.S. Department of Transportation as having 5,373 truck cabs and 5,433 drivers. Crete truck drivers covered more than 611 million miles in 2018 and .3 percent of the company’s drivers were found to be “out of service’’ in roadside safety inspections in a recent two-year period. During the same span, safety inspectors found out-of-service violations in Crete’s trucks 12.4 percent of the time.
In 2006, a semi-truck driven by a Crete driver crashed into the back of a car full of kids. Seven children from one family died in that crash and prosecutors discovered that the driver fell asleep at the wheel because he was in violation of safety rules. Testimony showed he was awake nearly 34 hours before the crash. He pleaded guilty to seven counts of vehicular manslaughter and gave a sworn statement that a supervisor pressured him to drive extra routes and hours.
Ten years later in Minnesota, the Minnesota State Patrol released a shocking dash cam video of a Crete truck driver careening down the highway — swerving back and forth onto the highway’s shoulder.
When the officer stopped the truck, the driver fell out of the cab and struggled to lift himself off the ground. Testing showed that the driver of the semi had a blood alcohol content of .28 percent and was convicted of third-degree Driving While Intoxicated.