Victims push back on trucking lawsuit bill

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Families of loved ones killed in commercial trucking accidents are pushing back against a bill they say makes it harder to hold companies accountable.

"Colton was killed when a truck driver ran a stop sign and T-boned our vehicle," said Jessica Sprague, of Houston, who wore a button with her 16-month old son's face while her husband held up a framed photo. "That truck driver had a history of drug use and never should have been behind the wheel that day."

With fatal trucking accidents happening more often each year in Texas than anywhere else in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, a Senate panel heard hours of testimony Wednesday on Senate Bill 39. KXAN Investigates first told you last year about efforts to expand a 2021 law limiting when a jury can hear information about a company's conduct. The goal, industry groups said, was to stop what it called "nuclear verdicts" and bring down rising insurance rates.

Opponents of the bill said it introduces legal hurdles aimed at making it harder for those who are injured to introduce evidence about a company's alleged negligence. Sprague said, in her case, the company didn't properly investigate the driver's background -- something a jury wouldn't be able to know unless the trial moves to a second phase after a driver is determined to be at fault. A jury can hear gross negligence allegations against a company, and determine potential damages, in a trial's second phase.

"This bill would have prevented a jury from knowing why we really lost our son," she said of the July 24, 2022 crash. "They would have only heard about a man who ran a stop sign. This crash was not just about a man who ran a stop sign. It was about a company who never should have employed that man in the first place. If a company can hide from that truth, they won't get any safer."

Supporters of the bill, like Texans for Lawsuit Reform, said it will simplify jury trials and "shouldn't change" the amount of money victims may be awarded.

"The amount of your pain and suffering should be tied to just what your injury is," said Lee Parsley with TLR. "Not to the badness of the defendant's conduct."

Ware Wendell with the non-partisan consumer advocacy group Texas Watch told lawmakers there is a "safety crisis" on our roads.

"We need safety reforms, we need insurance reforms, we don't need more tort reforms," Wendell said. "It's only helping the insurance companies, and it's only punishing the innocent. The jury deserves the whole truth, nothing but the truth; they deserve it up front."

The bill was left pending. A companion bill, House Bill 4688, was also taken up Wednesday by the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee.