posted by admin on Oct 7
Vacating in part, the Tenth Circuit observed that, without explicitly stated criteria, the reporting of various events grouped into the accident category in the report on plaintiff necessarily would lack the precision needed to assure consistency among all reports produced by the agency. Yet there are many unexpected occurrences, the court said, encountered by commercial truck drivers and other motorists on daily basis that persons using everyday language would not characterize as accidents. Defendant argued that the occurrence of damage or injury is not essential to an accident, and that an unexpected occurrence would be sufficient.
In any event, the criteria defining the category of accidents reported on defendants forms remain largely implicit, the court said. The interests of the trucking industry, the court added, reach beyond concerns about highway safety to matters of economics and profitability. The inclusion in defendants reports of incidents in which equipment was damaged while assigned to the driver regardless of fault indicates the extremely broad definition of accident that is sometimes used.
The inclusion in defendants reports of incidents in which equipment was damaged while assigned to the driver regardless of fault indicates the extremely broad definition of accident that is sometimes used. The employers that supply the information to the agency rely largely on their own criteria for reporting accidents and other events worthy of note, and these criteria vary.
The inclusion in defendants reports of incidents in which equipment was damaged while assigned to the driver regardless of fault indicates the extremely broad definition of accident that is sometimes used. Defendant argued that the occurrence of damage or injury is not essential to an accident, and that an unexpected occurrence would be sufficient. For example, one incident cited against plaintiff concerned his turning around on private parking lot, apparently damaging the surface of the lot.
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