Georgia Logging Truck Accidents

Some studies estimate that ninety-percent of raw wood products in Georgia are moved via commercial vehicles (a tractor-trailer or straight logging truck).

While transportation of these materials is necessary, logging trucks are frequently operated in an unsafe manner. The Center for Forest Business at The University of Georgia published an outstanding study on log truck accidents over a ten-year period. This study demonstrated that logging truck drivers cause accidents in a variety of different ways. Accordingly, in July 1991 the Georgia Forest Products Trucking Act subjected logging vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 44,000 pounds or more to inspections.

The Georgia Department of Public Safety (GDPS) has imposed of number of regulations for trucks carrying load of logs, poles, or posts which extend more than four feet beyond the end of the trailer. For example, an LED or strobe light must be mounted on the back of the truck and the light must flash at least sixty times per minute and be visible from at least five hundred feet away. The intent of these regulations is to provide sufficient notice to a motorist traveling behind or on the side of a logging truck of the potential dangers of driving too close to the truck. The lights must be operated any time, day or night, and while the vehicle is stopped adjacent to the roadway. Also, the projecting logs or other material must be marked with flags.

In section 1-393.166(h), the GDPS provides specific requirements (with illustrative graphs) for how logs and other materials must be secured (tied down) in the trailer. These requirements are intended to minimize the chance of the load, or part of the load, dislodging and entering the roadway.

Finally, the logging truck is required to comply with the rules and regulations set forth by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, in addition to the GDPS rules.