Liability Insurance Limits for Commercial Trucking Companies:
Liability insurance limits for your typical tractor-trailer company, as mandated by federal law, is $750,000.00 in coverage for the protection of innocent members of the motoring public who might be unfortunate enough to be injured by a large tractor-trailer rig. In any serious collision in which the innocent third party victim is hit by a tractor-trailer, it does not take much imagination to realize that $750,000.00 will not go very far, particularly with the increasing cost of healthcare. If someone has numerous orthopaedic injuries and requires surgery, for example, $750,000.00 might not go far enough, particularly if the innocent victim has to lose time from work and/or is permanently disabled.
The current required liability limits for commercial motor carriers was enacted by way of the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. These limits have not been increased therefore for almost thirty (30) years. Such limits need to be doubled, if not tripled, at a minimum, in order to protect the innocent members of the motoring public. The chief reason for this is because of the devastating damage usually done by a big tractor-trailer rig when it is involved in a collision. The injuries, damages, lost wages, permanent disfigurement and wrongful deaths one sees in the context of tractor-trailer accidents certainly would seem to militate in favor of increased liability limits.
Now that we have a new Congress and a new President, one can only hope that a law that was enacted in 1980 is amended so that innocent members of the motoring public may receive the protection they need if involved in a collision with a commercial motor carrier. While the increase in premiums might result in increased costs for the trucking business, they have avoided these costs for the past thirty (30) years and it is now time that the liability limits for commercial motor carriers be increased.
