When a Category 4 hurricane bears down on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, the trucking industry doesn’t stop—evacuation routes become congested with 18-wheelers carrying hazardous materials, emergency supplies, and industrial equipment through Assumption Parish. The drivers are tired. The deadlines are impossible. And when an 80,000-pound truck loses control on LA-1 near Napoleonville or jackknifes on the approaches to the Sunshine Bridge, there’s no such thing as a minor accident. If you’re reading this from a hospital bed in Assumption Parish, or if you’ve just buried a loved one who didn’t survive an encounter with a commercial truck on our narrow bayou highways, you’re in the fight of your life. We’re Attorney911, and we’ve spent 25 years making trucking companies pay for what they’ve done to families right here in Louisiana.
Ralph Manginello didn’t become one of Texas’s most feared trucking litigators by accident. Since 1998, he’s been admitted to practice in federal court—the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas—giving him the jurisdictional reach to handle interstate trucking cases that cross state lines. When a tanker truck carrying petrochemicals from the Port of South Louisiana up LA-308 causes a catastrophic burn injury, or when a logging truck coming out of the Atchafalaya Basin loses its load on LA-70, you need an attorney who understands both Louisiana’s unique civil law system and the federal FMCSA regulations that govern every commercial vehicle on our roads. That’s what we bring to Assumption Parish. That’s what Ralph has built his reputation on.
But here’s what makes us different from the billboard lawyers you see on I-10. Our associate attorney, Lupe Peña, spent years working inside a national insurance defense firm—the very companies that insure these trucking giants. He sat in those conference rooms. He learned their playbook. He knows exactly how adjusters are trained to minimize your injuries, how they use Colossus software to generate lowball offers, and how they hope you’ll sign away your rights before you realize the true extent of your spinal cord injury or traumatic brain damage. Now Lupe fights against them. That’s your advantage. That’s why we recover multi-million dollar settlements for families in Assumption Parish while other firms settle for policy minimums.
We’re talking about real money here—settlements that change lives. We recovered over $5 million for a traumatic brain injury victim struck by a falling log at a logging operation. We secured $3.8 million for a client who lost a limb after a car crash led to devastating staph infections. Our firm is currently litigating a $10 million lawsuit against the University of Houston and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity for hazing that caused rhabdomyolysis and kidney failure—proving we’ll take on any institution, any corporation, any trucking company that puts profits over safety. We’ve gone toe-to-toe with BP in the Texas City Refinery explosion litigation, fighting for the 15 workers who died and the 170+ who were injured when corporate negligence turned a refinery into a fireball. When we say we hold trucking companies accountable, we’ve got the track record to back it up.
Every 12 minutes, someone in America dies in a commercial trucking accident. In Assumption Parish, with our position astride the industrial corridor connecting Baton Rouge to Morgan City and New Orleans, we see more than our share. The statistics are brutal: 76% of fatalities in truck accidents are the occupants of the smaller vehicle. When it’s your family’s sedan against a loaded 18-wheeler on the two-lane blacktop near Labadieville, physics isn’t on your side. The truck weighs up to 80,000 pounds—twenty times your vehicle’s weight. At 65 miles per hour, that truck needs 525 feet to stop—nearly two football fields. When the driver is on hour 13 of a 14-hour shift, pushing past federal limits to make a delivery deadline at the sugar mill, you don’t stand a chance.
That’s why the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) exists, and that’s why 49 CFR Parts 390 through 399 are the most important regulations you’ve never heard of—until now. These federal rules govern every aspect of commercial trucking, and when trucking companies violate them, they’re negligent. Period.
Under 49 CFR Part 390, these regulations apply to all commercial motor vehicles operating in interstate commerce with a gross vehicle weight rating over 10,001 pounds—which covers virtually every 18-wheeler on LA-1. 49 CFR Part 391 dictates who can even drive these behemoths: drivers must be 21 years old for interstate commerce, must read and speak English sufficiently to communicate with the public, and must hold a valid CDL with proper endorsements for hazmat if they’re carrying the chemicals that flow through Assumption Parish’s industrial veins. The Driver Qualification File requirements under §391.51 mandate that trucking companies maintain detailed files proving their drivers are medically qualified, drug-tested, and properly vetted. When we subpoena these records—and we do, immediately—we often find drivers with suspended licenses, positive drug tests, or medical conditions like sleep apnea that make them ticking time bombs on our highways.
Then there’s 49 CFR Part 392—the rules of the road for truckers. Section 392.3 prohibits operating while fatigued or ill. Section 392.4 bans drugs and amphetamines. Section 392.5 prohibits alcohol use within four hours of duty. Section 392.11 requires following distances that are “reasonable and prudent”—not tailgating your compact car at 70 mph on the approach to the Sunshine Bridge. And §392.82? That bans hand-held mobile phone use entirely for commercial drivers. Yet we pull cell phone records and ELD data showing drivers texting while navigating the narrow, winding lanes of the bayou country where one mistake means a swim in the bayou or a head-on collision with a cane truck.
49 CFR Part 393 covers vehicle equipment and cargo securement. Those tanker trucks carrying chemicals past Labadieville? They must comply with §393.100-136, requiring cargo to be secured with sufficient tiedowns to withstand force of 0.8g deceleration forward. When a load shifts on a curve near Plattenville and causes a rollover that crushes your vehicle, that’s often a violation. The brake requirements under §393.40-55 are exhaustive—air brakes must be adjusted within prescribed limits, and pre-trip inspections must verify every system. We recently handled a case where post-crash brake analysis revealed the trucking company had deliberately disabled the automatic slack adjusters to save maintenance costs—a clear violation that turned a preventable stop into a fatal rear-end collision on LA-308.
But nothing kills on our highways quite like 49 CFR Part 395—the Hours of Service regulations. These are the most violated rules in trucking, and they kill Louisiana families every hurricane season when trucks are pressed into service for evacuations and supply runs. Under current federal law, property-carrying drivers—meaning those 18-wheelers hauling freight through Belle Rose and Paincourtville—can drive a maximum of 11 hours after 10 consecutive hours off duty. They can’t drive beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty. They must take a 30-minute break after 8 cumulative hours of driving. And they can’t operate after 60 hours in 7 days or 70 hours in 8 days without a 34-hour restart.
These aren’t suggestions—they’re federal law. And every day in Assumption Parish, drivers violate them. The Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate under §395.8 was supposed to stop the cheating that happened with paper logbooks, but creative trucking companies still find ways to manipulate the system. When we download the ECM and ELD data—and we send spoliation letters within 24 hours of being retained to preserve this critical evidence—we frequently find drivers who’ve been on the road for 16, 18, or 20 hours straight. That fatigue slows reaction time by the same amount as a 0.08 blood alcohol level. When that tired driver misses the curve on LA-70 near Bayou Goula because he’s hallucinating from sleep deprivation, that’s not an accident. That’s a predictable, preventable outcome of corporate greed.
And 49 CFR Part 396 requires systematic inspection and repair. Trucking companies must maintain records for every vehicle under their control. When we subpoena maintenance records after a brake failure causes a crash near Labadieville, we find patterns: deferred repairs, phantom inspections signed off by mechanics who never touched the truck, and brake adjustments that haven’t happened in months despite §396.3’s mandate for systematic upkeep.
Here’s what you need to understand about Louisiana law, specifically for Assumption Parish accident victims: You only have ONE YEAR from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. That’s it. Louisiana Revised Statutes §9:5625 gives you just 365 days—one of the shortest statutes of limitations in the nation, matched only by Kentucky and Tennessee. If you miss that deadline, you lose your right to compensation forever, no matter how catastrophic your injuries or how clear the trucking company’s fault. And because Louisiana follows pure comparative negligence under Civil Code Article 2323, you can recover damages even if you’re found 90% at fault—but your award will be reduced by your percentage of fault. This makes aggressive investigation critical, because the trucking company will try to shift blame onto you for “sudden stopping” or “failure to yield” on our narrow parish roads.
We know Assumption Parish. We know that LA-1 serves as the backbone of the parish, carrying traffic from Napoleonville south to Lac Labadie and north toward Donaldsonville, where it meets the industrial corridor. We know that LA-308 runs parallel to Bayou Lafourche, carrying heavy trucks serving the sugar mills and chemical plants. We know that during cane harvest season, the roads are crowded with slow-moving agricultural equipment and impatient truckers trying to make delivery deadlines. And we know that when a hurricane evacuation is ordered for Terrebonne or Lafourche parishes, Assumption Parish becomes a corridor of desperation, with trucks and evacuees clogging the highways in conditions ripe for disaster.
Assumption Parish isn’t just a dot on the map to us. It’s where your family lives. It’s where our client Glenda Walker fought for “every dime she deserved” after a trucking company tried to lowball her. It’s where Chad Harris discovered that at Attorney911, “you are NOT just some client… You are FAMILY to them.” We don’t treat you like a case number—we treat you like family, like Donald Wilcox, who told us another firm had rejected his case before we got him that “handsome check.”
But family doesn’t mean soft. When we take your case, we go to war immediately. Within 24 to 48 hours of your call to 1-888-ATTY-911, we dispatch our rapid response team. Why the urgency? Because evidence disappears faster than water in the Atchafalaya Basin. That black box data in the truck’s Engine Control Module (ECM)? It can be overwritten in as little as 30 days—or immediately if the truck is put back in service. The ELD logs showing Hours of Service violations? FMCSA only requires 6 months retention, but carriers “lose” them faster than that. Dashcam footage? Deleted within a week. Witnesses? Their memories fade and they move away from our transient coastal communities.
We send spoliation letters immediately—legal notices to the trucking company, their insurer, the driver, the maintenance company, the cargo owner, and anyone else who might possess evidence. These letters put them on notice that destroying evidence will result in sanctions, adverse inference instructions (where the jury is told to assume the destroyed evidence would have hurt the defense), and potentially punitive damages. We demand preservation of:
- ECM and EDR data showing speed, braking, and throttle position in the seconds before impact
- ELD logs proving Hours of Service violations
- GPS and telematics data tracking the truck’s route through Assumption Parish
- Driver Qualification Files showing hiring and training (or lack thereof)
- Maintenance records revealing deferred brake jobs or tire replacements
- Drug and alcohol test results (must be conducted within 32 hours for alcohol, 8 hours for drugs post-accident per §382.303)
- Cell phone records proving distraction
- Dispatch communications showing pressure to violate safety rules
While other firms are still asking you to fill out intake forms, we’re already downloading data from the truck that hit you.
Let’s talk about what can actually go wrong on these roads—the accident types we see in Assumption Parish. Jackknife accidents happen when a truck’s trailer swings perpendicular to the cab, often blocking both lanes of LA-1 during a rainstorm. They occur because of sudden braking on slick roads, following too close (violating §392.11), or improper brake maintenance (violating §393.48). When a jackknifed truck blocks the highway near Paincourtville during a thunderstorm, the multi-car pileup that follows is devastating.
Rollover accidents are common on the elevated curves of our bayou highways, especially when trucks are carrying liquid cargo. The “slosh and surge” effect of liquid in tanker trucks—called the cargo shift accident—changes the center of gravity. A driver taking the curve from LA-308 onto the approach ramps too fast (violating §392.6 regarding speed for conditions) can easily roll a tanker into the cane fields, spilling chemicals that require HAZMAT teams from as far away as Baton Rouge.
Underride collisions are perhaps the most horrific. When an 18-wheeler stops suddenly on LA-70 and a passenger car rear-ends it, the car often slides underneath the trailer, shearing off the roof and decapitating the occupants. Federal law since 1998 requires rear impact guards (§393.86), but many trucks lack side underride guards entirely, and the rear guards often fail in crashes above 30 mph. We investigate the guard’s manufacture, installation, and maintenance as potential product liability claims against trailer manufacturers.
Rear-end collisions from trucks are deadly because of that 525-foot stopping distance. When a trucker is texting—violating §392.82—and doesn’t see traffic stopped for the drawbridge at Belle Alliance, the impact forces are catastrophic. The Event Data Recorder shows whether the driver even touched the brakes before impact, or whether the truck’s brakes were out of adjustment per §393.40.
Wide turn accidents, or “squeeze play” collisions, happen daily in our small towns. A truck swinging wide left to make a right turn onto LA-1 from a side street in Napoleonville creates a trap for motorists who try to pass on the right. The truck crushes them against the curb or building. These violate §392.11 regarding safe lane changes and turns.
Tire blowouts on our hot Louisiana asphalt cause trucks to lose control. 49 CFR §393.75 requires minimum tread depths—4/32″ on steer tires, 2/32″ on others. When a recap tire explodes on a truck doing 70 on the elevated portion of LA-308, the “road gator” debris can cause secondary accidents, or the driver may overcorrect into oncoming traffic.
Brake failures account for 29% of truck accidents per FMCSA data. Air brake systems fail because of moisture in the lines (common in our humid climate), out-of-adjustment pushrods, or deliberate disabling of automatic slack adjusters by companies trying to save money on maintenance. The smell of burning brakes should be a warning, but too often it’s the last thing a driver smells before impact.
Head-on collisions on our narrow two-lane parish roads occur when fatigued drivers (violating §395) drift across the centerline, or when truckers impaired by methamphetamine (violating §392.4) to stay awake take curves too fast in the dark. The closing speed of a car doing 55 and a truck doing 65 means a combined impact of 120 mph—almost always fatal for the car’s occupants.
Hazmat spills are a particular terror in Assumption Parish given our proximity to chemical plants and the Port of South Louisiana. When a tanker carrying chlorine, ammonia, or petroleum products overturns near a residential area like Labadieville, the evacuation radius can be miles. These cases invoke 49 CFR Part 397 regarding hazardous materials transportation, and the penalties for violations include not just civil liability but criminal charges under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act.
Now let’s talk about who you can actually sue—because in trucking accidents, it’s rarely just the driver. Under Louisiana’s respondeat superior doctrine and the federal “statutory employer” provisions, multiple parties share the blame:
The Truck Driver is liable for his own negligence—speeding, texting, driving drunk, or violating Hours of Service. We get his driving record, his medical certifications, and his criminal history.
The Motor Carrier/Trucking Company is vicariously liable for its employee’s actions, but also directly liable for negligent hiring (putting a driver with 3 DUIs behind the wheel), negligent training (failing to teach mountain/curve driving for our bayou terrain), negligent supervision (ignoring ELD violations), and negligent maintenance (skipping brake jobs). We investigate their CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) scores using FMCSA’s SAFER system to see if they have a pattern of violations.
The Cargo Owner/Shipper—often a major chemical company or sugar cooperative—may be liable if they loaded the truck overweight or failed to disclose hazardous characteristics. The Loading Company (if different from the carrier) is responsible for securement under §393.100.
The Truck Manufacturer (Freightliner, Peterbilt, Volvo) and Parts Manufacturers (Bendix for brakes, Michelin for tires) are liable for design defects—like fuel tank placement that causes post-collision fires, or brake systems prone to fade.
The Maintenance Company—if the trucking company outsourced repairs to a third-party shop in Morgan City or Thibodaux—can be liable for shoddy brake adjustments or tire mounting errors.
The Freight Broker—the middleman who arranged the shipment—has a duty to select carriers with adequate safety ratings. When brokers choose the cheapest carrier with terrible CSA scores to save a few bucks, they’re liable for negligent selection.
The Truck Owner—in owner-operator situations—may be separately liable for negligent entrustment.
Government Entities—the State of Louisiana or Assumption Parish itself—may be liable for dangerous road design, inadequate signage on approaches to the Sunshine Bridge, or failing to post weight limits on roads not designed for 80,000-pound trucks. These claims have strict notice requirements under the Louisiana Governmental Claims Act—sometimes as short as 90 days—so speed is essential.
Each of these parties has separate insurance policies. The motor carrier carries $750,000 to $5 million in coverage. The shipper may have additional coverage. The broker carries contingent liability. By identifying all liable parties, we “stack” coverage to ensure your catastrophic injury—a spinal cord injury requiring lifetime care, a traumatic brain injury leaving you unable to work, an amputation requiring prosthetics, or a wrongful death leaving your children without a parent—is fully compensated.
Speaking of catastrophic injuries, let’s be clear about what you’re facing. Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) from trucking accidents range from mild concussions to severe diffuse axonal injuries requiring 24/7 care. We look for loss of consciousness, confusion, headaches, memory loss, mood changes, and sensory deficits. TBI cases settle for $1.5 million to $9.8 million depending on severity because lifetime care costs can exceed $3 million.
Spinal cord injuries resulting in paraplegia or quadriplegia require home modifications, wheelchairs, and personal attendants. Lifetime costs range from $1.1 million to $5 million+, and verdicts in the $4.7 million to $25.8 million range are common when the trucking company acted recklessly.
Amputations—whether traumatic (limb severed at scene) or surgical (due to crush injuries or infection)—require prosthetics costing $5,000 to $50,000 each, replaced every few years. Phantom limb pain and psychological trauma add to the value. These cases range from $1.9 million to $8.6 million.
Severe burns from fuel fires or chemical exposures require debridement, grafting, and years of reconstructive surgery. The pain is unimaginable, and the scarring is permanent.
Wrongful death in Louisiana allows recovery for funeral expenses, loss of financial support, loss of household services, and mental anguish. While these cases range from $1.9 million to $9.5 million or higher, no amount compensates for losing a spouse, parent, or child to a trucking company’s greed.
If you’ve suffered these injuries in Assumption Parish, you need treatment immediately. Do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company’s insurer. They will use your words against you. Do not post on social media. That photo of you smiling at a family gathering will be used to argue you’re not really injured, despite the fact that you’re smiling through excruciating pain to comfort your children. Do accept treatment from your chosen doctor. You have the right to select your own physician under Louisiana law—not the trucking company’s doctor.
Louisiana’s pure comparative fault system means even if you were partially responsible—even if you were speeding slightly or failed to signal—the trucking company still pays their percentage of fault. But they will try to blame you. They’ll claim you “stopped suddenly” on LA-1 (as if that justifies rear-ending you), or that you were “in their blind spot” (which is no excuse for failing to check mirrors per §392.11).
We counter these tactics with data. The ECM doesn’t lie. The ELD doesn’t lie. The maintenance records don’t lie. And Lupe Peña, with his insider knowledge of how insurance companies build these defenses, knows exactly where they’re hiding the evidence.
We also understand the unique challenges of Assumption Parish. We know that when a hurricane hits, the evacuation routes create dangerous conditions. We know that the mix of agricultural traffic (slow-moving cane trucks) and industrial traffic (speeding chemical tankers) creates deadly speed differentials. We know that the bayou roads flood, and that trucks ignoring weight limits on soft shoulders can cause catastrophic accidents. And we know that local emergency services—while excellent—may be stretched thin during mass casualty events, affecting response times and medical outcomes.
Our firm has three offices—Houston at 1177 West Loop S, Austin at 316 West 12th Street, and Beaumont—allowing us to serve Assumption Parish clients with local knowledge backed by the resources of a major firm. We’re not learning about your parish on Google Maps. We’re learning about it from you, from accident reconstruction experts we hire from LSU and local engineering firms, and from our own investigations of the specific conditions on LA-308 and LA-70.
We work on contingency. You pay nothing upfront. Our fee—33.33% if settled before trial, 40% if we go to court—comes only from the recovery. We advance all costs for experts, depositions, and investigations. If we don’t win, you don’t pay. Period.
But the clock is ticking. That one-year statute of limitations in Louisiana means you must act fast. Evidence is being destroyed now. The truck is being repaired or sold for scrap. The driver’s logs are being “corrected.” The witnesses are moving away. Every day you wait makes your case harder to prove.
If you speak Spanish, hablamos español. Lupe Peña provides direct representation in Spanish without interpreters—you’ll communicate directly with your attorney in your native language about your medical care, your lost wages, and your family’s future.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911 today. That’s 1-888-288-9911. We’re available 24/7 because trucking accidents don’t happen on business hours. When that 18-wheeler crossed the centerline on LA-1 near Napoleonville and took your husband from you, or when that overloaded sugar truck overturned on your daughter’s car on LA-308, the trucking company called their lawyers immediately. They’re building their defense right now. What are you doing?
Ralph Manginello has been fighting for families like yours for over 25 years. Our firm has recovered over $50 million for injured people. We’ve handled cases against Walmart, Coca-Cola, Amazon, FedEx, UPS, and the largest carriers on the road. We’ve litigated against BP. We’re not intimidated by big corporations, and we’re not afraid to go to trial if that’s what justice requires.
Most cases settle, but we prepare every case as if it’s going to trial. Insurance companies know the difference between a lawyer who files lawsuits and a lawyer who tries cases. We try cases. We’re trial lawyers. That reputation gets you better settlement offers, faster—because the trucking company knows we can and will take them to court and expose their safety violations to a jury.
Assumption Parish deserves better than trucking companies that treat our roads like speedways and our families like collateral damage. You deserve an attorney who treats you like family, who fights for “every dime you deserve” as Glenda Walker put it, and who will solve your case in months rather than letting it drag on for years like other firms.
The impact was catastrophic. 80,000 pounds of steel against your sedan. In an instant, everything changed. But your fight for justice starts now. One call to 1-888-ATTY-911 puts Attorney911 on your side—Ralph Manginello, Lupe Peña, and a team that includes former insurance defense attorneys who know every trick the trucking companies will try.
Don’t let them win. Don’t let them drag this out until the evidence is gone and the statute of limitations expires. Don’t let them pay you less than your child’s college fund, less than your mortgage, less than your medical bills. You didn’t ask for this fight, but we’re ready to finish it for you.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911 now. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Serving Assumption Parish and all of Louisiana.
Hablamos Español. Llame al 1-888-ATTY-911.
