With all the trucking activity around Texas and the Fort Worth/Dallas area, the last thing we need is to let the trucks drive heavier, faster and longer.  Truck wrecks and deadly accidents happen all too frequently as is and too many carriers are cutting costs by scaling back on safety and maintenance.  What we do need is smarter and more-effective regulation and increased law enforcement to adequately police for violators.

I’m amazed at those Aggie fans who express disappointment over the victims and their families bringing suit against the school.  That illustrates what I see among many potential jurors in this state, which is a general distrust of others who have been injured and skepticism of others’ damages, but by God, they’d better get full justice if they happen to be the ones who get injured.  Just goes to show that nobody likes a lawyer until he or she needs one.

At least two people are dead and a third is injured following a late night crash in East Texas involving six 18-wheelers and one car.

A dispatcher with the Department of Public Safety said Tuesday morning that eastbound Interstate 20 at exit 560 is shut down while emergency crews clear the wreckage and clean up fuel spills.

A spokesman with the Texas Department of Transportation told Tyler television station KLTV that cleanup efforts could take awhile and it’s unknown how long the interstate will be closed.

Officials said the accident began when an 18-wheeler rolled over and caught fire. Details weren’t immediately available on the two adults who died in the crash, but they were riding together in the one car involved in the wreck.

At least 598 workers died on the job between 2002 and 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that period, the number of deaths per year rose by around 70 percent, from 72 victims in 2002 to 125 in 2006 and a preliminary count of 120 in 2007.

The number of people laboring in the nation’s oil and gas fields has been soaring as part of a drilling boom that began in 2000-01, but that alone does not appear to explain the rising death toll, since the fatality rate - that is, the number killed relative to the number of workers - also climbed during the first half of the decade.

Many of those deaths have happened in Texas, the nation’s largest producer of crude oil and natural gas.

Experts blame several factors for pushing the toll ever higher in an industry long considered one of the most dangerous in the nation. Among them:

- A dramatic increase in drilling, spurred by record-breaking oil and natural gas prices. The number of workers in oil and gas jobs shot up from 290,000 in 2002 to 428,000 in 2007. In July 2002, 740 land-based oil and gas rigs were operating in the United States; today, there are about 2,000.

- An influx of new workers hired to operate all those rigs. Many of the newcomers are young, inexperienced and speak little English.

- A high-pressure environment where workplace safety lapses are common. Government agencies responsible for enforcing the rules rarely dole out tough penalties.

- Rampant drug and alcohol use among workers, some of whom turn to methamphetamine to get through 12-hour shifts and labor up to 14 days in a row.

Some media are reporting that the jury found Osteen “not guilty.”  Although that probably conveys an accurate description of the result in the minds of many, this wasn’t a criminal matter.  Rather, the plaintiff sued the defendant for assault (and money damages) and the jury was likely asked a yes/no question on whether the assault occurred.  Civil juries decide liability, criminal juries decide guilt/innocence.  Law Dork will be quiet now.

One striking statistic in the Chronicle article is that in the past six years, 52 people have died in passenger bus accidents in Texas.  That is appalling. 

As an aside, Chronicle writer Clay Robison has had some great articles in the past exposing the plights of injured consumers.  Tip of the hat to Clay.

As if we needed more bad publicity, now a flight attendant has sued Joel Osteen’s wife over an alleged assault which occurred when Mrs. Osteen got upset when something wasn’t quite right in First Class.

According to court documents, the plaintiff is suing Osteen for causing “anxiety and hemorrhoids” because of the assault, as well as a loss of faith.  I can’t wait to see how the plaintiff attempts to prove causation.  I read somewhere that the plaintiff is seeking punitive damages of 10% of Osteen’s net worth, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of a gazillion dollars.  Good luck with that. 

Prediction: Osteen’s lawyer Rusty Hardin will beat this plaintiff like a rented mule.  IF it gets to the jury, they will deliberate for a few minutes just to be polite and then return a defense verdict.  Meanwhile, the rest of us need to start thinking about how we handle this case in our next voir dires.

I had no idea those shafts were large enough for a man to fit inside.  Amazing.  And 40 feet is a long way down.  That must have been horrifying.