Alabama Has a Foolish Law?

It takes a tragic incident like this Guntersville crash for our legislators and politicians to realize it is ridiculous not to have a law prohibiting children, or ANYONE, from riding in the back of a pickup truck?  Here is an article where our politicians are now discussing the enactment of such a law.  In fact, U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, Anniston, is quoted as saying, “it’s foolish for Alabama to be one of a few states in the country allowing people to ride in the cargo bed of pickup trucks.”

Alabama is one of a few states in the country on many laws when it comes to car and truck accidents.  While they are at it, here are a few others ridiculous laws they might consider when it comes to car and truck accidents on Alabama roadways:

1. Allow for Compensatory damages in wrongful death cases – we are the only state in the country that restricts wrongful death cases to punitive damages;
2. Change contributory negligence to comparative negligence as the other 46 or 47 States have done;
3. Reinstate the collateral source rule preventing the person at fault from telling the jury the injured victim had health insurance, or allow those injured in car wrecks to tell the jury the person at fault has car insurance;
4. Allow the person whose car is damaged to recover for what they owe on the car, not what the car is worth so that a person with a new car who owes more than it’s worth is not penalized because someone cannot follow the rules of the road;
5. Allow direct action claims against the insurance company so that they don’t force parties into litigation and drag cases out needlessly, i.e.: make insurers do what they say on TV; and
6. Don’t allow insurers to opt out of cases simply because they think it will be prejudicial to them – this will make them look at cases realistically.

These are just a few of the foolish laws which puts Alabama behind the curve.  Don’t wait til it happens to you.  Write your legislators now and tell them these laws need to be changed.  Two Congressmen considering the pickup truck Legislation are:

Rep. Wayne Johnson – 22nd District – Jackson and Madison Counties
Rep. Kerry Rich – 26th District – Dekalb and Marshall Counties

If you want to discuss any of these laws further, please do not hesitate to e-mail or call me.  I’ll be glad to go more in depth and explain the nuances of each and how they can affect you if you are involved in a wreck.