Accident Lawyer Accident Prevention And Reporting 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A truck driver's employer failed to enforce hours-of-service rules, and the fatigued driver caused a crash. Which legal theory most directly targets the employer's own conduct?
- Strict products liability
- Promissory estoppel
- Negligent supervision or negligent entrustment (Correct answer)
- Breach of implied warranty
Correct answer: Negligent supervision or negligent entrustment
Negligent supervision or entrustment holds the employer liable for its own failure to enforce safety rules.
Question 2: Under FMCSA rules, a commercial motor carrier must maintain an accident register of DOT-recordable crashes for how long?
- 3 years (Correct answer)
- 5 years
- 1 year
- 10 years
Correct answer: 3 years
FMCSA requires carriers to keep an accident register for three years after a recordable accident.
Question 3: What makes a post-accident internal investigation report potentially discoverable in litigation?
- It contains employee names
- It was created after the accident date
- It was prepared in the ordinary course of business rather than in anticipation of litigation (Correct answer)
- It was reviewed by an attorney at any point
Correct answer: It was prepared in the ordinary course of business rather than in anticipation of litigation
Routine business-course reports usually fall outside work-product protection.
Question 4: A store's failure to follow its own written inspection schedule before a slip-and-fall is most useful to a plaintiff for proving what?
- Contributory negligence
- Assumption of risk
- Lack of proximate cause
- Constructive notice and breach of the duty of care (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Constructive notice and breach of the duty of care
Ignoring its own inspection policy helps show the store breached its duty and should have known of the hazard.
Question 5: Which element of a workplace safety program is most directly aimed at preventing repeat accidents?
- Requiring employees to sign liability waivers
- Annual holiday safety raffles
- Posting motivational safety slogans
- Root cause analysis with corrective action tracking (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Root cause analysis with corrective action tracking
Root cause analysis identifies underlying failures so corrective actions prevent recurrence.
Question 6: After a car accident, a client posts on social media that they 'feel fine.' Why is this a reporting and documentation concern for their attorney?
- It obligates the insurer to settle quickly
- Social media posts are inadmissible and thus wasted effort
- The insurer can use the post to dispute the claimed injuries (Correct answer)
- It resets the statute of limitations
Correct answer: The insurer can use the post to dispute the claimed injuries
Defense counsel and insurers routinely use social media posts to contradict injury claims.
Question 7: Which federal agency investigates major transportation accidents such as aviation and railroad crashes to determine probable cause?
- EPA
- FTC
- OSHA
- NTSB (Correct answer)
Correct answer: NTSB
The National Transportation Safety Board investigates major transportation accidents and issues probable-cause findings.
Accident Lawyer Accident Prevention And Reporting 3
A truck driver's employer failed to enforce hours-of-service rules, and the fatigued driver caused a crash.
Which legal theory most directly targets the employer's own conduct?