Concrete Mixer Truck Accidents

Concrete mixer trucks are highly specialized commercial trucks that require special training beyond the basic Commercial Driver’s License training course.

In a loaded concrete mixer truck the center of gravity is high and constantly shifting. It is well known in the industry, and covered in training videos and Power Point presentations, that a loaded cement mixer truck will tip up on two wheels when making a ninety degree turn on level pavement at 12 miles per hour, and will roll over at 16 miles per hour.

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association provides a terrific package of driver training videos in DVD, PowerPoint and online video formats, the opportunity to earn the Concrete Delivery Professional Certification (CDP) Online Certification Program, a national competition for safe concrete mixer drivers, and a three-day safety course for supervisors.

Unfortunately, too many cement companies do not bother to provide the extra training beyond showing new drivers how to operate the mixer controls.

We represented a family in a case in which concrete mixer truck in Georgia rolled over when making a turn in a level intersection, landing on a family vehicle and causing a head injury to a one-year-old in his child seat in the back. The cement truck driver had just obtained his CDL a couple of month earlier, and his training on cement mixer truck driving consisted of showing him how to work the mixer controls. At his deposition, I showed the driver the standard industry training video. He swore that he had never been trained on any of that, and if he had been trained the accident and injury would not have occurred.