Des Moines, Iowa — A compromise between Iowa’s trucking industry and trial lawyers would create new liability protection from lawsuits filed over accidents involving commercial vehicles.
The Iowa House, on a 58-to-42 vote, has approved a bill that would set a five million dollar cap on so-called pain and suffering damages in most lawsuits filed over wrecks involving commercial vehicles like semis and tow trucks. Representative Bill Gustoff, a Republican from Des Moines. led debate on the bill.
The liability protection would limit rising insurance rates for trucking companies, according to Gustoff.
Representative Jon Dunwell, a Republican from Newton, was seriously injured 22 years ago when he was hit by a commercial truck while riding a bicycle. Dunwell says increasingly high verdicts in tort liability cases, though, are a drag on the U.S. economy and he backs the bill.
All 58 “yes” votes came from Republicans. Democrats and a few Republicans opposed it. Republican Representative Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids cried as she talked about a great aunt who was killed decades ago when the car she was in struck a truck parked, without its lights on, in the middle of a highway at night. Her family didn’t sue, but Jones says she won’t vote to limit what other families in similar circumstances can do.
Representative Sami Scheetz, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says the bill is fundamentally wrong.
Earlier this year, most Republicans in the Iowa Senate voted for a two million dollar cap on non-economic damages in lawsuits filed over trucking accidents. Governor Reynolds has previously proposed a one million dollar limit, so it’s unclear if the Senate will accept the five million dollar cap.
