Cecil H. Lane Jr.

Cecil H. Lane, Jr., Consultant, is a nationally certified Motor Fleet Safety Director holding certificate #1142 and is a trainer for the North American Training Management Institute (NATMI), which is recognized by the American Trucking Association (ATA).Cecil has over 30 years of experience in handling serious motor carrier fleet issues.During Cecil's 20-year career with the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS), he assisted with the creation of Arizona's highly effective Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Bureau for which he trained approximately 30 officers throughout Arizona.He also assisted in the development of the first motor carrier vehicle operations self-inspection program where enforcement and industry personnel worked together to seek compliance with the FMCSR.

Cecil has experience in governmental and industry emergency response to serious accidents and incidents involving hazardous materials, and for nine years, served as Arizona's On-scene coordinator for hazardous materials incidents, providing emergency response, investigation and supervision of spill clean-up.Cecil is a noted educator on the broad subjects of safety and compliance as it relates to motor carrier fleets, is a commercial motor vehicle accident avoidance instructor and is a licensed commercial motor vehicle operator.Over the years, Cecil has testified numerous times in both federal and state courts throughout the United States relative to motor carrier and fleet standards, compliance and non-compliance with applicable rules, regulations, and industry standards and the mechanical components of commercial motor vehicles including brake systems.

Cecil H. Lane, Jr.
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Cecil Lane

Cecil H. Lane, Jr., Senior Consultant The SALT Institute

Phone: (602) 841-2222 - Fax (602) 841-2304 12406 North 32nd Street, Suite 103

Email: support@salti.com - Web: www.salti.com Phoenix, Arizona 85032-7146
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Mr. Lane has a strong and lengthy background in commercial motor carrier fleet safety, vehicular accidents and hazardous materials incidents accomplished in both his military and civilian careers.He has acted as a military and Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) police instructor on multiple subjects with in-the-field application and handling of commercial fleet safety and motor carrier accidents along with hazardous materials incidents.

In a recent decision by U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Kosik of the Middle District of Pennsylvania (Scranton), the Court precluded the testimony of plaintiff's trucking industry expert, Cecil Lane, of the SALT Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.
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To support the negligent entrustment and punitive damage claims, plaintiff's counsel retained Cecil Lane of the SALT Institute.Lane performed his own reconstruction of the truck driver's hours of service purportedly based on the driver's logs, electronic messages, positioning records, fuelpurchase reports and bills of lading.

As part of his reconstruction of the truck driver's hours of service, Lane arbitrarily determined that the driver logged insufficient time for fueling and he added additional time to each log entry.According to Lane, it was not possible to fuel a tractor in fifteen minutes despite the use of electronic fuel cards.At his deposition, Lane cited the standard ten gallons per minute required for gasoline pumps fueling light duty trucks.However, he ignored the standard established by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations of 20 gallons per minute for diesel pumps fueling heavy duty tractors.

Similarly, Lane determined that the truck driver logged an insufficient amount of time to complete pre-trip inspections.Therefore, he arbitrarily added fifteen minutes to each pre-trip inspection log entry.In support of his opinion, Lane testified that he relied on "studies" which showed that it was not possible to perform a pre-trip inspection in fifteen minutes.However, Lane never specifically identified or produced those "studies."

Additionally, despite evidence that in accordance with the FMCSR, the trucking company relieved its drivers from duty during the loading and unloading of trailers, Lane changed each "off duty" log entry to "on duty" during loading and unloading.

Based on his reconstruction of the truck driver's hours of service, Lane concluded that the truck driver drove 91.5 hours in eight days, well over the hours of service limits.He determined that the truck driver falsified his logs in violation of the FMCSR and the trucking company was aware of the falsification.Furthermore, Lane concluded that the truck driver was driving in a state of fatigue at the time of the accident.

We filed a motion in limine to challenge the admissibility of Lane's opinions at trial.We argued that Lane was not a fatigue expert and his opinions were not based upon reliable methodology as required by Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence.

The Court agreed with our arguments and ruled that: "[Lane] admittedly does not qualify as a sleep expert to opine on [the truck driver's] mental arousal state or fatigue even if his opinion is based entirely on his reconstruction of [the truck driver's] hours of service from [the trucking company's] records acquired with the satellite system."The Court observed that "no witness, including the police report, has offered facts to suggest fatigue."Indeed, the truck driver "testified he had completed a nap before commencing the trip and was in good health."

The Court noted that "although Lane may be qualified on trucking industry matters, his opinions about defendants' violation of FMCSR regulations based on his reconstruction of computer records is suspect."The Court observed that Lane's calculation of the truck driver's "on-duty" time ignored the trucking company's policy of relieving its drivers from duty during loading and unloading.The Court concluded that "the entire thrust of [Lane's] testimony is based on his reconstruction of the computer records pertaining to [the truck driver's] operations for the carrier showing what he believes to be excessive hours of operation.

Cecil H. Lane, Jr., Consultant, is a nationally certified Motor Fleet Safety Director holding certificate #1142 and is a trainer for the North American Training Management Institute (NATMI), which is recognized by the American Trucking Association (ATA).Cecil has over 30 years of experience in handling serious motor carrier fleet issues.During Cecil's 20-year career with the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS), he assisted with the creation of Arizona's highly effective Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Bureau for which he trained approximately 30 officers throughout Arizona.He also assisted in the development of the first motor carrier vehicle operations self-inspection program where enforcement and industry personnel worked together to seek compliance with the FMCSR.Cecil has experience in governmental and industry emergency response to serious accidents and incidents involving hazardous materials, and for nine years, served as Arizona's On-scene coordinator for hazardous materials incidents, providing emergency response, investigation and supervision of spill clean-up.Cecil is a noted educator on the broad subjects of safety and compliance as it relates to motor carrier fleets, is a commercial motor vehicle accident avoidance instructor and is a licensed commercial motor vehicle operator.Over the years, Cecil has testified numerous times in both federal and state courts throughout the United States relative to motor carrier and fleet standards, compliance and non-compliance with applicable rules, regulations, and industry standards and the mechanical components of commercial motor vehicles including brake systems.
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Cecil LaneConsultant