Mother Truckers Fight for Female Truck Drivers and Injury Lawyers

Macon, Georgia Truck Accident Attorney Explains Exciting New Opportunity for Women in Law  

Video Transcript: 

Christy Childers: 

Add a mama bear to your team, whether it's a truck driver or a trucking lawyer, because they are gonna push safety in a way that really comes through in a mother's voice.

Molly Hendrickson: 

If you are injured in a trucking crash, how can it help to have an attorney who knows how to drive a tractor trailer? We're talking to attorney Christy Childers about that on today's episode of Ask The Lawyer. Christy, thanks for joining us today.

Christy Childers: 

I'm so glad to be here.

Molly Hendrickson: 

So first of all, can you tell us a little bit about what is the Mother Truckers Rally?

Christy Childers: 

Yeah, so we are a group of a newly formed group of women, we are part of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys and our real name is the Mother Trucking Lawyers, but we kinda like Mother Truckers for short. And we are a group of people that got together to drive tractor trailers out in Montana recently. And in addition to just learning all that we could about how these tractor trailers drive and the complexity of them, how big it is inside of there, and the off-tracking that occurs. They learn to tarp loads and secure loads, rather, and all of the things that over the road truck drivers learn although we did not do any over the road driving ourselves, it's more of us getting a window into the lives of over the truck, over the road drivers. And so that's what it was, we had a lot of fun. We actually had a voice coach come and talk to us as well as a life coach. We had wonderful dinners and a great time. And a bunch of women got together and drove tractor trailers.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Sounds like a really unique experience. Can you give us a little bit of the backstory? Why did you organize this?

Christy Childers: 

So last year, when we were getting the women's caucus started, there was a big discussion about how a lot of times the trucking lawyers in your area don't look like me. A lot of times they are not female and they wanted more women to get out there and market themselves and I thought, well, hey, I had been to this truck driving school where they do exactly that and they teach you how to drive the tractor trailer. They also encourage you to get your name out there. And so I just wanted to share this opportunity with them so that we could add more women lawyers who are trucking lawyers to the mix.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Can you tell me a little bit about what women trucking lawyers have in common with women truck drivers?

Christy Childers: 

Yeah, so actually Ellen Voie who is the president of Women in Trucking, came and spoke to our group too. And at first, you would think that truckers are not gonna like us and not be on the same team as us but in actuality, women truckers face a lot of the same obstacles that women lawyers face and we have a lot more in common than you might think. So in their industry, of course it's male-dominated, which Ellen likes to say male-populated, and it's hard for them to, a lot of times, have the same safety precautions that they want in... Like, such as, when they go to rest areas, sometimes it's not always safe. And sometimes just, they'll be in a trainer situation with someone who they're not really comfortable with and... So there are things that they face like that. But also, even down to the uniforms they have to wear.

Christy Childers: 

Ellen was telling us that some companies only had man pants for them to wear, and so... And they just didn't fit the women the same. And a lot of times, as women lawyers we're, a lot of times, trying to find suits that fit us and find our vibe in the courtroom. But one big thing that struck me is there are so few trucking accidents that involve women truck drivers, and we wanted to know why. And Ellen thinks that it's great for trucking companies to hire women truckers because they are safety-conscious. And I like to think of it like, kinda like the mama bear mentality. Like if you go into the woods and you see a mama bear with her cubs, she is all about security and safety. And so, in my mind, add a mama bear to your team, whether it's a truck driver or a trucking lawyer because they are gonna push safety in a way that really comes through in a mother's voice.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Have you represented truck drivers and more specifically any female truck drivers?

Christy Childers: 

I definitely have. So we are not enemies to the trucking industry. We obviously love tractor trailers if we wanna go drive them and this is what we do. We represent truck drivers. However, it is always the truck driver who was not at fault in the crash or a commercial motor vehicle driver who wasn't at fault in the wreck. And the reason why I love representing them is because they're professional drivers, this is their job, this is what... And they always, if you are working the amount of hours that truckers work, they are going to love it, it's gonna be their passion. We all know through the pandemic what a great role truck drivers had and I really wanna see trucking companies valuing that in their truck drivers and taking care of them. And when things go wrong is when you have a situation where the trucking companies are not valuing their truck drivers like they should, and then wrecks happen. My female truck drivers that I've represented, honestly, they're not in many wrecks at all. And when they are, in the past, they've been the person not at fault. I do have one right now where the lady driver was at fault but only one in so many years.

Christy Childers: 

And when it's a female truck driver who was not at fault for the crash, I find that they have this deep sense of fear for getting back on the road. And so one thing that I think that the industry could do for women truckers is to help them from a psychological perspective after a bad truck wreck because a lot of times people are killed. And whether it's your fault or not, that's a lot to put on a driver, male or female.

Molly Hendrickson: 

How do you think that female lawyers can help the trucking industry specifically?

Christy Childers: 

So we are all about safety, right? And so we hear all of these things from trucking companies, from industry people about what they wanna do to make our highways safer. And that's all great, but if there isn't anyone there to enforce the rules, then bad companies are gonna give good trucking companies a bad name, and that happens with lawyers, that happens in every field. So as lawyers we're there to make sure that the rules are followed so that people who are trying to follow the rules and do a good job are not hurt by that.

Molly Hendrickson: 

Absolutely. Alright, let's circle back to the Mother Truckers Rally. What's next? What's in the works?

Christy Childers: 

So whenever I work with groups of women who like to get together and really just to share their voice, share their strategy, share their ideas, one big thing I like to do is just encourage them to think of the craziest thing they can think of, any idea they can come up with. And then I like the challenge of me figuring out how to make it happen. And to me it really just opens up everybody's minds a little more to just think bigger, "Wait a minute, we could be getting together and doing this and that." So this year, the ladies did not disappoint. Our plans currently are to go to Alaska, and hopefully we're gonna team up with a truck driving academy in Alaska. And while we're there, of course, we're gonna do lots of other fun things like perhaps visit a glacier, maybe do some heli fishing, go looking at the wildlife, ice climbing, there have been many ideas, mushing came up. I just was like, name everything you can think of, and we're gonna fly consultants out there to help us just master our craft while also having a great time and driving tractor trailers.

Molly Hendrickson: That sounds like a great time. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.

Christy Childers: 

I'm so glad to be here, thank you for having me.

Molly Hendrickson: 

And that's gonna do it for this episode of Ask The Lawyer. My guest has been Christy Childers. If you wanna ask her about your situation, you can call the number on the screen. Thanks for watching. I'm Molly Hendrickson for AskTheLawyers.

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