In this area, most of the dump trucks you see hauling from stone quarries, gravel-sand pits, asphalt plants or construction sites, have a d.o.t. safety orange sign with black letters attached to the tail gate, which states "construction vehicle, do not follow". I am not sure what the law is, but I suspect the truck insurance provider(s) may have influenced this, you did not see as many now as there were say 20 years ago with this sign.
Unless the law says different, truck owner is responsible, or should be. It is clear who is causing an unsafe condition. Personally, I steer clear of dump trucks and lowboy's, whenever possible there is always something coming off them.
I will flat out say any driver who does not clean off the deck of a low boy trailer, the machinery he/she is hauling is belligerent and negligent, it's pure laziness. Same thing with the apron on the back of a dump body, sweep it off, that any any other place material can accumulate. Over the years I have seen people that don't care and the subsequent materials bouncing down the road. Granted, there are some people who follow these trucks looking for a claim or who make a big deal over nothing, it still does not make it right for a driver to not make sure the truck is clean.
I drove both these kinds of vehicles for a living, no reasonable employer is going to get on you for cleaning loose materials off any edges they can accumulate on. Other scenarios are faulty or poor quality tarps, where materials are blowing off. Common sense tells you to avoid getting behind these vehicles in the first place, but with traffic today and on/off ramps many times you have no choice, no place to go.
There is one local outfit that is a large operation with multiple quarry sites, I've called them and reported things with there trucks one was a driver had a load of gravel and his tailgate secured with a ratchet strap, material was falling out, just a friendly phone call, another time one had a brake shoe hanging up, smoke coming out, driver had no clue, called em and told em before he catches fire, I used to haul on their jobs, better than a cop catching them, courtesy call. I have a habit of taking license numbers, truck, trailer numbers, recording time and location, subsequently calling dispatch or someone who will take a complaint or the like seriously. Too many out on the road, which we all have to share.
ne I remember was the Buckle up sign was required because the truck company had had a fatality accident so the had to put Buckle up for Safety signs on the back of their trailers.
