How a former Delaware State Police trooper is tackling nuclear verdicts in private fleets
Key takeaways
- Medtrans named Pamela Martin its claims and litigation manager in 2025—an uncommon in-house role in private fleet trucking.
- Martin uses crash reconstruction and forensic analysis skills to challenge questionable accident claims early.
- Through NPTC’s PFMI and CTP programs, she gained tools and peer networks to combat nuclear verdict exposure.
Pamela Martin, CTP, joined Medtrans as a Northeast regional safety manager in March 2021 and attended her first NPTC Annual Conference in April. A few years later, she enrolled in the Private Fleet Management Institute (PFMI) and earned her Certified Transportation Professional designation with the CTP Class of 2023.
"There is great business camaraderie," Martin said. "PFMI enabled me to learn so much from top experts. The CTP program pays for itself in knowledge and connections. Just coming to conferences every year has done more than anything for my professional growth, learning from others in managing accident claims. I can email anyone I meet. Networking is phenomenal."
Because of her background in court depositions, law enforcement, and vehicle accident investigation, Martin’s safety management role at Medtrans focused on accidents from the start. In January 2025, she was officially named claims and litigation manager to help mitigate accident claims and litigation costs. In January 2026, she was selected as an expert fleet practitioner faculty member of NPTC's Private Fleet Management Institute, conducting sessions on effective communications strategies and onboarding and in-service training and coaching.
Martin brings passion and impressive knowledge to her work. She has been a featured speaker at both the 2025 NPTC Annual Conference and Exhibition and the 2025 National Safety Conference on the subject of "Strategies to Mitigate Against Nuclear Verdicts." In her talks, she highlights the scourge of nuclear verdicts in the trucking industry. She emphasizes proactive steps fleets need to take in risk management and safety protocols to prevent their trucks from being “a piggy bank with 18 wheels."
Martin is a mother of six grown children, a retired Delaware State Police state trooper with 20 years of service, a former commercial vehicle accident investigator, and a former school bus company safety official.
Raised in Delaware, Martin attended Padua Academy, an all-girls Catholic preparatory school in Wilmington, where she competed in volleyball, ran track, and played clarinet in the marching band. After graduation, she enrolled in Goldey-Beacom College for a two-year program in court stenography. While a student, she interned as a court reporter at the Delaware State Courthouse in Wilmington, working with civil and criminal litigators, taking depositions in shorthand. This was not her first exposure to the law.
"I always wanted to be a cop. When I was growing up, my parents argued and fought a lot. Cops were constantly showing up at our house to settle domestic disputes, as they were called. I admired the authoritative presence and courage of state troopers and could see myself one day wearing the blue and gold uniform. After college, I got accepted to the state police academy."
"This being the late ‘80s, men were not happy with me as a future state trooper. In academy training, instructors put me up against the largest guy in the class, fighting three-minute drills in the boxing ring. Maybe they thought this might make me quit. I was determined to stand my ground and take a punch. It earned respect and gave me a taste of the ‘raw side’ of duty I knew I would face in the field."
Martin spent 10 years on road patrol, mostly alone. "We had only radios in our cars with no cells or laptop computers. I was taught in the police academy to know who is conning me, who is the fraud, who is outright lying, and who will hurt or kill me if given half a chance."
"I have been in numerous fistfights, stabbed in the chest, had my nose broken, and my arm broken," she continued. "Often with no available backup, as a state trooper, I had to size up situations quickly with ‘I can read you’ eye contact and gut instinct. This experience is helpful to me even today in denying accident claims that my eyes and gut tell me are bogus."
"After leaving patrol duty, I joined the DSP Fatal Accident Investigation Reconstruction (FAIR), a new program. This gave me experience in vehicle accident investigations, including commercial trucks, evidence gathering, and crash reconstruction," she said. "I learned to read an accident scene and interpret a post-accident forensic analysis. After 20 years and losing three good friends in the Delaware State Police killed in the line of duty, I decided it was time for a change."
Martin worked eight years in a safety and security role for AAA and four years "on the road" for a school bus company as a safety officer overseeing drivers and conducting accident investigations. When COVID hit, schools shut down, and the school bus business closed.
At about the same time, Medtrans posted a newspaper ad for a safety job with the private fleet. Martin applied and got a call for an interview from Joe Laskowski, CTP (retired). He was the director of fleet safety and compliance, a former company truck driver, and a former NPTC Board member.
"I didn’t have the typical private fleet safety background of most candidates who applied, but Joe had a different role for me in mind. When I told him I greatly enjoyed working in accident claims and litigation management, he said, 'You are what we need.'"
About the Author
Gary Petty
Gary Petty has more than three decades of experience as a CEO of national trade associations in the trucking industry. Since 2001, he has served as president and CEO of the National Private Truck Council, the national trade association founded in 1939, representing the private motor carrier industry. Petty is the Private Fleet Editor and columnist for FleetOwner, where he writes monthly articles about successful managers and business models in the private fleet market.