Truck Accident Attorney

Truck Dangers

Trucks often weigh 20-30 times more than passenger cars. In 2004, 5,190 people died in large truck crashes. A mere 15% of the fatalities were the truck occupants, 77% were people in cars and other passenger vehicles, and 8% were pedestrians, bicyclists or motorcyclists.

Every 16 minutes, another person in the U.S. will die or be injured in a truck accident. In 2004, 416,000 large trucks were involved in traffic accidents in the U.S.; around 116,000 people were injured in those accidents. One in eight traffic fatalities resulted from a collision with large truck. As trucks compete for space on our already-overcrowded highways, the results can be disastrous, with occupants of smaller vehicles often becoming the unfortunate statistics in truck accidents.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (www.iihs.org), in two-vehicle accidents involving automobiles and large trucks, 98% of the fatalities were occupants of the passenger vehicle. If you have been injured in a collision involving a tractor-trailer or similar vehicle, you need an experienced truck accident lawyer on your side.

Big trucks are defined as those with a gross vehicle rating greater than 10,000 pounds and are sometimes referred to as commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). Trucks may include any of the following:

• Single-unit trucks, like UPS and FedEx trucks
• Other heavy cargo vans
• Tractor-trailers, also called combination vehicles, 18-wheelers, semis, etc.; vehicles in this category consist of a single-unit truck or tractor, with or without one or more attached trailers. A single trailer is usually no more than 53 feet in length. Trucks with two 28-foot trailers are called twins or western doubles; trucks exceeding even this size are called longer combination vehicles

Tractor-trailers are the largest in the category of commercial vehicles and can weigh 80,000 pounds or more, a size that makes them a significant threat on the highways. In addition, the numbers of registered big trucks have been steadily increasing for years, with their numbers currently hovering around the 8 million mark.

According to the NHTSA (http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/), trucks make up just 3% of all registered vehicles but in 2004 were involved in 8% of all motor vehicle fatalities. This disproportionate involvement in traffic fatalities is largely because of their size, often 20-30 times the weight of passenger vehicles. As a result, truck drivers bear a responsibility to operate these dangerous behemoths safely and competently, but sometimes this is not the case. Drivers of trucks are often cited for several different unsafe behaviors including:

• Driving longer than the allowed amount of hours, resulting in debilitating driver fatigue
• Driving at excessive speeds
• Driving trucks that are too big or overloaded
• Driving trucks that are improperly maintained, especially with brake defects