Let's talk about these large commercial vehicles that we often see on the roads every day. Do you find them to be huge? It's unfortunate enough that there are so many car accidents, but nowadays, commercial trucks are causing more serious accident than you would think.
Sometimes a commercial truck can easily weigh 80,000 pounds and tractor-trailer combinations are 65 feet long, and then imagine how much injury pain or death a single semi truck accident can cause, especially at rush hour traffic time of day. You have come across many types of commercial truck accidents, which are described in detail here in this article. If you have been involved in a car accident with a large truck, call 866-HIRE-JOE for a Free case review or email us your information and we will respond promptly.
Big rig truck accidents are all too common these days. That’s because there are many rules and regulations that the truck drivers neglect to follow and outright ignore common practices in the trucking industry that a responsible and sensible truck driver normally should follow. Here, are some basic rules truck driver’s neglect which might cause devastating truck to car accidents:
Truck drivers must maintain a large gap between them and the other vehicles ahead. When a truck driver needs to slow down or stop, they will need sufficient distance and period because the inertial forces, in this case, are quite powerful, and the truck can collide with another vehicle easily.
It's already a huge risk for a car driver to text or talk on the phone while driving, but this is also ILLEGAL! Truck drivers perating such a big vehicle already fin the job hard enough, but why make it even harder with using a cell phone?
No explanation is required for this. Not only a truck but don't drive anything if you're drunk because you are compromising everyone's safety around you.
Some commercial drivers are too emotional and hot-headed to handle a big rig truck safely. If some other driver overtakes them, sometimes they become irrate, aggressive and try to do the same. That’s why this ends most of the time badly and is never a rational choice.
According to the law, there is a certain amount of cargo that you can load in a truck because the heavier the truck is, the more difficult it becomes to control on the road, which can lead to big rig truck accidents. Putting even an extra pound of weight is a violation of the law.
Truck drivers are always responsible to ensure all the brakes, tires, and systems are properly functioning before starting the trip because even a small defect can cause many people to needlessly lose their lives. Truck driver are not mechanics, but air hoses, and whether the brake are working can usually be observed by every truck driver.
As a daily driver or traveler, you will routinely see different types of big rig trucks on the highways and roads. These large trucks may just be another large-sized vehicle for you, but they play an important vital role keeping the economy going.
The freight and cargo that tractor trailer carry have so many consumer goods required to satisfy the growing demand of population this is essential to sustaining human life. Trucks play a big role in our daily lives, but these commercial vehicles are still dangerous on the roads because truck drivers often neglect the many regulations and ignore the safety rules that have caused many heavy truck accidents over the course of past four decades.
How Common Big Rig Truck Accidents Happen:
A jackknifed truck accident is when a truck driver traveling at high speed hits the brakes suddenly without carefully slowing down first, causing the truck and trailer to fold into a 90-degree angle and then slidding to sweep away all the things that come in its path. The trailer's sheer heavy cargo weight is so much that it moves forward and may even break and run away from the cab tractor.
A wide turn is when a driver steers wide while making a right turn. That’s why this can sometimes become problematic for vehicles on the side of the semi truck trailer because steering a truck take skill! Steering a large truck is a complicated technique that becomes even more dangerous with heavy traffic because the passenger cars can easily get trapped under the side of the wide turning trailer.
Tire blowout or flat tire can happen to any vehicle on the road, at any time. However, a large truck blowout can cause an abnormally high degree of danger to the lives in passenger vehicles. If you're an inexperienced truck driver, it's very easy to panic and become nervous when the drive tire blows out. You can lose control of the vehicle, making you crash into other trucks, cars, pedestrains or motorcycles on the roadways. Nothing is safe when a heavy big rig truck goes out of control.
Big rig truck accidents can be caused by truck rollovers. The big rig truck usually rolls on a curved path while the truck is traveling too fast with heavy cargo. Truck driver reckless driving and speeding can cause the truck to roll onto its side, overrunning the lives of many pedestrians and motorists in wake of the rolling tractor-trailers path.
Blind spots are such a serious issue for big rig trucks because semi-truck drivers cannot notice other vehicles at the rear end like most of the regular small vehicles can easily do. That’s why people refer to this location as "No Man's Land" since no man can see what's going on immediately behind the trailer. That’s exactly why when a truck driver cannot see the cars and motorcycles switching lanes or making a turn, this puts any vehicle in adjacent lanes next to the truck in grave danger; they can get hit, toppled off, underride, and even be crushed in a matter of seconds.
Trucks involved in head on collisions are those not slowing down while another vehicle, especially when tractor-trailers are speeding right at you, is most probably going to cause a devastating collision. Drivers experience such powerful inertial forces that they fly through the windshield and experience serious injuries causing death in most cases.
T-bone accident is also one of the most common truck accidents to occur. That’s because it’s caused when a vehicle runs a red light, fails to yield, and collides with other vehicles or even pedestrians crossing an intersection. T-bone accidents are crashed in perpendicular orientation, usually caused by a hasty driver, risking innocent people's lives along with their own.
In this kind of big rig truck accidents, the trailer's speed increases and overtakes that of the truck tractor, causing the truck driver to lose his control of the trailer, and the 18- wheeler goes out of control. For example, a truck's brakes might fail, causing the driver to panic and collide at high speed with another vehicle. In other cases, you can expect the trailer to completely detach from the tractor cab, and this whole incident result in a disastrous crash impact with other vehicles and pedestrians nearby.
Trucks are designed in such a way that sit higher off the ground than other vehicles. If a truck travels at great speed and stops too quickly, you might see jackknifing, in which the truck’s trailer turn to a 90 angle, which causes the load to shift or come off the trailer onto vehicles passing. As a result, the deadliest big rig truck accidents happen in the form of lost freight or lost cargo.
An underride crash can be the deadliest accident one can imagine. A depicted in the photo above, when a smaller vehicle passes under a truck’s trailer, there are so many devastating injuries that can occur in a split second, decapitating or crushing the occupants of a passenger vehicle. The truck's tires might burst, causing the trailer to crush the vehicles beneath it, or a car that is quite lower compared to semi trailer may lose its rooftop and injure passengers when it passes underneath the trailer. In these tragic cases, the chance of survival is very low.
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) have deeply analyzed how many big rigs truck accidents occurred only in 2018.
After getting involved in a car accident, the affected passengers may sue or claim compensation for their injuries and damages. But it's a whole different story in a truck accident; the claims and the insurance policy are usually much higher than in a car crash claim. The important step you can take is hiring the experienced trucking accident lawyers at The Joseph Dedvukaj Firm, P.C., to protect you legal rights to financial compensatiom. Call 866-HIRE-JOE for a free claim review.
Keep in mind that there are many special rules and regulations which apply only to these big rig trucks. One of the rules require that a truck drivers have a limited number of hours in which he can drive; if he was driving more than the limit while he hit your vehicle, consider the odds to be in your favor because this is a serious violation of the rules. Also, check if the truck got its regular maintenance and inspection because it should be in proper condition while traveling on the road.
Most modern trucks are now equipped with digital engine control modules that record real-time information about the truck's speed, location, steering input, velocity, and acceleration. In other words, they monitor and look out for every truck component there is. If you can get your hands on the black box information on the truck which the truck driver was driving at the time of the accident, then you may be able to harvest a lot of favorable information you can use in court to prove your case.
Many times the aggressive lawyers and insurers who are representing the case of the truck drivers that try to hide the black box information. The majority of the time, these big rig trucks are not the truck driver's personal property at all. They are the property of big truck company and commercial business entities represented by corporate lawyers and powerful insurance companies. These lawyers are well aware that truck accidents are very different from car accidents as they are more dangerous and can cause many people to tragically lose their lives. An injury claim from these accidents can cost them tens, hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars, and it's never a cake walk to get compensation from these trucking insurance companies.
Apart from the truck drivers' own stupidity and lack of proper training, many other factors can come into play with a significant role in these accidents. Some of those factors are set forth here:
Even handling a car on a snowy or rainy day becomes a difficult job for a truck; it's a milestone to achieve if the driver manages to safely travel through severe weather conditions without any accidents. Weather conditions like ice, rain, snow, fog, and heavy winds can make the transportation trip difficult and risky.
Many types of road maintenance conditions can be encountered on concrete and asphalt pavements like potholes, patches, alligator cracking, longitudinal cracking, and so on. The truck's tires can be badly affected when used on poor road conditions.
Heavy winds or big wind gusts are dangerous for semi trucks because the trailer attached to the cab can easily be blown over or drift away from its lane, and it becomes virtually impossible for the truck driver to control the truck and avoid colliding with anyone around.
Truck drivers should always know where they are going and should never have an excuse because it's his job to be sure about where they are going and what routes they opt to take to get to their destination. Sometimes, the truck driver is unaware that the pick or delivery location moves into a too narrow, curved, or rough road, increasing the chances of an accident crash.
If you are a victim of a truck accident that injured you and affected your quality of life in many ways, then contact the truck accident attorneys. The Joseph Dedvukaj Firm lawyers have deep knowledge and experience regarding truck accidents. Our law firm’s expert truck accident attorneys are well aware of every truck driving law that will help you win the financial compensation you deserve for your damage and losses.
