Truck Accident Death

Every year in the United States, about 5,000 people die in truck accidents. This equates to roughly one out of every eight traffic fatalities. More than half of these deaths occur on two lane roads that are not divided.

There is a high risk of death in associated with trucking accidents, regardless of the type of road. A tractor trailer carrying a load of up to 80,000 pounds harnesses a lot of momentum. This immense amount of force will cause severe damage, so the truck accidents that do occur are often fatal. Trucks also have the propensity to jackknife or rollover, involving vehicles that were not part of the original collision and leading to more fatalities.

Truck Accident Death Causes

Several primary causes of truck accident deaths include fatigue, impairment, and failure to follow proper safety requirements when traveling in adverse weather conditions. New laws have been put in place to combat these factors. While tractor trailer accidents have seen a decline in recent years, any truck accident has the potential to cause death and injury. There is still much work to do in reducing the frequency of truck accident deaths.

Preventing Truck Accident Death

To combat fatigue, a new hours of service regulation was put in place on July 1, 2013, requiring companies to schedule truck drivers for less hours during the week, and shorter shifts. While this may help to combat truck accident death due to truck driver fatigue, other drivers cause truck accidents due to fatigue almost twice as often as truck drivers. Laws surrounding impairment have extended to include alcohol testing as well as drug testing in recent years, and a truck driver can be suspended or fired if alcohol is detected during a driving shift.

Truck drivers are the last line of defense in preventing truck accident deaths. Truck drivers are trained to avoid accidents and minimize damage and truck accident death by maneuvering in ways that will harm the least number of individuals. However, deadlines may cause truck drivers to speed and ignore warnings about adverse weather conditions, and truck accident death may be the result.

After Truck Accident Death

If a loved one has died as a result of a truck accident, an attorney should be contacted as soon as possible. The driver or company that was at fault for the truck accident should be held responsible for any funeral or medical costs associated with the accident. An attorney can help make sure that families that have been affected by a truck accident death receive the compensation that is deserved.

Sources:

“Analysis of injury severity and vehicle occupancy in truck- and non-truck-involved accidents.” PubMed.gov. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 31 Sep 1999. Web. 25 Oct 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10440555>.

“An Analysis of Fatal Large Truck Crashes.” U.S. Department of Transportation NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. National Center for Statistics and Analysis, n.d. Web. 25 Oct 2013. <http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809-569.pdf>.

“Large-Truck Crash Causation Study: An Initial Overview.” U.S. Department of Transportation NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. National Center for Statistics and Analysis, n.d. Web. 24 Oct 2013. <http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/810646.pdf>.