What Common Factors Lead To Truck Accidents?
Trucks come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Each classification of truck has its own variations, ranging from 18-wheelers to smaller 10-foot capacity moving vans. This means that depending on the truck involved and the circumstances of the accident, different factors will contribute to truck accidents. In contrast to a multi-passenger van, an 18-wheeler backing up and hitting a car will have a very different effect. It is crucial to comprehend the different truck variations and the resulting accident causes.
The following reasons are taken from Find Law, a well-known website. The causes are separated into causes by truck drivers and causes by drivers of cars.
Common unsafe acts committed by car drivers in the vicinity of large trucks, which often result in truck accidents, include:
1. Driving in the “No-Zones” – the areas behind and beside a commercial truck where the truck driver has limited or zero visibility.
2. abruptly switching lanes in front of a truck.
3. maneuvering to the right of a truck that is making a right turn.
4. At a crossroads, making a left turn in front of a truck because you miscalculated its speed is unsafe.
5. swerving or braking suddenly while attempting to make a wrong turn into traffic.
6. failure to adjust speed or brake when a truck starts to merge or change lanes.
7. unsafe passing, especially when there is not enough headway.
8. passing a truck and getting blown off course by air currents or a crosswind.
9. pulling into traffic from the side of the road in front of a truck without adequately accelerating.
10. driving among big trucks.
11. Failure to move a disabled vehicle completely off the road and onto the shoulder or abandoning a vehicle in the travel lane.
Truck Accidents Caused by Commercial Truck Drivers
Most big rig and other commercial truck drivers are cautious and skillful. However, a number of aspects of the industry itself can contribute to traffic accidents in addition to the risks posed by the size and weight of the trucks used in commercial shipping and transportation. These include:
inadequate instruction in driving techniques, safety issues, and defensive driving.
systems of compensation that favor longer periods of continuous driving and faster vehicle speeds than is typically advised.
Trucking companies’ unrealistic deadlines and demands push drivers to drive quickly despite the risks to their safety.
Impatience and poor judgment on the part of car drivers frequently result in more accidents involving trucks. Contrarily, despite their extensive training, truck drivers frequently cause accidents as a result of industry rules and demands placed on them to perform well at work. Even though these two viewpoints are very dissimilar, neither one is necessarily correct or equitable. No matter the vehicle they are operating, drivers are expected to obey the law and refrain from taking unnecessary risks in a rush to reach their destination two minutes earlier or to receive a small additional incentive from their employer. Such conduct is potentially fatal.
Despite being a few years old, information from a report released in 2012 by the US Department of Transportation provided some insight into the reasons why drivers should exercise caution when in or near trucks. In the United States, there were 104,000 truck accidents in 2012. 3,971 of those resulted in death. About 4% of all truck accidents are represented by that. But of those fatalities, other vehicles—rather than trucks—were involved in 73 percent of the fatalities.
Driving safely around trucks is therefore essential. More people can take pleasure in safety when it comes to truck accidents thanks to safe driving from trucks and adherence to safety regulations from trucking bylaws.