It’s hard not to feel a little nervous when you’re driving alongside an 18-wheeler on the interstate. And honestly, you’re right to be cautious. A fully loaded truck can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, which is not something you want to collide with.
While most truck drivers are skilled professionals, truck accidents still happen far too often (and the results can be catastrophic). Understanding the most common causes of these accidents can help you stay alert and know when to hold someone accountable.
- Driver Fatigue
One of the most common and dangerous causes of truck accidents is driver fatigue. Truckers spend long hours on the road, pushing to meet tight delivery deadlines. And despite federal regulations that limit how long they can drive without rest, some drivers ignore the rules.
Fatigue slows reaction time, dulls concentration, and increases the chances of missing critical warnings like brake lights or lane changes. And in extreme cases, a driver may even fall asleep at the wheel. This can be deadly and catastrophic, potentially leading to multi-vehicle pile-ups and major accidents.
If you’re involved in a truck accident and believe fatigue played a role, it’s important to look into logbooks, driving records, and hours-of-service violations. That information could be critical to your case.
- Distracted Driving
Just like regular drivers, truckers are susceptible to distractions. Cell phones, GPS devices, CB radios, and even food can pull attention away from the road. But the margin for error is much smaller when you’re operating a massive commercial vehicle.
It only takes a second or two of poor focus for a truck to drift into another lane or rear-end a vehicle. And unlike a car, trucks can’t stop or swerve easily to avoid collisions.) Even worse, the size and weight of a truck mean that what would be a minor fender bender in a car can turn into a huge disaster on the highway.)
- Improperly Maintained Vehicles
Trucks log thousands of miles each week. All that wear and tear adds up, which makes routine maintenance even more critical. But not every trucking company – and certainly not every third-party maintenance crew – keeps up with it the way they should.
Bald tires, worn brakes, faulty lights, or leaking fluids can all lead to mechanical failure on the road. And when a massive truck loses control, it endangers everyone on the road.
“The maintenance company contracted by the truck company may also be held liable for the crash,” Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa explains. “For example, they can be liable if they failed to properly or regularly maintain the vehicle or failed to change its lights, brakes, tires, fluids, etc., and any of these contributed to or caused the crash.”
If you’ve been hurt in a crash, a full investigation should include service records and maintenance logs to identify if the truck was even safe to be on the road in the first place.
- Improperly Loaded Cargo
How a truck is loaded plays a major role in how it handles. If cargo isn’t balanced or secured correctly, it can shift during transport – causing the truck to sway, tip, or jackknife. Overloaded trailers are also more likely to suffer brake failure or blowouts.
Some accidents are caused when cargo falls off entirely. As you might imagine, this creates an instant road hazard for anyone behind the truck. In these cases, the responsibility might fall not just on the driver, but on the freight loaders or the company that packed the trailer.
If an accident involves a cargo issue, it’s important to look at weight limits and securing methods. You’ll also want to explore who was in charge of the loading process and what went wrong.
- Speeding or Aggressive Driving
Truckers are under pressure to meet delivery windows, and some feel pushed to drive faster than they should. But high speeds and heavy trucks are a dangerous combination. It takes far longer for a truck to come to a complete stop than a passenger car, especially in rain, snow, or traffic.
Speeding increases the risk of rollovers, rear-end collisions, and losing control during sharp turns. Aggressive behaviors like tailgating or weaving through traffic only make things worse. And when a speeding truck crashes into a much smaller vehicle, the results are almost always serious. (There’s no such thing as a minor fender bender when you have an 80,000-pound truck involved.)
- Lack of Driver Training or Experience
Driving a commercial truck isn’t like hopping in your SUV. It requires specialized training and years of experience to master. When companies rush to fill driver shortages or cut corners during hiring, they sometimes put unqualified drivers on the road.
An inexperienced driver may not know how to handle a jackknife situation or may misjudge the space needed to brake or turn. That lack of skill can have deadly consequences for everyone nearby.
What you may not realize is that a trucking company can be held liable for hiring unqualified drivers. If they failed to provide proper training or ignored red flags in the driver’s history, this ultimately falls back on them.
Take Quick Action
If you’ve been involved in an accident with a truck, it’s important that you act quickly and begin gathering all of the evidence that you need. Trucking companies will be quick to deploy their own team of lawyers to protect their best interests, so it’s imperative that you do the same.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.
