If you’ve ever set out on I-65, only to find yourself in a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel as your passenger vehicle gets buffeted about by the big rigs on the interstate, you truly know the meaning of fear.
It’s indisputable that occupants of smaller trucks and passenger cars are at great risk of serious, disabling injuries or death if a collision occurs with a semi or other large truck. But what causes most of the dangerous accidents involving this highway behemoths?
Primary causes of truck accidents include this trio:
- Equipment failure. Consider the myriad moving parts on a large truck that must be operating completely in sync with each other. Any one or a combination of errors can spell disaster for those sharing the road with a malfunctioning truck.
- Truck driver errors. The vast majority of truck drivers are proactive about highway safety. But some still fail to follow safety regulations, improperly load or overload their trailers, drive while impaired or fatigued and don’t secure cargo sufficiently.
- Unsafe policies by trucking companies. Economic pressure by profit-driven trucking companies forces drivers to take unnecessary risks like driving in unsafe weather conditions or fudging logbooks to appear compliant with federal Hours of Service regulations.
If you get into a wreck with a large truck on Kentucky roads, you may have to take your battle for justice to the Kentucky civil courts in order to be compensated for the damages an at-fault truck driver or the company employing the fleet of drivers caused.
Because accident cases can proscribe if personal injury lawsuits are not timely filed, learn your legal rights in such situations.
Source: UnsafeTrucks.org, “Common Causes of Truck Accidents,” accessed July 21, 2017