5 Major Causes of Truck Accidents

Auto accidents are dangerous but turn catastrophic when trucks are involved. If you are injured from a truck accident, you will battle the trucking company, driver, and insurance company to get compensation.

To get rightful compensation, you must work with dedicated truck accident attorneys. They understand the legal requirements and complexities of truck accident cases. Battling the three parties involved on your own will exhaust you, land slashed compensation, or worse, be denied altogether.

Navigating a truck is not easy. Its weight and size make them prone to accidents. Even the most experienced truck drivers find them nerve-racking to control.

What Are the Major Causes of Truck Accidents?

1. Fatigued Drivers

Driving a truck is ranked among the most stressful and high-pressure jobs. Trucks travel long distances and sometimes within a short delivery time. This means drivers will take long trips with minimal or short breaks.

If a driver is not well-rested, they will lose concentration, react to road situations slower, or worse, sleep while driving.

Some companies only prioritize their needs over the laws and regulations set on the number of breaks, sleeping time, and how long a trucker’s shift should last. These companies do not understand the cost of an accident will be more than the commitment to make driver safety a priority.

2. Unfit Drivers

Truck companies are required to screen their drivers for drugs and health complications. Some companies skip this step and may find themselves with employees who may not always be sober. Such a mistake puts the drivers at risk, endangers other road users, and attracts losses to the company.

Another trucking law is a legal requirement to check the driver’s medical certificates. It is unfortunate that some companies ignore this and end and up hiring drivers with serious health complications like seizure disorders and heart diseases. If a driver suffers a serious medical emergency behind the wheel, carnage for anyone sharing the road is inevitable.

3. Out of Service Trucks

An out-of-service truck is a dangerous truck. For any long-distance vehicle, servicing should be the number one priority. Traffic police are forced to take some trucks off the road because they have so many service violations.

Trucking companies understand the importance of servicing their trucks. Still, they would rather keep the deliveries going because servicing takes time and costs money that would otherwise be used for more deliveries. Such a company ends up paying more as a result of damages caused by their truck.

An out-of-service truck’s common dangers come from defective breaks, bad tires, exceeding weight limitations, steering issues, and suspension problems.

4. Passenger Vehicle Mistakes

Sometimes the cause of truck accidents are mistakes from car drivers. Passenger vehicles are advised to be extra careful around trucks because it is difficult to stop or control a moving truck.

Common passenger vehicle mistakes include; following too closely, driving while drunk, driving at a truck driver’s black spot, careless overtaking, failure to pay attention to truck movements, and using a mobile phone while driving.

5. Bad Weather

Truck drivers are advised to be prudent and careful in all conditions. They should be more careful if driving in bad weather. Fog, rain, snow, and hail calls for lower speed and special caution.

If the trucker finds it hard to maneuver bad roads due to changing weather, it is better to pull over than risk their lives and that of other road users.

Take Care Driving in Front of a Truck

If the truck driver is the cause of the accident, you could be eligible for compensation to cover medical bills, pain, lost wages, property damage, and any other loss suffered. A negligent trucker can change your life in seconds, so you must be careful driving in front, on the sides, or behind a truck.