Articles Posted in Trucking Accidents

If you own a company and will be hiring a temporary truck driver or truck driving service to fill holiday orders, taking a few extra precautions can help ensure that you prevent any accidents that could cost you money and could cause personal injury:

1) Recruit carefully. You can place ads in newspapers, but you can also find applicants by hiring a recruiting service. Look for recruiters who carefully screen applicants and have a good record of providing quality truck drivers. It is a good idea to look for local recruiters who regularly place truck drivers and drivers – these services will have the best idea of where to find qualified workers.

2) Screen applicants. Whether you use a recruiting agency or hire yourself, you need to screen applicants. If a truck driver you have hired causes a personal injury or fatality with your company truck or causes an accident while working for you, you could be held liable. The situation will be even worse if there are reasons to believe that a driver is not qualified. If you do not screen carefully, you could find yourself in a difficult legal position. Check references carefully and check to ensure that a driver has the training and credentials he or she claims to have. There are PI (private investigation) services that can help you run screens on drivers for a flat fee. Often, this small investment is worthwhile, since PIs can find car and accident records as well as criminal records from other states.

A new federal initiative aims to reduce trucking accidents and make the roads safer for everyone by, among other things, gathering additional information about truck drivers. The aim is to ensure that fewer truck accidents claim lives and that fewer accidents cause burn injuries, spinal cord injuries, head trauma, and other serious personal injuries. The new initiative is being overseen by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Under the new initiative, information will be gathered by the CSA 2010 from motor carriers. The CSA 2010 will gather facts about driving safety and safety records of motor carriers. This monitoring, as well as the additional powers granted to the CSA 2010 by the government will allow the CSA 2010 to give out more penalties as well as allow the group to issue warnings, launch investigations, and intervene when it sees unsafe trucking practices. These new regulations will mean a more prompt response to unsafe trucking as well as more regular interventions when unsafe conditions do occur.

Trucking companies and motor carriers will have to follow all the same rules, but the enforcement of those rules will change under the new initiative. There are signs in the industry that new enforcement is necessary. According to the FMCSA, less than 2% of the approximately 750,000 trucks and trucking companies are reviewed for compliance each year. The current review system is SafeStat. Under SafeStat, some trucking companies have not been reviewed for safety compliance since 1989.

Trucking accidents cause many fatalities each year as well as serious personal injuries, including spinal cord injuries, burns, brain trauma, and other serious injuries. Many people can help prevent these accidents. Drivers of passenger vehicles can use extra caution when passing or driving around trucks, recognizing that trucks require more time to brake and respond to situations. Motor carriers can ensure that drivers have reasonable deadlines and that trucks are correctly maintained. Truck drivers, too, can do many things to help prevent accidents:

1) Proper physical maintenance. Although truck driving requires a lot of sitting, it is a physically demanding job. Truck drivers need to take care of their bodies in order to stay safe on the road. Regular, good rest, for example, is essential in helping prevent accidents caused by driver fatigue. Inattention and fatigue often lead to trucking accidents, so drivers need to exercise, eat well, get rest, and get regular physical exams to stay safe behind the wheel.

2) Stay alert to blind spots. About one in three truck accidents involve a truck driver missing something that was in a blind spots. Drivers need to adjust and check mirrors regularly. Truck drivers also need to check blind spots carefully, especially when reversing or turning.

Trucking accidents involving commercial trucks and passenger vehicles tend to end in tragedy. The two vehicles are simply unevenly matched. A large commercial truck can easily crush a small passenger car, causing fatalities or serious personal injury for everyone inside. According to Road Safe America, however, there are several things that drivers can do to avoid collisions with trucks:

1) Stay alert about visibility when approaching a truck. Keep in mind that trucks have many blind spots. Generally, you need to be able to see a truck’s side mirrors to ensure that a driver can see you. Try to make eye contact with the driver in the truck in the mirrors to ensure that he or she can see you. Keep in mind, too, that trucks are large enough to affect your visibility. Do not make assumptions about what might be in front of a truck or behind it, where you cannot see. Up to one in three car-truck collisions occur due to blind spots, so make sure drivers can see you and drop back behind a truck so that you can see what you need to see around the truck.

2) Do not cut in front of trucks. Trucks require more time to stop and may not be able to stop in time to prevent a major accident. If you need to pass a truck, accelerate your car and ensure that your speed is consistent, so that the truck driver can predict what you are doing and can anticipate your actions. When you can see the entire truck cab in your rear-view mirror, signal your lane change and pull in front of the truck.

The federal government has many rules and regulations governing the driving of 18-wheeler trucks on the road. All states also have their own laws and regulations regarding these trucks. These large trucks are essential for businesses and transport, but due to their size, they can cause a great deal of harm and injury in an accident. Trucking accidents involving 18-wheeler trucks often result in fatalities, burn injuries, head injuries, and other serious and permanent injuries. All drivers and motor carriers who own such trucks must abide by state and federal laws. These laws include provisions such as:

1) Licensing requirements put in place by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). All drivers who operate a tractor-trailer rig need a special license, known as the commercial driver’s license (CDL). To qualify for this license, a driver must demonstrate his or her ability to drive a large truck. To do this, the driver must pass CDL examinations and complete training as a truck driver. A driver must be 21 years of age to qualify for a CDL. If a driver will be transporting hazardous materials, he or she needs to pass additional testing and must get additional training, as a special CDL license is required.

2) Federal laws dictate that trucking companies, motor carriers, trucks, and drivers must have specific levels of insurance. Often, this insurance is based on the cargo being transported. In many cases, if a driver is an employee of a trucking company, the company will arrange all insurance needed.

The National Transportation Safety Board and other investigators from other agencies are citing sleep apnea as a contributing factor or even chief factor in a number of transportation truck accidents. Trucking accidents, bus accidents, train accidents, boating accidents, aviation accidents, and other accidents have all been linked to the disorder. Now, the federal government and some experts want new regulations which would screen pilots, sailors, truck drivers, bus drivers, and other operators of heavy equipment and vehicles for the disorder.

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder which causes a patient to very briefly stop breathing or lose breath in his or her sleep. This can cause the patient to get inadequate rest due to interrupted sleep. Some patients have their sleep interrupted hundreds of times a night, causing a bad quality sleep. During the daytime, sufferers of sleep apnea may feel fatigued and may have a harder time concentrating that those who are able to get a full, restful sleep.

The National Transportation Safety Board has cited a number of trucking accidents caused by sleep apnea. According to their findings, about 7% of adults have sleep apnea and may be unsafe behind the wheel as a result of it. Drivers who suffer from sleep apnea, like all fatigued drivers, may have slower response times and may fall asleep behind the wheel.

The OSHA reports that an estimated 95,000 workers are in industrial truck accidents or incidents. These accidents result in everything from burn injuries to head trauma to spinal cord injuries and fatalities. Worse, not all employees are correctly insured to ensure that medical costs resulting from these accidents are fully covered. In many cases, investigations into these accidents revealed poor operator training.

Lift trucks are one of the most commonly used industrial trucks in the workplace. Some employers do try to save money by taking on less insurance for workers, by offering less training, and by doing less maintenance on trucks. In the long run, these strategies can result in accidents and in much higher costs for companies. According to Safe-T-Consultants, many companies skimp on training and maintenance, even though these two things can keep insurance costs and overall costs down.

Insurance costs are something that many companies struggle with. The National Coalition on Healthcare reports that health insurance premiums for small companies increase 12% each year, on average, while inflation has been an average of 2.5% annually. As a result, some companies do not offer employees coverage or offer only minimal coverage. Unfortunately, if a workplace accident occurs and a truck accident in the workplace causes personal injuries, the injuries are likely to require a great deal of coverage. Truck accidents, due to the size and force of trucks, often result in fatalities or permanent personal injuries requiring extensive hospital stays. Employees may be forced to seek legal redress to cover these costs if employers do not offer adequate insurance. For the employer, offering good health insurance despite the premium costs, is a priority.

Workplace accidents are always a tragedy, but they can be especially dangerous when they involve trucks. Many workplaces require employees to operate or work near trucks, and if safety measures are not adhered to scrupulously, dangerous trucking accidents can occur. Truck rollovers can easily occur when safety procedures are not followed, and employees can be involved in truck collisions or may be crushed by trucks. Like trucking accidents on the roads, trucking accidents at the work place can result in brain trauma, spinal cord injuries, fatalities, and other tragedies.

Technology in some places may help employees avoid trucking accidents on the job. For example, in municipalities across the country, some sanitation employees are driving more automated trucks rather than the traditional vehicles. These trucks allow sanitation workers to remain in the trucks, which reduces the risks of an employee being hit by a vehicle while getting in and out of the truck.

Many jobs requiring trucks have a high risk rate. For example, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2008, refuse collection has the sixth-highest death rate of jobs. In 2008, 31 refuse collection workers died on the job. In many cases, these accidents involved truck accidents or a worker being struck and killed by another vehicle when exiting the truck.

All trucking accidents have the potential to be devastating. Even accidents involving smaller delivery vans can result in fatalities, brain trauma, burn injuries, spinal cord injuries, and other serious personal injuries. However, some trucks, by their very nature, are far more dangerous in a collision. For example, tanker trucks carry liquid cargo which often includes hazardous, flammable, or otherwise dangerous materials.

When tanker trucks are in a collision, their liquid cargo reacts very differently than solid materials in a standard truck. If a tanker truck is not filled to capacity, for example, the liquid cargo can slosh around when the truck is speeding or taking turns. This can cause the truck to move more and can make the vehicle harder to control. When a tanker truck is not filled to capacity, there is no way to properly balance or secure the liquid so that it will not move. This means that the truck is less stable. When tanker trucks are less than three quarters full, the weight of the liquid can shift dramatically, causing the truck to potentially spin out of control and roll over. These tankers tend to continue rolling after their initial roll, because of the shifting weight of the liquid.

In the event of a collision, the chemicals in a tanker truck can spill out or explode, specially if the outer hull of the tanker is damaged in the accident. If the liquid is flammable, the large amount of liquid in the truck can cause a massive fire and can put many people at risk of death or severe burn injuries. If the tanker truck is carrying a flammable liquid such as gasoline, the substance can burn at such high temperatures that it can destroy roads, bridges, and overpasses. Obviously, it can completely consume any vehicle or person it its path.

Unfortunately, many trucking accidents result not only in serious personal injuries, such as spinal cord injuries or head trauma, but also tend to result in fatalities. Due to the size and weight of most commercial trucks, they can easily crush passenger cars or pedestrians. Many people simply do not survive a truck accident.

If you have lost a loved one in a trucking accident, in addition to the tremendous sense of loss, you may face financial hardship. If the lost loved one contributed to your family income, you may find yourself suddenly with a much diminished income while also facing memorial expenses and final illness and medical costs. The loss of your loved one is devastating, and in addition you will lose many years of an additional income. You may be too grieved to return to work immediately yourself.

If a trucking accident has been caused by negligence on the part of the truck driver, trucking company, or truck manufacturer, you may decide to file a wrongful death suit. A wrongful death case seeks to recover some of the financial damages caused by the loss of your loved one. While it cannot erase the pain, it does allow you to access the financial resources you may be entitled to under the law. This financial help can at least ensure that you can meet your financial obligations while you attempt to recover your life.