TRUCKING ACCIDENTS CONTINUE TO PILE UP – AND THERE ARE REASONS

There’s a reason trucking accidents happen. In fact, there are five reasons:

• driver error
• poor vehicle maintenance
• equipment failure
• weather
• improper cargo loading


Trucks colliding with passenger cars can lead to catastrophic injuries and death – usually to the occupants of the car. With the typical passenger vehicle weighing around 4,000 pounds, an 18-wheeler truck might weigh twenty times that. 98% of all semi accidents result in at least one fatality, with 2.3 deaths and 60.5 injuries caused by big rigs for every 100 million miles driven on U.S. roadways, according to truckaccidents.org.

There are certain specific elements that often lead to large truck collisions, explains Las Vegas attorney Adam Kutner: 


• The driver may be rushing to meet a tight delivery deadline.
• The driver may be stressed and tired, not paying enough attention to other driver and the road.
• It is difficult to see blind spots from a large truck.
• The driver may not have left enough space for his giant vehicle between other vehicles.

Investigating any accident involving a large truck is a complex process, as our Indiana personal injury attorneys at Ramey & Hailey have learned over the years. Many laws exist to protect victims of motor vehicle collisions, and our job is to help accident victims recover for their losses. There are many, many details that need to be investigated and clarified. For example, in addition to the driver of the truck – as well as the driver of the passenger vehicle involved in the accident – parties that may be held liable for equipment failure include:

• the parts manufacturer
• the truck dealer
• the maintenance crew
• the trucking company
• the mechanic who did repairs
• the cargo loading team

Truck-caused accidents typically involve substantial costs for the passengers and drivers of the cars, vans, or SUV’s with which they collide, Kutner explains. Financial costs might include:

• medical bills
• damages to (or total loss of) the vehicle itself
• loss of wages because of injuries
• physical pain

Because of all these complicated factors, it can be very challenging to establish fault in an accident involving a semi truck,and both timing and attorney experience are going to matter – a lot. We know, because, for four decades, at Ramey & Hailey, we have worked extensively on accident cases involving truck driver and equipment error.

Deaths from large truck crashes reached their highest levels in recent years, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. There are reasons trucking accidents happen, and it is our mission to find those reasons and make sure that the injured parties get the recovery they deserve.