The statistics on big truck accidents are chilling. According to the United States Department of Transportation, a person in the United States is either killed or injured in a truck wreck every 16 minutes. That means that there are approximately 90 injury accidents per day involving big trucks. Ninety accidents every single day.
Those numbers total up to 6,000 estimated trucking accident fatalities in a given year, and 133,000 reported injuries. When a big truck and a personal vehicle tire, the 80,000 lb. truck will almost without exception decimate the 3,000 lb. personal vehicle. That's why almost of of deaths of those involved in big truck wrecks occurred among pedestrians and occupants of passenger vehicles. 26,000 of those annual injuries turn out to be catastrophic for the party involved, leading to amputated limbs, paralysis or irreparable traumatic brain injury.
These are sobering statistics, and numbers made all the more unpalatable by the fact that tired, negligent, or poorly trained truck drivers are on our roads every day.
These are the common causes of truck accidents where the driver is at fault:
Negligence – The negligence umbrella covers many factors, including when the driver is speeding, not paying attention to the road, has failed to maintain the truck, has failed to secure the load, or has overloaded the truck beyond its maximum weight capacity. A negligent driver is more likely to get into an accident, and more likely to cause harm than a driver who is paying attention and following trucker safety rules.
Fatigue – Truck driver fatigue is the perpetrator in as many as 20 to 40% of all truck crashes, says the National Transportation Safety Board. Although trucks are limited by allow as to how much they can drive each day, many truckers ignore these laws either due to the desire for more money and quicker turn around, or due to unrealistic demand from the companies they work for. According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a tired driver is just as dangerous, if not more so, than a driver operating an 80,000 vehicle under the influence.
DUI – When the Insurance Institute for Traffic Safety randomly tested a sampling of interstate truck drivers, they found that 15% had marijuana in their system, 12% had non-prescription stimulants, 5% had cocaine and less than 1% had alcohol in their system.
Poor Training – The slogan is true, America does run on trucks, meaning that trucking is a high-demand job with competitive pay. But due to the difficult nature of trucking, many people quickly find that it is not for them, resulting in high turnover. Unfortunately, these leads to trucking companies scrambling to get drivers on the road, sometimes resulting in poorly trained drivers. A driver who hesitates or is unsure in a life or death situation can turn his truck into a deadly hazard.
With all these potential pitfalls, how can you trust that the truck drivers on the road around you are responsible, sober and well trained? The short answer is you can not.
But you can take steps to protect yourself. Give big trucks plenty of room. Never tailgate, because the driver will not see you. And never cut in front of a truck, because they need longer to stop than smaller, lighter cars. Also be aware of semi trucks' blind spots (if you can not see him in his mirror, then he can not see you) and pay close attention to their lights and signals. Finally, observe common defensive driving tactics, like wearing your seatbelt and avoiding speeding or quick lane changes. While you can not control how a truck driver drives, you can be observant and safe in your own driving habits to maximize your chance of avoiding a truck wreck.
