Heavy commercial trucks nowadays tend to make more than 5 percent of all the registered vehicles throughout the nation. According to the FMCSA, i.e., the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had reported that around 13% of the fatal crashes on U.S roadways have the involvement of at least one commercial truck or even some bus.
Moreover, some of the recent information collected tells that there were about 273602100 registered vehicles in the US, out of which 13233910 are only large commercial trucks. Now considering this information, one can say that accidents due to trucks won’t be unusual.
Although many individuals are killed in large truck crashes, what is important to know that out of these individuals, most of the victims are the occupants or drivers of other vehicles instead of the large trucks.
This makes it undeniable that large commercial trucks on the road with cars and other vehicles moving around are extremely dangerous and can result in accidents. Here are a few common truck accidents which occur almost on a daily basis nationwide due to the number of commercial trucks being on the road.
Truck rollovers
A truck rollover accident is something one should definitely worry about. It sounds as horrendous as it actually is. It is truly one of the most terrifying and catastrophic accidents which have horrible consequences.
Tractor-trailers, as well as other commercial trucks, have a higher center of gravity than the other passenger cars passing by. Therefore, the truck drivers are required to be driving slowly, and they are supposed to be extremely careful when they go around the tight turns or make any sudden swerves.
If the truck driver ends up taking sharp turns and drives recklessly, then there is a good chance that the trailer might end up flipping and rolling the entire truck to the other side. This would create an extremely dangerous situation and would prove to be a deadly hazard for everyone on the road.
Rollover accidents also tend to occur due to the truck drivers themselves driving recklessly intentionally by neglecting the speed limit or not driving carefully enough. There have been many cases of truck drivers being under substance influence as well, which leads to such circumstances and accidents as well.
An overloaded trailer might end up being improperly loaded by the cargo crew as they might neglect the actual weight and drive accordingly. Other rollovers happen due to the tire blow as well, due to improper maintenance of the tired, as well as defects in the manufacturing and designs of the tires.
Read end Collisions
These are other forms of truck accidents that can create a lot of issues for anyone on the roads. The major causes of such rear-end truck accidents include the difference between the size as well as the weight of the large commercial trucks and standard cars.
Any wrong move can lead to the passenger vehicles being completely crushed by the truck. It is important to know that the tractor-trailers tend to be really heavy, and they are very slow to maneuver as well.
Hence, truck drivers need more time and distance in order to slow down, which means anything coming in front of them would be hard to dodge. Hence, this leads to a lot of road hazards, and to avoid them, there needs to be a safe distance between every vehicle and the truck.
The truck drivers being distracted or neglecting the road rules and their impaired driving is a major cause of such rear-end accidents. If the truck driver is inexperienced and fails to understand the basic rules of driving a truck on the road with other vehicles, then it is a major cause of concern and, eventually, a road hazard.
Head-on collisions
Drivers driving recklessly and being neglectful might cause losing control of the vehicles. This can happen to anyone, but obviously, the consequences will be horrendous at times. Many drivers might drift their vehicles completely out of the lane and might go straight into the flow of the traffic lane.
This can happen at the red lights as well as other interceptions, stop signs, and turnings. The drivers failing to observe the proper way to drive can cause head-on collisions, which leads to bad circumstances. Due to a truck colliding head first with some other vehicle, such accidents can commonly occur.
There are many reasons why this might happen, including the truck driver suffering from a sort of fatigue due to long hours of driving or might be neglecting the basic rules to rebel against the traffic rules and regulations. Operators might be driving under the influence of any substance, alcohol, or illegal drugs which cause such things.
Tire blowouts are something that is common but deadly, and drivers should keep the tires maintained and make sure they are from a good manufacturer.
Tire blowouts can lead to rollover accidents and head-on collisions, turning into unexpected lanes and hitting the traffic. Not just the truck but many other vehicles can be destroyed, and many passengers killed due to one mistake.
In such accidents, it is best to consult the New Braunfels Truck Accident Attorneys as they can help sort out the situation.
Jackknife Accidents
Jackknife accidents are accidents that occur due to the large trucks which have articulated joints between the tractor and its trailer attached and make improper turns or braking maneuvers.
This creates a resulting force that leads to the outcome, where the trailer might swing wide around the pivot point and end up creating a shape like a folding jackknife.
Hence, the accidents are called jackknifes. This is a wreck that is extremely dangerous and harmful for anyone involved or even nearby to the accident that occurred. The terrifying thing about this accident is that it is extremely unpredictable.
The major cause of the accidents might be the truck drivers braking in the wrong way, or they might break a little too quickly or hard in hazardous weather conditions.
The tractor tends to slow down a little faster than the trailer tows, which causes a fishtailing motion by the trailer. Hence, the back of the trailer skids out to one side, and then this leads to a jackknife.
Truck drivers need to avoid taking turns too quickly, and they should make sure they keep the speed in check and know where to brake.
T-Bone Accidents
T bone accidents are the sort of accidents which are also known as the side-impact or broadside crashes. They mostly occur during the intersections. Tractor-trailers and other large trucks usually traveling through the intersections at a perpendicular angle might end up ignoring or neglecting the run red lights and might ignore the stop signs as well.
This means they might violate the proper and the right way to turn and drive at intersections, leading to collisions and accidents with the sides of the other cars as well. Such accidents are wrecks mainly occur due to the drivers or the passengers being located on the side of the vehicle, which means they would be more impacted by the T bone crash.
Speeding truck drivers or drivers who are distracted and intoxicated might run through the intersections, which is illegal. This causes T bone wrecks, and a T bone crash can also occur when a truck driver makes an improper turn across or on the lanes of traffic. This causes the vehicles to slam onto the side of the cab or trailer, or the truck.
Sideswipe Accidents
The sideswipe accident is really similar to the T bone collision as well. However, the cars that collide in the sideswipe accidents tend to be traveling side by side, which means in the same direction when the crash occurs.
In a lot of cases, such side-wipe accidents between the passenger cars and trucks occur when the commercial drivers aren’t careful and do not check the blind spots before they change lanes and merge into the traffic lane.
This is extremely dangerous for everyone and every car in the traffic lane, and one wrong move can cause a huge problem. In many cases, instead of negligence, the truck drivers might end up losing control of the vehicles due to the tire blowouts along with the road obstacles and intense hazardous weather and wind.
If a truck driver is distracted, under the influence, or just careless, then obviously, they wouldn’t have complete focus on the road and might drift onto the other lanes adjacent to them.
Contacting a Semi-Truck Accident Attorney
This is something extremely important, as it is a precaution measure to be taken after the accident occurs. No matter what sort of injuries or what kind of truck accident led to the damage and injuries, you should fight to get your financial damages as well as physical damages fixed, especially if the truck driver has no reason but carelessness to cause an accident.
In this case, make sure you contact a successful and professional attorney who has experience in such cases. They can help you go through the entire procedure without you worrying about other consequences.
Conclusion
Conclusively, there are a lot of truck accidents that take place, mainly due to the number of commercial trucks and huge trucks on the road. With such high numbers of trucks going around town, there are bound to be a few accidents due to them being merged into the local traffic. There are many types of accidents, but most of these truck accidents occur due to driver negligence or carelessness, as well as lack of experience in driving such a huge vehicle.
