You are driving on the road and next to you is a huge truck, loaded down with cargo, weighing as much as 80,000 pounds. Certainly it’s very intimidating. Especially considering that the average passenger vehicle weighs roughly 3,000 pounds in comparison.  It may not happen as often as crashes with other passenger cars, but when a car crashes into a commercial truck or big rig the results are serious.

There are 15.5 million trucks operating in the United States including 1.9 million tractor-trailer trucks driving with us on our roadways. According to the most recent data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, large trucks made up roughly 8% fatal crashes among all vehicles, another 3% of the injury crashes and 5% of those vehicles involving property damages.  Additionally, most (74%) of the fatal truck crashes reported in 2007, involved combination trucks which are the heaviest, longest trucks on the road.

Common reasons for accidents

Among the top causes of truck accidents, driver fatigue is one of the most common. Other reasons include drifting into neighboring traffic lanes, going off the road, driving faster than road conditions allow, cargo shifting in the trailer bed, system failures, poor road conditions, and rear-ending another vehicle in the same lane.

To help prevent driver fatigue, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulates drivers of commercial vehicles to 11 cumulative hours in a 14-hour period and they must rest for no less than 10 hours prior to heading back onto the road.

Drivers are also required to maintain a 24-hour logbook called the Record of Duty Status to document hours spent driving and resting. When a truck is involved in an accident this is one of the many pieces of evidence an attorney will use to help determine whether a driver was negligent. Attorneys need to gather lots of evidence to prove a case and ultimately win a lawsuit.

One of the newest devices used by the industry to help combat driver fatigue and keep track of hours driven by truck drivers are Electronic Onboard Recorders. The device will become mandatory (in June 2012) for companies that do not keep track of their drivers Hours of Service (HOS) as required by law.  However, new legislation proposed by the FMCSA earlier this year may eventually make such devices mandatory on all commercial vehicles.

Responsibility

So who is responsible for your injuries and damages? The driver may be at fault, but the company who owns the truck may also be liable. In some cases it may be the driver is also the owner of the truck.  If you need to file a case against a trucking firm or driver you will need the expertise of a lawyer who has experience in this area of law.

The truck driver and the company that owns the vehicle owe a duty of care to drive safely and responsibly as well as follow rules and regulations that apply specifically to the trucking industry. It’s important that steps are taken right away to preserve evidence, meet statutes of limitations and undertake extensive investigations to ensure justice is upheld.  Expert attorney advice will help you resolve your claim and provide needed financial help whether you are involved in an injury accident or a wrongful death circumstance.