Although truck accidents are three times less likely to happen as compared to smaller vehicles, you are ten times more likely to die in a truck collision than a regular vehicle collision. This is because trucks are 80,000 tons of moving steel, so even the slightest collision with a truck can result in death or serious injuries. This is the reason why you should always be careful when you are sharing the road with trucks. The good news is that truck drivers are more than equipped with training and experiences, which led them to drive as carefully as possible. In fact, according to statistics, truck drivers can be the most careful drivers of all. They drive slowly and carefully, and they are always taking their time before they make their turns. The problem is that not every truck driver does this, very much similar to the fact that not all regular vehicle drivers abide by the traffic law. Some of them intoxicate themselves with illegal substances that compromise their driving.
Truck Accident Statistics
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1.2 percent of all truck accidents involved drivers caught under the influence of drugs and 3.2 percent involves drivers who were under the influence of alcohol. In the overall, there are over 500,000 truck accidents recorded every year. Over 5,000 people die out of truck collision. Truck accidents make up 12 percent of all recorded accidents in the US. 2.4 percent of them were caused by commercial trucks alone.
The US economy depends on the trucking business. In fact 75 percent of all freight transported across the United States annually is by trucks, amounting to at least 225.5 billion revenues every single year. This is how large the trucking business is in the United States, which reflects the number of trucks that you share the roads with. Today, there are over 15.5 million trucks in the US, with over 8.9 employees and 3.5 million professional truck drivers. According to statistics, the rate is still increasing as the demand for transportation is steadily increasing.
Texas is where the highest truck accidents were recorded. In 2003 alone, 438 people died in truck accidents in Texas and the number is steadily increasing. California is where the highest road accident rates were recorded. But the state comes in the number two spot for the highest truck accidents followed by Pennsylvania and Florida.
Truck Accidents
Being involved in a truck accident is not something that anyone would want to be involved in. But if in you did and one of your family members was killed in a truck collision, there are ways on how you could recover the losses. Federal laws and regulations you may sue the truck driver, the owner of the truck, the company who leased the truck, the truck manufacturer in case the accident was caused by technical failure, loader of the cargo in case the accident involves improper loading. Under the federal law any company or individual that owns a trucking permit is liable for accidents involving their vehicle as long as their name or company name appears on the placard. The law disregards the lease of contract or whether the driver of the truck at the time of the accident is an independent contractor or is not directly employed. There is a separate government agency that investigates the case which is separate from the police report.
