Commercial truck accident causes by the numbers

Commercial trucks are responsible for a disproportionate number of injuries and fatalities, relative to their number of vehicles on the road. To study the causes of these accidents (and hopefully reduce or prevent them), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) studied 963 trucking accidents in 17 states and collated their results into a single study. This post will go over those results and how you might protect yourself on the road.

The study identified three critical events that preceded large truck accidents. Critical events were situations that gave rise to the accident, i.e. when the point of no return was passed, and the accident was inevitable.

First, the number one cause of collisions, 39 percent, were due to the truck running out of its lane. This was caused by the truck running off into the shoulder or drifting into a neighboring lane.

The second critical event, 29 percent, was due to loss of control. The study noted multiple reasons for loss of control, including, poor road conditions, failure of truck systems, cargo shift, or because the driver was going too fast for the present conditions.

The third identified critical event was collisions with the rear of the vehicle in the truck's lane, at 22 percent.

If you were injured in semi truck accident, you should contact a lawyer ? you could have an actionable claim for personal injury. Suing for compensation in a truck accident is complicated. You need to sort through overlapping layers of liability (owner of the truck, dispatcher, owner of the freight, insurance companies, and the driver). They are all going to try and blame one another, the result being that you may not receive anything. A lawyer can cut through the legal loopholes and help you get the compensation you need to pay for your medical bills and other costs.