When a commercial truck collides with a passenger vehicle like a car, station wagon, or SUV - most likely the passenger vehicle will not win. If they are lucky, the occupants of a passenger vehicle will be alive and ambulatory but frequently a truck, based on its sheer size and power, will destroy everything upon impact. Commercial truck accidents occur based on many reasons. Let's consider a few:
Trucks transports goods and products for all kinds of industries. This kind of commerce keeps our nation humming. Everyone has a timetable and trucking companies may be penalized for late arrivals. Truck drivers have to keep up the pace and can be slowed down by heavy traffic flow, unsafe road conditions, and other setbacks. Trucking transport schedules are totally unrealistic and they speed up driving well beyond the speed limit (for trucks or cars) or drive aggressively cutting off cars and whizzing in and out of lanes.
Truck accidents occur when trucks drive too close to other vehicles. For a truck traveling at 65 mph, it takes them longer to brake and stop then a car traveling at the same speed. Sometimes passenger vehicles are to blame as they cut too closely in front of a truck but other times the truck just rides on the tail of a slow or slower moving car. This is not only frightening but aggressive and most certainly unsafe.
The trucking companies are to blame as they do not maintain the trucks well. Tires, brakes, and lights need a higher and more frequent level of maintenance. Cutting corners for maintenance is no way to save a buck. Also the lack of not having blind spotting mirrors has caused many truck accidents.
Truck companies have many vacancies for jobs and not enough people to apply. Though truck drivers need to pass a driving test they may not have the experience necessary to handle a big, overloaded, and oversized rig and make necessary judgment calls.
Truck drivers spend hours driving, frequently without taking sleep breaks because they are being paid to drive, not sleep and to arrive on time. Fatigue and inattentiveness can cause reflexes to diminish causing truck accidents. Truck drivers might be taking drugs or alcohol to enhance their performance.
One out of every nine traffic fatalities involves a truck accident. Truck driver fatalities are all too common. Pennsylvania is one of that states that leads the nation in truck accidents.
If you or a loved one has been the victim of a truck accident, contact a Pennsylvania law firm with a winning track record in truck accident settlements. The law is in your favor.
