U.S. truck accident statistics show that injuries and fatalities from large truck accidents are on the rise.  According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in 2010 over 5,000 people died after crashes involving Large Truck and Commercial Vehicles, which includes semi-trucks, tractor-trailers, and buses. Only 3,200 deaths occurred in 2009 from motor vehicle accidents involving these large trucks. About 100,000 people sustained injuries in 2010 in motor vehicle accidents with large trucks and commercial vehicles.

Part of the reason for the rise in truck accidents is that there are more trucks on the road. In fact, some statisticians expect a 20% increase in semi-truck traffic in 2012, because starting in 2012, Mexican commercial trucks will be allowed to travel across the United States. These trucks will be electronically monitored to allow only one trip at a time, directly from Mexico to a single destination and back, and Mexican drivers must have clean driving records and speak English. Still, the mere increase in traffic can be expected to cause more truck accidents.

Cell phones and mp3 players may also be a cause for the rise in commercial truck and bus accidents. In September 2011, a semi-truck driver in Kentucky hit a 15-passenger van immediately after making an outgoing phone call on his cell phone. That accident killed 10 people. The National Transportation Safety Board supports a national regulation prohibiting semi-truck drivers from texting, making phone calls, or using mp3 players while driving.  Creating this law could be an uphill battle, as many people feel that truck transportation companies should self-regulate and set these policies for themselves.

Unfortunately, a large percentage of truck accidents happen in large states where truck accident statistics show the most amount of commercial truck traffic: California, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. If you or a family member was involved in a large truck accident where the driver was distracted or overtired, you may have grounds for a personal injury claim against the driver and the transportation company. Talk to a personal injury attorney today to determine if you may have a claim against a negligent truck driver.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, every year more than 4,000 people are killed in accidents involving trucks. Nearly 40% of these fatalities are due to driver fatigue. This equates to over 1500 lives that could have easily been saved if truck drivers and their companies were more stringent on rest requirements. Fifty-six percent of drivers say that their last instance of falling asleep while driving occurred on a multi-lane divided highway. With millions of cars traveling major highways around the country, the dangers of accidents related to fatigue are high. Truck accident settlements can help ease the financial burden, but no one wants to be faced with injuries, lost wages, mental anguish, and additional hardship to their families.

Everybody wants to go after the trucking company for how they hire, how they train, and how they supervise their drivers. Companies think this is pure selfishness on the part of the victims and fail to fully realize the role they play in the actions of their drivers. The average workweek in the U.S. is under 40 hours, but the average workweek for truckers is over 60 hours. In a field where fatigue is an on-going problem, truck drivers should face better regulation of on- and off-road periods. Long-haul truckers depend on their deliveries to make a living, but at what cost? With the cost of medical care rising, truck accident settlements are on the rise as well.

Circadian rhythms make a 24-hour work schedule utterly unnatural for humans. However, with more truck drivers preferring to drive during off-peak hours to avoid traffic, fatigue is a huge problem. Drivers travelling alone, like the majority of truck drivers, are over 80% more likely to get drowsy behind the wheel than drivers with passengers. New proposed guidelines are attempting to decrease overall time allowed on the road per day, along with increasing nighttime rest periods. Data analysis has shown that crashes that occurred during late night and early morning hours, defined as 11pm to 6:59am, were nearly five times as likely to have involved a drowsy driver as crashes that occurred later in the morning, afternoon, or evening.

All of this knowledge shows the dangerous circumstances surrounding fatigued truck drivers. Accident victims are paying the price of greedy or insensitive corporations. One fleet owner stated, “If you’re quick off the draw, you can beat the lawyers, and deal directly with the accident victims.” Vulnerability is at its highest while an injured victim is recovering—exactly when the corporations want to speak to victims, without the protection of an experienced truck accident attorney. Don’t let yourself be taken advantage of during your most vulnerable time! It is the company’s responsibility to make sure that the driver has the necessary skills and knows what he or she needs to do, including choosing to rest for the safety of those on the road. The right truck accident attorney can bring peace of mind to victims and their families. Medical bills are unpredictable, but should not be a source of concern during recovery.

According to experts, a driver who has only been asleep for perhaps a few seconds might be unaware, or forget, that he or she was asleep. Within a truck accident lawsuit, this can be a hard judgment to make. However, in a nationally-representative survey of U.S. drivers conducted just last year, 41% of drivers admit to having “fallen asleep or nodded off” while driving at some point in their lives, including 11.0% within the past year and 3.9% in the past month. More than one in four drivers admits to having driven when they were “so sleepy that they had a hard time keeping their eyes open” within the past month. Operator drowsiness, fatigue, or sleepiness has been documented as a causal or contributing factor in aviation, maritime, and trucking accidents, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Despite this knowledge, drowsy driving has received much less attention when compared with other accident causes.

More than one in four of those who reported having fallen asleep while driving in the past 12 months reported that they had done so between midnight and 6 a.m. With truck accident lawsuits on the rise, these fatigue-related accidents tend to be the most costly. Injuries and increasing medical bills can be devastating for victims and their families. Newly proposed regulations would limit nighttime driving for big rigs, in hopes of decreasing accidents during these hours, and subsequently decreasing injuries and fatalities. The trucking industry is fighting back against these new guidelines, but the safety of everyone else sharing the roads with these trucks should be brought to the forefront as a major concern.

Trucking accidents may be declining, but with ever-increasing technology, the new question is whether drivers can talk, retrieve their e-mail, scan hundreds of satellite radio channels and check their location via GPS—and still drive safely. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) officials estimate that 25% of all crashes are the result of distraction, including fatigue. In non-fatal crashes, drivers are reluctant to say they were distracted. Admitting this could result in pay cuts or job termination. However, victims are paying the price. According to a truck accident injury lawyer, victims have several grounds for their accident cases, including negligent operation by the driver, negligent entrustment on the part of the company, vicarious liability of the company for the driver and ‘spoliation’ of evidence. These are legitimate concerns when it comes to the health and wellbeing of everyone else on the road with these trucks.

As a victim of this negligence, it is important to find an experienced truck accident injury lawyer early on. Many companies will try to target victims during their most vulnerable time and settle immediately. They know that dealing directly with an accident victim may save them millions, regardless of the ultimate financial burden on the victim and his or her family. Also, companies know that in the U.S., a criminal conviction against the driver amounts to an automatic loss in a civil case. This would potentially increase their payouts to victims. Therefore, if a victim has settled before making further convictions against the driver, all is said and done. No one should have to face such enormous financial burdens as the result of someone else’s negligence.

The proposed rule of decreasing the current 11-hour driving day limit to 10 hours has drawn heavy criticism in the trucking world, but the attacks have come mostly from the long-haul trucking business, where truckers most often bump against the driving limits. Long-haul drivers spend days on the road, often driving during the night hours to speed up deliveries. These hours are a dangerous timeframe for anyone on the road. The most severe trucking accidents are primarily caused by fatigue and occur between the hours of midnight and 6:00 a.m.

Truck accident lawyers help their clients recover compensatory damages for property damage, personal injury (including medical costs, lost wages and mental anguish claims), and death claims.

However, dealing with large trucking companies can be a daunting task. The ultimate goal of any company is protecting its bottom-line. In the case of an 85-year old driver, who was no longer working and was killed instantly after a collision with a truck, so that he experienced no pain or suffering, trucking officials and defense attorneys will attempt to put little value to the loss of life. The compensatory award in that case is likely to be small. They will argue that he did not lose any income and his children were in their sixties, so a prolonged life did not have great monetary worth to his survivors. Having experienced truck accident lawyers can overcome these defenses, and help victims feel the peace of mind knowing that their family will be taken care of throughout their ordeal.

Commercial vehicle drivers tend to describe fatigue as “nodding off” or as “being asleep at the wheel”. In scientific terms, they are actually having brief, involuntary, ‘micro-sleeps’ of two to thirty seconds. They are momentarily not in charge of their vehicles’ speed, of course, and they typically have no memory of this lapse. This is one reason why drivers seldom report fatigue as the cause of an accident, and why many fleets do not even realize that they have a severe and potentially dangerous fatigue problem among their drivers. Since the driver is incapacitated from taking evasive action at the point of impact due to his or her reduced level of alertness, fatigue-related accidents are often severe in terms of injury, damage and cost. In certain types of cases, Truck accident lawsuits can force companies to shell out several million dollars in damage settlements, including money for medical bills, lost wages, and mental anguish.

Research estimates that fatigue-related accidents account for 15% of the total accidents and as much as 80% of the total cost. For drivers all over the country, this should be a major concern. Short-haul drivers that work more of a standard daily schedule face the same risk of accidents as long-haul drivers. Inner-city traffic mixed with long work days can be a dangerous mix. The total number of crashes, although declining, is still unacceptably high, meaning more truck accident lawsuits. Victims are faced with potentially severe injuries, lost wages, the inability to provide for their children and other family, or even loss of life, at the hands of the trucking industry.

The proposed rule of decreasing the current 11-hour driving day limit to 10 hours has drawn heavy criticism in the trucking world. Maritime and intermodal industry officials are raising alarms that the proposed federal hours-of-service rules for domestic U.S. truck drivers could complicate movement of international maritime freight through U.S. ports, rail yards and terminals. Shortening the hours U.S. truckers may drive each day and lengthening their weekends would put more trucks on the road around ports during congested daytime hours, bringing more pollution and higher costs to these agencies. With all of this discussion, industry officials pay little mention to the safety of other motorists who share the roads with these overworked truckers.

According to recent data analysis, for every fatal accident, there are 10 serious accidents, 100 reportable accidents, and 1000 unreported accidents. Truck accident settlements are escalating in the U.S. and Canada. A critical trucking accident can lead to high claims costs. Millions of dollars in bodily injury payouts (namely, a traumatic brain injury) can easily cost several million dollars in the U.S. Knowing the facts can help keep victims from losing out on these settlements. Many companies attempt to get the victims to agree to truck accident settlements before lawyers can get involved, drastically lowering financial awards to victims.  They prey on the vulnerability of the injured and care little about their ultimate well-being.

In any truck accident lawsuit, it is essential to address three key elements: liability, causation, and damages. Liability refers to the question of who caused the accident and is financially and legally responsible for the outcome. Causation examines whether that fault was the proximate cause of the injury or death that resulted from the accident. Damages refer to the injuries suffered and how much they are worth in terms of dollars, with regards to both automobiles and individuals. The worth in dollars is a controversial topic, because different sides will have different estimates based on varying perspectives. Also, medical bills can be hard to estimate, as a victim’s recovery process is not definite or even predictable. Healthcare is never cheap, but it should also not be a worry for a recovering patient.

A claimant who can make the case that the company itself – and not just the driver – was at fault, will be able to increase the level of damages he receives at trial or settlement. Compensatory damages are also a factor in a truck accident lawsuit. Compensatory damages refer to the various losses resulting from the injury, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, medical bills, loss of wages, and loss of quality of life. All of these factors are vital when assessing financial outcomes. A victim’s family should not suffer for the negligence of someone else. Taking care of victims should be the number one priority in any accident, but sadly that is not always the case.

Crosley Law Firm is determined to secure proper compensation for victims of truck accidents and their families. Contact our qualified San Antonio personal injury lawyers today.

The Crosley Law Firm, P.C. completed a confidential settlement today in a case involving spinal injuries to a 45-year-old San Antonio woman. (more…)