Commercial vehicles such as tractor-trailers and delivery vans are much larger than passenger vehicles on Illinois roads and highways because they are designed to transport a wide variety of products from raw materials to finished goods. As a result, these vehicles are heavy and massive and capable of creating incredible damage in the event of a crash. A single error on a truck driver’s part can have devastating results. Smaller vehicles such as cars cannot withstand the impact of large trucks, which is why car occupants are often badly injured or killed in truck accidents.
What are the most common causes of truck accidents? One of the biggest causes is deviation from federal laws and regulations regarding work hours and schedules. Too often, truck drivers must follow trucking company policies even if it means defying these regulations. As a result, truck drivers are tired and more prone to errors and accidents. This also makes them and their companies liable in the event of accidents that are caused by driver fatigue.
Another common cause of truck accidents is driver error such as overloading their vehicles, driving while intoxicated and failing to properly secure their loads. These all increase the likelihood of accidents.
What else causes truck accidents? Aside from trucking company policies and truck drivers’ error, equipment failure also causes truck accidents. Trucks have hundreds of moving parts that operate for many hours each day. When parts malfunction or fail, drivers can have difficulties operating their vehicles. For this reason, trucking companies must regularly inspect their vehicles to ensure they are working properly and that equipment failure is less likely to cause an accident.
If someone is in a truck accident caused by driver, company, or equipment failure, the person may be able to recover compensation through a personal injury lawsuit. It is certainly worth investigating.
Source: Unsafetrucks.org, “Common causes of truck accidents,” accessed on Feb. 2, 2015
