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An Overview of Truck Accidents, How They Occur, Statistics &Types of Truck Accidents
Truck Accident Overview
Big rig truck accidents are deadly, resulting not only in personal injury and death, but material damage to vehicles, roads and even private property. As the number of trucking companies operating in the United States increases, the likelihood of a truck accident rises as well.
How Truck Accidents Occur
Truck accidents occur for a variety of reasons. Defective roadways, driver negligence and tire blowouts are common causes for all sorts of motor vehicle accidents, trucks included. Other causes of truck accidents may include overheated or faulty tractor trailer brakes, runaway trailers, truck company negligence, truck overloading leading to falling debris and collisions and due to the larger blank spots all trucks possess.
Runaway trailers occur when the trailer disconnects from the cab of the truck, creating a highly perilous road condition in which the extremely large, heavy and speeding trailer careens out-of-control in the middle of traffic.
Truck accidents also occur due to driver negligence or recklessness. When any motor vehicle operator drives aggressively, tailgates, speeds, or drives carelessly they increase the potential for an accident. When a truck driver fails to maintain his vehicle, drives under the influence of alcohol, drugs or excessive fatigue, the likelihood of a serious and fatal accident increases far beyond the parameters of a normal collision between two passenger vehicles.
Truck accidents may also be caused by inadequate lighting or reflectors on the truck when driving at night. This increases the chance of truck under-ride accidents because other drivers may not identify the truck.
Truck Accident Statistics
- 98% of fatalities in tractor trailer accidents happen to the passengers in the car that collided with the truck.
- Nearly 150,000 large trucks are involved in non-fatal crashes each year.
- Over 50,000 trucks are involved in crashes causing moderate to severe injuries annually.
- Nearly 80,000 trucks are involved in collisions severe enough to require tow service removal.
- Nearly 3,000 trucks are involved in hazardous material collisions.
- Nearly 70% of all fatal truck accidents occur in rural areas.
- Just over 65% of all fatal truck accidents occur during the day.
- 80% of fatal truck accidents occur on the weekend.
- 1% of fatal truck accidents are alcohol-related, as compared to 22% of passenger vehicle collisions and 29% of motorcyclist accidents.
- 26.75% of large truck operators involved in fatal trucks accidents had one or more prior speeding convictions.
- Texas has the highest incidence of fatal truck accidents, followed by Florida and California.
- 9% of all vehicles in fatal crashes are large trucks. 76% of those trucks are combination trucks.
- Between 500 to 700 large trucks annually are involved in fatal rollover accidents.
- Total trucking revenue estimates exceed $258 billion each year, but the average truck driver only earns $30,000 annually.
- The trucking industry uses 13% of all fuel purchased in the United States.
Types of Truck Accidents
Buses, emergency vehicles, garbage trucks, RVs, 18 wheel big rigs and long haul trucks are some of the types of vehicles involved in California trucking accidents. In fact, garbage trucks are responsible for more pedestrian and cyclist fatalities than any other kind of truck or vehicle on the roads today. Truck accidents have two categories: collision and non-collision. Accidents involving other vehicles are considered to be collision accidents, while accidents such as a rollover due to improper loading may be classified as non-collision.
Overloaded or improperly loaded trucks can cause accidents when their cargo or debris falls onto the road creating a major road hazard for all other motor vehicles.
Under-ride collisions and over-ride collisions occur when either a small vehicle rides under the truck or a large truck rides over smaller vehicle or pedestrian. Both types of accidents are extremely devastating and normally cause the passengers of the smaller vehicle fatal or permanently disabled injuries.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 30% of all truck tires would not pass current speed, endurance and safety tests. Tire blowouts or bald tires lead truck operators to lose control and the tires themselves transform into projectile missiles of hot rubber on the highway, endangering other vehicles and passengers. In the state of California it is against the law to use re-grooved, or recapped tires on large commercial vehicles. Tires with defects such as exposed and damaged cord or cuts larger than one inch are also illegal for trucks to use in the state of California.
“No zone” accidents are accidents involving blind spots. The larger the truck, the larger its blind spots. Truck drivers are unable to see portions of the back and the front of their trucks, and these areas are known as no zone areas.
Brake failure is a frequent cause of truck accidents as well. Brake failure can be caused by improper installation or lack of maintenance of aged brakes. Additionally, improper loading, overuse or sudden stopping at high speeds can cause truck's brakes to overheat and fail. The larger the truck, the more likely it is that the brakes may overheat. All truck drivers should be familiar with and practice proper breaking techniques such as slowly and incrementally applying pressure to the brakes in order to prevent brake failure and overheating.
Many truck collisions occur when car or truck drivers misjudge the stopping distance required to avoid impact. Trucks need a much greater distance to stop than cars, and the larger and heavier the truck and the greater their speed the more this distance increases. Rear-end conclusions between trucks and other vehicles can be extremely damaging both too the car and the passengers inside.
Swinging turns, also known as squeeze play, are accidents that occur on wide turns. When a large truck needs to navigate a wide turn, the drivers will often swing in the opposite direction in order to successfully complete the turn. When the truck swings it may squeeze the car beside it into the curb or another vehicle because of the truck's large blind spots.
Non- collision truck accidents include jack knife and rollover accidents. Tractor trailers have three sets of brakes: trailer axle brakes, drive axle brakes and steering axle breaks. If the steering axle brake locks up, then the truck will continue moving straight ahead without the ability to steer. When the drive axle brake locks, the truck will jack-knife. Rollover truck accidents can occur at speeds as little as 5 miles per hour simply because a big rig's center of gravity is so much higher than a car.
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