Truck Accidents
Truck/tractor-trailer accidents tend to be more severe and more deadly than most car accidents. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), large trucks made up “9 percent of all vehicles involved in fatal crashes nationwide and 3 percent of accidents that caused only injuries or property damage.”
Causes
Truck drivers are required to go through special training before they operate a large tractor-trailer vehicle. However, despite training, most truck accidents often occur due to fatigue, drug/alcohol use, and speeding. Sometimes, environmental elements take part in an accident as well.
There are two ways that a truck collision is documented, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA):
- Critical Event: “The action or event that put the vehicle or vehicles on a course that made the collision unavoidable. The critical event is assigned to the vehicle that took the action that made the crash inevitable.”
- Critical Reason: The critical reason is assigned to the vehicle coded with the critical event in the crash. It can be coded as a driver error, vehicle failure, or environmental condition (roadway or weather).”
However, truck drivers share some of the same risks as passenger vehicles. In fact, “the same associated factors coded most often for the large trucks usually were also coded most often for the passenger vehicles” (FMCSA). While trucks produce a greater risk for accidents, passenger cars and trucks share many common collision tendencies:
- Interruption of the traffic flow
- Unfamiliarity with roadway
- Inadequate surveillance
- Driving too fast for conditions
- Illegal maneuver
- Inattention
- Fatigue
- Illness
- False assumption of other road user’s actions
- Distraction by object or person inside the vehicle
Injury Risks
Despite these commonalities, trucks pose a greater threat to injury when involved in a collision with a passenger vehicle. The most common truck accident injuries include:
- Back and neck injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Head and traumatic brain injuries
- Burns
- Amputation and disfigurement
- Internal injuries
- Cuts, bruises, broken bones, and lacerations