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Articles Tagged with truck accident

Truck-cars-road-vehicles-sky-172074-2-1024x683Truckers and shipping companies are racing to meet demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This is understandable, but it is important that meeting demand does not come at the expense of your safety.

Despite The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) best efforts in implementing rules and regulations to avoid accidents and improve driver/vehicle safety, there’s been a 20% increase in the number of commercial truck accidents over the past decade. Thirteen percent of these crashes were directly related to driver fatigue.

In spite of the increase in crashes involving driver fatigue, FSMCA has recently issued an EXPANDED EMERGENCY DECLARATION which suspends the requirement that drivers limit their hours of service. The suspension went into effect on March 13 and will continue until the COVID-19 pandemic has ended.  That means for truckers and shipping companies who transport food, medical supplies, and items related to community safety, there are no limits to the hours a driver can go without rest.

semi-trailers-534577_1920-300x225Fatal truck wrecks across the United States are increasing at a rate almost three times that of deadly crashes overall. Among the most dangerous and deadly are rear-end truck crashes. While big trucks collide with cars in a variety of ways, experts say these types of wrecks are among the most devastating and yet perhaps the easiest to prevent with technology. Unfortunately, semi-trucks across the country are not equipped with the latest, and best, crash prevention technology.

In 2016 alone, more than 4,300 people were killed in collisions with semis and other large trucks. That represents a 28 percent increase over 2009, according to the federal government. To put this in perspective, this is equal to a 737 airplane crashing twice a month, killing everyone on board. In Illinois there was a 26% increase in fatal crashes involving large trucks, like semi-trucks, in 2016. So far, in 2019, 15% of all fatal crashes involved a semi or other large truck.

One of the major reasons why deadly truck crashes continue to increase is the lack of crash avoidance technology being using in trucks. While crash avoidance systems are becoming common in new cars, they are rarely, if ever, used in big trucks.  The auto industry has promised that this safety equipment will be standard on all new passenger vehicles sold in the United States by the year 2020, but makers of heavy trucks have not made a similar commitment. The result is that only a small fraction of semis on the road today have collision avoidance technology.

Thumbnail image for semi-trailers-534577_1920.jpgChicago is a major hub for shipping and transportation. Large commercial tractor-trailer trucks, busses, and other large vehicles occupy many of the major tollways and expressways in the Chicago area on a daily basis. During your morning or afternoon commute you see these large trucks along the expressways. While these trucks and busses are essential to moving goods and people from one place to another, they are also becoming increasingly dangerous.

In 2014, the year the most recent Illinois data is available, the Department of Transportation noted that crashes involving large trucks accounted for 6% of all accidents. But these accidents were deadlier than the average car accident, comprising 13% of all fatalities.

More importantly, truck and bus accidents happened on clear days, with good weather and good visibility over 77% of the time.

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