Category: Truck Accidents
April 20, 2018 / Truck Accidents
Truckers Driving Dangerously: Unsafe Lane Changes
While the vast majority of large truck drivers exercise proper attention when it’s time to move into another lane, a few bad apples drive more dangerously, resulting in injuries and deaths for innocent victims. Abrupt lane changes by large commercial vehicles create havoc. The trailer that’s part of a semi often extends to 53 feet, and, in some cases, even longer. Such a vehicle takes up a lot of space on the road, making lane changes a matter requiring much care and attention to blind spots. Stephenson Rife handled a case that occurred on US 150 in Southern Indiana, a semi turned sharply left, in the left turn lane, causing its load of steel I-beams to move into the adjoining lane of traffic. The vehicle passing in the right had n[...]
March 22, 2018 / Truck Accidents
Truck Tire Blowouts: Danger on the Road
In late September 2017, a terrible truck accident occurred on I-70 in the Mt. Comfort Road area of Buck Creek Township, near mile marker 95.2. A tanker truck ran off the highway, hitting a bridge and spilling thousands of gallons of oil when it split in two. It took HAZMAT teams several hours to clean up the oil, and the interstate was shut down in both directions for more than three hours. The driver was taken to the hospital with critical injuries and has since died. The reason for the crash? Two of the truck’s tires blew out, and the driver lost control. Between 2009 and 2013, almost 16,000 people died in roughly 14,000 fatal crashes that involved large trucks and buses. The numbers show that tires were a factor in 223 deaths that o[...]
March 1, 2018 / Truck Accidents
Mandatory Logging Devices in Trucks are Here
ELDs, or electronic logging devices, are now required equipment in interstate commercial trucks. The trucking industry has been at loggerheads about the use of ELDs ever since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a new rule mandating their installation in commercial trucks on December 16, 2015. The Supreme Court declined to hear a case that argued the devices were unconstitutional, so the ELD rule took effect on December 18, 2017. Because of the phase-in period, the rule will not be followed by enforcement officers until April 1, 2018. On and after that date, drivers and their trucks can be taken off the road if they don’t have an ELD—unless they have an AOBRD (automatic onboard recording device). Not su[...]
January 3, 2018 / Truck Accidents
Winter Weather and Trucks: A Deadly Combo
Sometimes we may have the luxury of remaining home during icy or snowy weather. Truck drivers, however, often must stay on the road because it’s their job to move freight. Most truck drivers are professionals who drive with skill and care, but it’s important to remember that truckers are controlling up to 40 tons of vehicle, and in some cases on Indiana roads, up to 67 tons. A moment’s inattention can have devastating consequences when it occurs on slick roads. Conditions such as these can make deadly chain-reaction collisions likely. An average of nearly 6 million vehicular crashes occur each year in the United States. During 2014, around 476,000 of those crashes involved buses and large trucks. In bad weather, the number of crashes[...]
December 19, 2017 / Truck Accidents
The Dangers of Overweight Trucks
Trucks weighing up to 40 tons (80,000 pounds) are legal on Indiana roads. In special circumstances and with the proper permits and fees paid, truck weights of up to 200,000 pounds—100 tons—are allowable. Neighboring Kentucky permits truck weights of up to 120,000 pounds as long as fees are paid and permits are obtained. State governments require fees in order to pay for the damages that accumulate from a steady stream of overweight trucks on our roads and bridges. Hauling overweight loads are hard on the trucks, too, though some trucks are built especially to haul extreme weights. Overweight Scofflaws Some truckers and trucking companies try to get away with hauling overweight loads without paying fees and obtaining permits. A few exa[...]
September 6, 2017 / Truck Accidents
The One Essential of Large Truck Safety
It doesn’t get much more basic on any vehicle than brakes. The gas pedal and transmission may move a vehicle forward or backward, but only the brakes have the potential to stop you when you really need to do so. Because of a large truck’s size and weight, the braking system is even more critical than it is with a passenger vehicle. It can take a substantial distance to stop a semi, even with brakes that work well. And if the brakes stop working altogether . . . well, perhaps you’ve seen the “runaway truck” ramps meant for the unfortunate drivers in such a situation. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) held surprise Brake Safety Day inspections during May, 2017. Almost 10,000 commercial vehicles were inspected, with th[...]
August 23, 2017 / Truck Accidents
Watch Out for That Load!
Some dangers on the road aren’t the huge semi on your bumper or the speeding driver weaving around you during a rainstorm. Some dangers can occur when you’re simply driving home, minding your own business. That’s what happened to Maria Federici. She was heading home on I-405 in Washington State when a piece of particleboard flew out of the rented U-Haul in front of her, smashing through her windshield. Federici almost died; she had nearly every bone broken in her face and was left blind. Matthew Reif’s family was not so fortunate. He died when a shard of metal flew off the truck in front of him, crashing through his windshield and impaling his heart. Wait, Aren’t There Laws? While there are laws in every state about unsecured[...]
August 8, 2017 / Truck Accidents
Truck Speed Limiters: Boon or Bane?
A new transportation rule may soon impact your life: It has been proposed by both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that vehicles over 26,000 pounds must be outfitted with a device capping the vehicle’s maximum speed. Essentially, all large trucks would have their top speed regulated by a technological add-on. Both the NHTSA and the FMCSA think that this new rule would, in addition to saving lives, save more than $1 billion in fuel costs. It sounds like a win for all, doesn’t it? But a number of trucking industry organizations believe that speed limiters will save neither lives nor money. What Would the New Rule Do? The details about this new federal [...]
May 9, 2017 / Truck Accidents
In-Cab Truck Cameras: Making Our Roads Safer?
You might not realize it, but trucking companies have begun installing in-cab truck cameras to provide evidence in case of crashes or other road mishaps. The technology arrives at a time when the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recorded an increase in crash deaths of 8 percent from 2014 to 2015. No one wants to see more deaths because of wrecks involving large trucks, so the FMCSA is doing what it can to reduce them. While truck drivers have objected to cameras in their cabs, it’s important to note that many of these cameras are forward-facing, meaning they do not record the driver. Forward-facing cameras record what the driver sees. In the case of an accident, the camera can help establish a timeline of what went w[...]
April 27, 2017 / Truck Accidents
Sick and Behind a Big Rig’s Wheel
Indiana experiences its share of truck traffic, with eight primary interstates and its geographic position in the middle of busy routes between Chicago and the southeastern U.S. Our state is ninth out of fifty when it comes to traffic fatalities involving large trucks during 2015, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). In that year alone, 117 persons died in crashes involving large trucks. Now imagine a circumstance in which a driver could have caused an accident due to health problems. It’s one big reason that federal regulations require health exams of big rig drivers and forbid those with certain health conditions from driving. Who Was “Dr. Tony”? Did you know that, on their way from Chicago to t[...]