When a truck crash occurs, serious injuries may occur, a victim or family member is well advised to consult with a truck accident lawyer.

Truck accidents and collisions resulting in serious injuries may be caused by:

  •      Driving fatigued, distracted driving, or driving while impaired.
  •      Speeding
  •      Failure to follow safety training
  •      Unsafe lane change
  •      Failure to maintain the vehicle, mechanical problems
  •      Improper loading, overloading

As a result of the speed, size, weight of trucks catastrophic injuries may occur, sometimes fatalities. Truckers who are driving tractor trailers while fatigued can cause crashes resulting in serious injuries and fatalities. Drivers may be violating Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Regulations by exceeding maximum number of driving hours rules.

FMCSA has set forth hours of driving limits for drivers of commercial vehicles. The purpose is to prevent collisions caused by driver fatigue, because the number of hours driving strongly correlate to the number of fatigue related accidents. The risks of fatigue are the greatest between midnight and six in the morning and also increase with the length of the driver’s trip.

The recent Tracy Morgan Walmart truck crash emphasizes the dangers of unsafe driving, unsafe driving practices, and violations of safety rules. The driver who caused the crash drove an 18 wheeler, and he had been on duty for about 13 and a half hours. He ignored work zone and speed warning signs.

Before his official work day, the Walmart driver spent 12 hours driving his own vehicle from Georgia to pick up his truck at a Walmart facility in Delaware, he had been awake for 28 consecutive hours at the time of the crash. Morgan was injured, along with eight others, Morgan’s friend was killed, a wrongful death case against Walmart was settled.

A truck accident attorney can investigate the reasons for the crash and consider hiring trucking standard of care experts, or an accident reconstructionist. A case that I handled demonstrates the serious consequences of truck driver inattention, and likely fatigue. A group of adults and children were traveling home to Phoenix in their van, eastbound on Interstate 10. Their vehicle was stopped when it was hit from the read by a Freightliner tractor trailer, going sixty miles per hour. My clients’ van was crushed, it rolled and crashed in the desert, traumatic injuries were suffered.

The driver was negligent, further, the hours he had driven, the time of the wreck and irregularities in his logs suggested that he was a fatigued driver. Following a lawsuit, the injured victims received fair settlements for their injuries, medical bills and lost income.

Thanks to our friends and contributors from Law Offices of Paul Englander, PLC for their insight into truck accident cases.