I get many clients who are injured in truck or trucking accidents. When you are involved in a truck accident, your injuries are usually more serious than getting hit by a car. Trucks, especially semis are quite dangerous and weigh tons. The average semi-truck weighs between 5-12.5 tons. That kind of severe impact between a much heavier truck vs. a car that you are driving is more likely to cause serious injuries.

WHAT ARE TYPICAL CAUSES OF TRUCK ACCIDENTS?

Understanding the causes of truck or semi-truck accidents can help you be ready to avoid any type of collision. It is always important to pay extra special attention when driving near these huge commercial trucks.

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*Driver is tired. Driver fatigue is one of the most common causes of Truck accidents or semi-truck accidents. We all know that truckers must drive great distances to meet certain delivery deadlines. This encourages truck drivers to drive tired and fatigued. Truck drivers have this stress of meeting deadlines, so they do get very fatigued driving long distances in order to keep their job. So, if you see a semi-truck veering out of their lane or weaving, it could mean many things but it could mean that the truck driver is too tired to keep his eyes open and attention on the roadway. Federal regulations permit property carrying truck drivers to operate their trucks for up to 11 hours after resting for 10 solid hours. Passenger carrying drivers are permitted to drive up to 10 hours after taking a consecutive rest of 8 hours, off duty.

*Driving under the influence. Of course, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is certainly going to affect your driving ability no matter if you are driving a car, motorcycle or semi-truck. The federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has a great summary and article of what are the main causes of truck accidents and truck crashes. https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/research-and-analysis/large-truck-crash-causation-study-analysis-brief

*Speeding. As in regular car accidents, speed is a major cause of truck accidents in Colorado. According to the research, there is always a spike upwards in the number of truck crashes when the speed limits are 75 mph or higher. If a truck driver is speeding, it can be very difficult to handle such a large vehicle on the roads and react to dangerous situations. Also, stopping distance is much greater when a truck driver is speeding, just as in regular car crashes.

*Badly loaded cargo. Cargo or the property in the back of large semi-trucks really needs to be properly loaded to account for shifting cargo, balance in the weight of the truck and cargo, and sometimes cargo can spill upon the roadway which creates another hazard a following driver may have to deal with. Very important to have the company who loads the semi-trucks to do so with great care!

*Equipment Failure. Another major cause of trucking accidents is failure of some part on the actual truck. When a large semi-truck driver loses control on the roadway, this can be due to vehicle system malfunctions or shifting cargo or bad road conditions.

*Aggressive Driving. Truckers engage in aggressive driving just as regular drivers do in their cars and motorcycles. Some examples of dangerous aggressive driving are speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, failing to use their turn signals, and last but not least, tailgating. Don’t we all love tailgaters!

*Extreme Weather conditions. Bad weather can also contribute to semi-truck and trucking accidents. Just as in the case of a normal guy driving down the road and experiences snow or ice on the roadway, truckers have to deal with bad weather on a weekly basis. Rain can also make the roadway slick and many semi-trucks can go into an uncontrollable slide and slide into other vehicles or slide off the roadway.

*Drivers without experience. Inexperienced truck drivers or those that are new to driving trucks on a weekly basis can cause unnecessary truck accidents. Truck vs. car and the truck always wins. While trucking companies lose employees due to aging, they must hire new inexperienced drivers to keep the flow of products going around Colorado and the United States. Trucking companies lure new drivers in with marketing and good pay and benefits so there are new drivers going in and out of the trucking business all the time.

*Not obeying traffic rules or laws. Just as your normal day to day driver may run through a stop sign or push through a yellow light, it is even more dangerous when truck drivers engage in these risky behaviors. With the stopping speed of a large semi-truck taking much longer to stop than a regular motor vehicle, many times new truck drivers or even experienced truck drivers will misgauge stopping distance and slam into the rear of cars and motor vehicles.

Those are some of the major causes of trucking accidents in Colorado and Fort Collins. If you are involved in a trucking accident or truck crash in Fort Collins, Loveland or Greeley, then please contact me and I can help you obtain a very high money settlement to compensate you for your injuries, lost time from work and your pain and suffering. I have 32 years of experience handling trucking accidents and trucking cases.