Accidents involving commercial vehicles and truck accident typically involve extensive damage and more severe injuries to vehicle occupants due to the magnitude of forces involved.

Truck Accident Statistics

• According to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) data, one person is injured or killed in a truck accident every 10 minutes.
• In 2014 there were 213,000 trucking accident resulting in property damage only, 52,000 injury-causing accidents, and 1885 fatal crashes.
• About half of all tractor-trailer accidents involve front-end collisions. Back end and side collisions occur in 15 and 12 percent of all crashes, respectively
• The top 5 states in which fatal truck accidents occur include Texas, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Exposure

According to a 2016 AAA report, passenger car drivers spend about 290 hours on the road and travel an average of 10,900 miles each year, with atypical life of a passenger car of 8 years and 150,000 miles. Whereas, tractor-trailer operators may work up to 70 hours per week (55 hours driving time) and often travel 10,000 miles or more in a month. Tractors are typically kept in service for 6 years, during which time they can travel 600,000 miles or more. So, mile-for-mile, a tractor-trailer operator’s exposure is 10-fold that of a passenger car driver.

Who’s at fault?

Nearly 90 percent of all trucking accidents result from human error, rather than mechanical breakdown, equipment failure, bad weather or poor road conditions. Examples of human carelessness or recklessness responsible for causing truck crashes include:

• Driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol
• Distracted driving — eating, using cell phones, applying makeup
• Driver fatigue
• Running red lights, speeding, failing to yield or otherwise violating traffic laws

While some accidents may involve human error on the part of the tractor-trailer operator, trucks and truck drivers are typically held to a higher standard of operation by Federal Laws and Regulations than passenger cars and drivers. Truck drivers need to successfully complete a more extensive driver training program than is required to drive a passenger car. Commercial vehicles are also inspected more thoroughly and on a more frequent basis.

In fact, more than 75% of truck driving accidents are caused by the driver of the passenger vehicle.

Truck Accident Expert

Dr. Lloyd has served as an expert for both defense and plaintiff’s counsel on a number of cases nationwide involving trucking accidents. Dr. Lloyd is uniquely qualified in that he is certified in accident reconstruction, is an internationally-recognized expert in injury biomechanics and can also address the unique human factors issues that affect tractor-trailer operators, such as visual perception and perceived reaction time.

Please call Dr. Lloyd at 813-624-8986 or email DrJohnLloyd@Tampabay.RR.com to discuss how he can be of assistance with your case.