Truck accidents are almost always more hazardous to normal road-going motorists than to the truck drivers.
Size, obviously, gives trucker an advantage in surviving accidents. And truck drivers, like any other drivers, come in all sorts of skill levels. Unfortunately, some truck drivers don't always operating their vehicles safely.
A recent study shows that some 140,000 truck crashes every year, and more than half of them were the direct fault of the truck driver.
The majority of truck accidents are caused by driver fatigue. Although there are state and federal restrictions on consecutive hours that can be driven by truckers, the restrictions are often unenforced. Or the driver can be at the end of a long shift after already having been awake for many hours prior to the trip. Combine that with night driving, or 'Whiteline Fever' and you have a higher potential for an accident.
Failure to properly load the truck or secure cargo is another potentially deadly component to trucker safety. A shifting load upsets the balance of a truck and makes it difficult to control. A truck that is difficult or impossible to control can weigh – including a load – 30,000 to 100,000 pounds. That mass makes for a horrendous crash, and near certain death should it hit a motorist. In addition, should the load actually end up on the road, it becomes a hazard for following or oncoming traffic.
Consequently, overloading is also a potential problem. Overloading causes brake wear and, just as in badly secured cargo, will eventually shift, creating similar problems. A full load causes issues with the securing systems, which are usually not made for higher-than-normal load, which then leads to equipment failure.
A major highway hazard caused by truckers is the use of alcohol or drugs while driving. The major use is of prescription drug use, which 26% of truck-created accidents are reported to include. Prescription drugs, even in controlled circumstances, can cause drowsiness or other symptoms that evoke a loss of control. In any situation, the use of drugs is a major issue for the entire industry.
Poor training is a also cause of big rig accidents. Operating a truck takes specialized training. Inadequately trained drivers cause frequent accidents that would otherwise be avoided with proper training. Most drivers are properly trained, but like any field, that’s not always the case. When truckers with poor training enter the road, they do so at your peril.
Of course, speed and driving unfamiliar roadways is also a major cause of truck crashes, both causes that hamper automobile drivers as well. But with the size and inertia of a truck, these can become deadly accidents. Speeding trucks are not unfamiliar, but it is the simplest of the infractions for various highway patrol organizations to catch. Hopefully when law enforcement officers do catch offending truckers, those routine stops take some of the other bad seeds off the highway so the road is safer for the rest of us.
