As New York City Personal Injury Attorneys we have handled many truck accident cases.
Truck Accidents: The Car Driver’s Perspective
The U.S. trucking industry employs an estimated 8.9 million people, 3.5 million of whom are truck drivers. Large commercial vehicles are vital to the country’s economy, delivering nearly 70 percent of all freight transported in the U.S. each year. About $671 billion worth of retail and manufactured goods are transported by truck within the U.S. Truck trade with Mexico and Canada adds almost $500 billion more.
Most truck drivers are skilled and reliable. They must be particularly aware of the special needs and circumstances involved in operating very large vehicles. They must also be attentive to the fact that they share the road with smaller passenger vehicles. Car drivers are often unfamiliar with the performance capabilities of trucks. These drivers may not recognize how cars and trucks differ in terms of braking, acceleration and visibility. At higher speeds on major highways, driver errors that may be of little consequence where small vehicles are involved can prove disastrous in the presence of an eighteen-wheeler.
Truck Accident Cases in New York can be long and complicated, allow our experience as Personal Injury Attorneys in NYC to work for you.
Truck Accidents: The Car Driver’s Perspective
Fewer than 9 percent of all annual U.S. traffic accidents involve commercial vehicles. But the loss of life to truck drivers, all types of passengers and drivers of noncommercial vehicles is of grave concern. Although drivers of commercial and noncommercial vehicles are jointly responsible for traffic safety, the great majority of accidents are caused by non-commercial drivers.
Some of the unsafe acts committed by car drivers in the presence of large trucks include:
- Allowing insufficient time and distance when changing lanes in front of a truck.
- Driving in those areas where truck drivers have limited visibility, generally behind and beside large vehicles.
- Merging abruptly into traffic and causing the truck to have to maneuver or brake too quickly.
- Unsafe passing with insufficient headway.
- Moving to the right of a truck that is making a right turn.
- Making a left turn while misjudging the speed of a truck approaching an intersection.
- Insufficient acceleration while pulling into traffic in front of a truck.
- Driving between large trucks.
- Failure to speed up or slow down when a truck begins to merge or change lanes.
- Being blown off course by air turbulence of cross-wind when passing trucks.
Of those who suffer fatalities in accidents with trucks, 78 percent are occupants of other vehicles, 8 percent are non-occupants and 15 percent are occupants of a large truck. Thus, the vast majority of deaths occur among insured car drivers and their passengers–like many of us.