Finding the True Causes of Truck Accidents
A commercial tractor-trailer can weigh over 80,000 pounds. An average car weighs only 3,000. In a truck accident, one thing is clear: passenger cars are no match for the sheer size and weight of a semi-truck. Crashes often result in serious or fatal injuries for the occupants of a car.
At the Stapleton Law Office, we are well equipped to handle cases involving these serious injuries and wrongful death. When we take your case, we look at all details. We acquire records of the driver's history. Had the driver received prior speeding tickets? Had he been in truck wrecks before? Are there medication issues? We find out. Sometimes a driver's record will show a history of being bounced around from company to company. This too is a bad sign of an employee who just wasn't following the rules.
We also examine the driving log. By law, truck drivers are required to keep these logs of where they traveled, when they departed and arrived, and what they were carrying. Often these logs don't add up. For example, our investigation in one of our prior cases revealed one driver's log said that he had driven 200 miles in 40 minutes — an impossible feat. When our investigation revealed this falsification the case was quickly resolved in favor of our client.
Our work helps us identify the true truck accident causes, like the ones listed below:
- Driver fatigue: Sometimes drivers do not take the right amount of required rest between shifts. When we take your case, we look at the driver logs to see just how much rest the driver actually had.
- Impaired driving: Many truck drivers aren't sober enough to drive. They may be high on prescribed medication or illegal drugs. Many of these drugs, like ephedrine, speed or cocaine, are used by truckers when they drive too long without rest.
- Poor truck maintenance: Problems with bad brakes, tire air pressure or other un-maintained truck parts often cause truck accidents. Tire tread separation often causes tire blowouts, often forcing the driver to lose control of a fishtailing vehicle.
- Bad or aggressive driving by the truck driver: Whether it's due to inexperience or just bad driving, many drivers do not pay attention to safety guidelines they should follow on the roads. They tailgate, speed or pass cars negligently. The result? Serious truck accidents.
- Improper/unsecured loads: Sometimes things are not loaded properly into a semi-truck. The load may shift during hauling, causing the driver to lose control of the 18-wheeler. Loads on other trucks may not be secured properly and may fall off on the road, hitting other vehicles.
- Bad company practices: From negligent supervision to poor training, sometimes trucking companies just aren't run that well. As a team of experienced trial lawyers, we know which trucking companies have bad reputations for causing truck accidents.
To talk with attorney Mark Stapleton or one of our Rogersville, Tennessee, office staff about the causes of your truck accident, contact the Stapleton Law Office by calling 423-546-4046 or by completing our online contact form.
