Truck Rear-End Accidents Are Common
Every year there are around half a million truck accidents each year around the country. Approximately 20% of those are rear-end crashes; or, 125,000 crashes per year where the truck driver hits the back of the vehicle ahead of them.
What causes this? Why are nearly 350 truck rear-end accidents every single day? The Car Crash Captain looks at the causes, and what we can do to protect ourselves from being involved in a major wreck.
Common Causes of Truck Rear-End Accidents
Just like in a passenger vehicle, wrecks are often due to driver’s not paying enough attention to the road and the conditions. When we look into wrecks with big rigs, we find similar patterns. Common causes of this particular type of wreck include:
- Driving While Distracted
- Driving Under the Influence
- Driving Recklessly
Let’s dip into each of those a little more so we can understand what they entail.
Driving While Distracted is a Broad Concept
Most of the time we think of distracted driving as using a phone while operating a vehicle. Yes, that is the most common cause – texting and driving takes your eyes off the road for much longer than you realize. However, distracted driving also includes:
- Talking to other passengers
- Eating or drinking
- Fiddling with the radio
- Inputting coordinates into a GPS
Essentially anything that removes attention from the road can be considered distracted driving.
Driving Under the Influence
Fortunately, instances of drunk driving have decreased over the years. That doesn’t, however, mean we are safer out there. Distracted driving, and a surge in illicit medications that are supposed to make you more alert have taken the place of drunk driving.
Drugs and alcohol can both affect a driver’s ability to react on time. Some may see the hazard, but not process it quickly enough. Others may process, but perform the wrong action. Overall, it’s a matter that a truck driver should never operate under the influence of anything (caffeine may be acceptable).
Reckless Driving is a Big Category
Rather than break out each part of reckless driving and make it a separate category, we’ve put most of the other causes into this one. Reckless driving can include:
- Driving while tired
- Driving too fast for conditions
- Driving angry/road raging
- Blatant disregard for laws
Reckless driving is essentially driving in a manner that is unsafe for other drivers around. Speeding and running lights, is obviously dangerous. But often the large trucks will drive too fast for weather conditions under the assumption their size and weight will help them maintain control.
Establish Fault in Truck Rear-End Accident
Regardless of which reason the truck rear-ended you in an accident, the biggest priority is to show that you were not at fault for the wreck. Drivers and insurance companies will say or do a lot to avoid paying out a claim – sometimes going as far as blatantly lying about what happened.
Herbert Law Group is here to help you when it comes to a truck wreck. If you’ve been injured, your number one priority is to heal from those injuries. Let us handle the hard stuff, we’ll show that the rear-end accident was not your fault, so you can receive compensation that fully covers what you’ve gone through.
Let’s talk about what happened, and come up with a plan. Call our offices at 214-414-3808, or fill out the contact form on our site, and we’ll reach out to you.