Large Truck Accidents

Lee Coleman

Contributor

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

Sharing the road with large trucks is a situation that is often fraught with danger. As a driver of a passenger vehicle, your experience on the road requires you to be constantly alert and forces you to be prepared for unexpected obstacles such as construction work, debris on the road, and the changing speeds of other drivers around you. Large trucks have a higher fatality crash rate per mile traveled than any other vehicle.

The chances of a truck being involved in a collision that includes a fatality increases with each extra ton of weight over the 80,000 pound gross vehicle weight that is the federal limit. In fact, a truck weighing even 80,000 pounds is twice as likely as a truck weighing 50,000 pounds to be involved in a fatal incident. More statistical information may be found at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's website.

"Most deaths in large truck crashes are passenger vehicle occupants rather than occupants of large trucks. The main problem is the vulnerability of people traveling in smaller vehicles. Trucks often weigh 20-30 times as much as passenger cars."