A 2013 study published in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion captured how truckers are to blame for 11% of all fatal crashes despite tractor-trailers only accounting for 8% of all motorists on the road at any given time in the U.S.
The researchers discovered that certain factors tend to be more responsible for these truck-involved crashes than others.
Common contributing causes of truck accidents
The study’s authors combed the records of 1,134 tractor-trailer accidents as part of their research. What they found confirmed many of their suspicions and led to a few surprises.
Here’s what they found:
- A driver’s alcohol and drug use often results in some of their most severe truck-involved accidents.
- Distracted driving is another major factor behind many truck wrecks.
- A trucker’s risk of causing a potentially fatal accident increases by 50% the faster they travel over 45 miles per hour (MPH).
- Inclement weather, unsurprisingly, enhances a trucker’s risk of fatal crash risk.
- Large trucks are more likely to be involved in wrecks than smaller ones, likely because of their bigger blind spots.
What may surprise many, however, is that researchers also learned that a driver’s gender plays a role in accidents. Male truckers are most apt to drive aggressively or chance driving while intoxicated or drowsy. As a result, male truckers’ crash-fatality rate was seven times more likely than that of non-impaired drivers.
Tractor-trailer crashes often result in life-altering injuries
A truck and a passenger car don’t make for a good match. Motorists often suffer spinal cord, brain or compression injuries or amputations in crashes between these two vehicles. Others simply don’t survive them.
You’re sure to require a lifetime of medical care if you were fortunate enough to survive such a serious crash here in Mobile. An Alabama attorney can advise you how to hold the negligent trucker and their employer accountable for forever changing your life.