Commercial trucks are often the reason of hazard for other drivers on the road. Due to their size and weight, they come to a full stop slower than other vehicles and cause a serious multiple vehicle collision. The sad statistics shows that passenger vehicles are also involved in major commercial trucks accidents.
A Michigan lawyer, Aaron Larson, names a number of reasons that cause these accidents. One of them is a driver's fatigue. There are federal regulations on the number of hours and miles on the road, driving start and stop times, and hours of sleep for commercial trucks drivers. However, many of these rules and regulations are ignored by drivers.
According to the federal regulation, commercial trucks drivers must drive no more than eleven hours a day. The break after accumulation eleven hours a day is to be no less than ten hours. A weekly rest period is no less than thirty four hours.
The second reason of why commercial trucks and mobile billboard trailers can be dangerous is an improperly secured load, as it can shift during the transit. Overloaded commercial trucks or trucks, carrying loose loads under a tarp, have more chances to be involved in an accident.
As any other vehicle, commercial trucks need a proper maintenance. A poor maintenance and mechanical failures is another reason of the commercial trucks' hazard. Commercial trucks drivers should regularly check all safety equipment (brakes, truck lights), as well as perform a complete pre-trip inspection of their vehicles.
The frequency of accidents, caused by commercial trucks drivers, depends much on their speeding. Unfortunately, drivers try to deliver their loads as quickly as possible and often ignore the speed limitations.
There is also a number of additional unsafe driving factors that lead to accidents. They include driving outside of the designated truck lanes, weather conditions, aggressive driving, driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol and many others.
A number of accidents that involve commercial trucks are caused by other vehicles drivers. The reasons can be various: ignoring the trucker's blind spot (despite the fact that some commercial trucks can have a huge blind spot, many drivers try to pass them); sudden braking (commercial trucks require a long braking distance before a full stop); lane changes (if a driver performs a sudden lane change in front of a truck, he creates a risk of an accident); cross-wind (drivers of other vehicles can be shielded by a truck from the wind. Thus, when they try to pass a truck, a sudden gust of wind can cause an accident); tailgating (there are many drivers, who rear-end commercial trucks). If the front of their vehicle passes below the truck, it may deprive them of the benefit of the front-end crumple zone. They can be with the windshield only a short distance from the driver's face.
Commercial trucks are usually equipped with metal bars, welded to the back of a truck below the chassis to prevent underride. Nevertheless, they cause a lot of decapitations; that is the reason why they are often called "guillotine guards".