Texting and driving, or any type of distracted driving, causes a large number of accidents. Can you find out whether or not a truck driver was texting or not? With the evolution of modern data systems, it's actually easier than it ever was before, but it does require preservation orders. It requires actions by someone on your behalf to get the information. All of the cellular providers and the networks out there only maintain, or [...]
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently updated its information about its Under 21 Pilot Program. The FMCSA is part of the US Department of Transportation. The FMCSA established a pilot program several years in response to a federal law - Section 5404 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. The aim of the pilot program is to examine whether younger drivers, 18 to 21, should be allowed to operate a commercial motor vehicle cross-country [...]
Trucks are dangerous vehicles for many reasons, including their dimensions. The large height, width, and length of trucks make it difficult for small cars and motorcycles to see in front and around them. The extreme dimensions of trucks also make it much more difficult for the truck driver to see other vehicles – because most trucks rely on side mirrors and not rear-view mirrors to navigate through traffic. The most recent federal regulations for the dimensions [...]
Shortly after 6:30 a.m. on May 1, 2017, a semi-trailer, transporting material made from pine trees, rear-ended School Bus 2-H near the Avoca Baseball Field in Bristol, Tennessee. While no one was seriously injured this time (a silver lining), emergency responders sent five high school and middle school-aged students and the truck driver to hospitals for those injuries. Authorities believe that the crash was the semi driver’s fault. News Channel 11 reports that “Police said according [...]
Side underride crashes where a passenger car slams into and then slides under a large, commercial truck can be devastating, and almost always end with a fatality. The trucks sit so high off the road that many smaller passenger vehicles can end up crushed underneath the truck. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimates that approximately 200 people are killed every year in commercial truck underride crashes. The solution to this safety problem is one that [...]
When you get into an accident with another car, you could be seriously injured, or you could walk away with no long-term effects. When you are involved in a truck crash with an 18 wheeler, however, your chances of sustaining a life-altering injury are far higher. The sheer size of big-rigs means there could be literally tons of force bearing down on you in a crash. You might not even realize until much later – after [...]
Large commercial trucks were responsible for 3,964 deaths and 95,000 injuries in truck accidents in 2013 according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics. While driver error is the culprit in upwards of 90% of trucking accidents (that is either the driver of the commercial truck or the other vehicle involved), there are other factors that can contribute to truck accidents, and one of those is poor maintenance. Commercial trucks that weigh more than 10,000 pounds [...]
The future is here, and it came in the form of a self-driving tractor-trailer built by Daimler and sold by Freightliner Trucks. The Freightliner Inspiration is the first road ready, mostly autonomous semi in the country, and it gave the world a view of what it could do in early May when it traveled across the Hoover Dam. The Inspiration trucks – there are two – are licensed to travel in Nevada, but still require a [...]
When you live in Tennessee, you see commercial trucks every day – they’re all over the place. And after this past winter with so much unexpected ice and snow, a lot of them were literally all over the place. Perhaps these harsh winters play a role in why the U.S. Transportation Department is reporting higher numbers of large truck-related fatalities each year. According to the Insurance Journal, “the number of people killed in large-truck crashes increased [...]
The driver of a small pickup was killed in a crash in Murfreesboro in March when a dump truck crashed into it on Memorial Boulevard. Three vehicles were stopped in a line at an intersection when a dump truck struck the last vehicle in the line causing the third vehicle in the line to hit the second one, the second vehicle struck the first one, which then slightly hit a car in another lane. Two other [...]
