It's a well-known fact that accidents on the highways take the lives of many Americans every year.
While some of these can be attributed to bad luck, an alarmingly high number of accidents can be prevented.
Accidents involving the larger trucks often have more complications involved.
This is because truck accidents involved massive vehicles carrying thousands of pounds of cargo and often destroy much more property and cause more deaths than an ordinary auto accident.
What are some main causes of truck accidents?
1. Driver Negligence
One of the leading causes of truck accidents is the negligence of the driver.
The primary reason truck accidents happen is because the driver is usually under some kind of pressure, either self-imposed or coming from their employer, to make their delivery within a certain amount of time and earn more money.
This sometimes causes the driver to take unnecessary risks on the road.
2. Bad Weather
Poor weather can occur pretty much any time of the year, although the winter driving conditions in many parts of the country are the worst.
Drivers of these big-rig trucks taking big loads from one end of the country to another often encounter high winds, heavy rain, and in the winter snow and ice storms.
Sometimes drivers are caught not prepared for conditions like these and are unable to make the vehicle adjustments necessary to prevent a truck accident.
3. Problems with Equipment and Overloading
Some truck drivers fail to keep their trucks maintained with the proper equipment which may cause them to be more susceptible to a truck accident.
One of the most important parts of an 18-wheeler truck is the brakes.
Because of the obvious consequences of a brake failure that can lead to a truck accident, it is absolutely critical that truck drivers maintain their brakes.
In fact, it is a requirement for newer trucks to be equipped with automatic slack adjusters that will kick in and pick up the slack if the brake pads are worn or the drums start to expand.
Yet many of the older vehicles on the road still have manual adjusters, which can be problematic and cause brake failure cause a truck accident if they are not checked regularly.
Other common truck equipment issues include poor tire pressure, broken lights, and lack of blind spot mirrors.