Learn the Causes of Commercial Truck Accidents

If you’re heading out for a family vacation or day trip this summer, you’ll have to compete for asphalt room with the large commercial trucks on the highway.

All the traffic makes it even more likely to get involved in a collision. If it’s with a big rig, you likely will not come out the winner of that match-up.

Top causes of commercial truck accidents

You may be able to keep yourself and your family safer by being aware of the reasons for semitruck collisions, including:

• Driver errors. In all trucking accidents, mistakes by the driver are ten times more likely cited as the cause of the collisions than all other factors.

• Nonperformance. Drivers suffer illnesses and medical emergencies like seizures or heart attacks behind the wheel. Others fall asleep and wreak deadly havoc.

• Faulty recognition. Something caused the driver to failed to adequately observe the situation, e.g., distractions, inattention or another reason.

• Poor decisions. Truckers may speed or travel too fast for weather or road conditions. They can also misjudge other vehicles’ speeds and follow them too closely.

• Performance errors. Sometimes truck drivers panic, overcompensate and cause their big rigs to go wildly out of control.

Sometimes, too, the blame can’t be laid solely on the drivers themselves. Perhaps they were poorly trained or were under dire instructions from the trucking company to exceed their Hours of Service on the road.

Regardless, if a truck driver’s or trucking company’s negligence has caused or contributed to your accident, you have the right to pursue compensation by filing a claim for damages in the Georgia civil courts.