18 Wheel Truck Accidents

Accidents involving 18 wheel trucks or tractor-trailers far too frequently result in deaths or serious injuries. About 700 heavy truck drivers and passengers in truck cabs die each year. In addition, almost 3,700 persons in cars and other passenger vehicles die annually in collisions with heavy trucks.

Rollover and Collision Truck Accidents

About two-thirds of the deaths and serious injuries in heavy truck accidents involve rollover or frontal collisions. In these accidents, investigators have found that the ejection of the driver from the cab, the crushing of the roof or front of the cab and the exterior positioning of fuel tanks were the main reasons why truckers died.

Government safety agencies report that multiple safety devices can reduce the likelihood of death or serious injury to truck drivers and cab passengers. These include front and side airbags.

Determining Why 18 Wheel Truck Accidents Occur

To determine why a heavy truck accident occurred, it is often necessary to preserve the truck in order to inspect it, along with interviewing witnesses and reviewing police reports. Factors that can contribute to a crash include the truck's speed and operation, weather and driving conditions and the truck's mechanical condition.

When examining the truck's mechanical condition, special attention must be paid to the truck's braking systems. Loaded tractor-trailers take 20-40 percent greater distance than cars to stop, and this difference is greater when trailers are empty. Accident data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that 30 percent of all heavy truck accidents are linked to brakes being out of adjustment. Braking performance depends on regular, sound maintenance.

18 Wheel Truck Accident Lawsuits

Families of truckers who have died and truckers seriously injured have charged in lawsuits against truck manufacturers that the doors and roofs of the trucks were defective because they did not adequately prevent the driver from being ejected from the cab. In other cases where the cab was crushed, it has been alleged that the cabs were not strong enough and the drivers were crushed to death when they should have survived the accident.

In addition, families of drivers and passengers in cars that have been killed in multi-vehicle truck accidents have filed lawsuits against truck manufacturers when defects in the trucks' mechanical systems resulted in the accident.

For example, in 2003, the children of a woman in Nebraska killed when a dump truck slammed into her car at a fast-food drive-through sued the truck's manufacturer, Freightliner LLC of Portland, Oregon. The children alleged that defective brakes on the dump truck led to the accident that killed their mother. After the accident, according to press reports, Freightliner voluntarily recalled 133,000 trucks with brake pins similar to the one thought to have failed in the crash.

Damages in these lawsuits have included general and compensatory damages for:

Contact An 18-Wheel Truck Accident Attorney | Lawyer: Lieff Cabraser

Lieff Cabraser represents persons across America who have been injured or killed as a result of defective vehicles. Please click here to contact a Lieff Cabraser attorney.

Alternatively, you may call Lieff Cabraser toll-free at 1-800 541-7358 and ask to speak to attorney Fabrice N. Vincent.