Danville, PA Truck Accident Lawyers
Each year, a great number of Americans hit the open highways in cars, Sport Utility Vehicle’s, and on motorcycles, right along side large commercial commercial transport trucks. Strangely enough, did you know that according to Road Safe America research, commercial truck drivers are only instructed to have mandated physicals every couple of years? Commercial truck drivers can drive 77 hours weekly, 88 hours in 8 days, or 330 hours per month. Little wonder then that the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board still places blame on driver fatigue as a possible element in 20-40% of truck crashes. Additionally, over a twelve month period, an investigation of truck driver fatalities conducted by The National Transportation Safety Board and The National Institute on Drug Abuse in states was carried out. Throughout this study, in depth drug screenings were performed on the blood of 168 fatally injured truckers. One or more drugs were observed in 67% of these fatalities, with 33% having detectable blood levels of psychoactive drugs or alcoholic drinks.
For a moment, juxtapose this with the U.S. Airline business, which supplies equal amounts of passengers and merchandise transportation each year. Pilots are required to have physicals conducted every 6 months, and fly on average 30 hours weekly, or 100 hours each month. They are regular alcohol and drug tested and some are terminated for positive test results. A pilot’s weariness threshold is regularly supervised to protect the public’s safety.
Even in the situation of light weight commercial aircraft, like the Cessna 172M, which is the most popular light plane in production as of yet with in excess of 43,000 flying in the skies above us. These planes, which are somewhere around equal in measurement and weight to a typical eighteen-wheel commercial truck, sustain only 1,600 crashes each year with fewer than 7 percent proving to be fatalities. From 1950 through 2009 there was a total of 1,300 lethal crashes involving commercial aircraft world-wide, for which a specific cause – such as pilot error, weather, or mechanical errors, could be attributed according to the PlaneCrashInfo.com database. Compare this to the fact that every sixteen minutes a man or woman is linked to a fatal commercial truck collision. That is equal to just about five thousand people killed on our streets and highways yearly, with over 114,000 persons injured in commercial truck accidents each year. Data from All America Auto Transport, a commercial truck driver industry Web site, stated that by 2020, more commercial vehicles carrying more tons of freight will mix with an increasing human population to strain the U.S. highway system, which is already struggling to keep pace. Having said that, at what cost to the rest of us on the roadways will this strain come?
When a large truck is involved in a major accident, a trucking company adviser is dispatched to the scene of the collision in order to confront the accident victim, thus taking full advantage of the stress induced vulnerability of the victim in the minutes post crash. This strategic move is to limit or mitigate the commercial company’s culpability against any claim.
You might also like to know that many states have statutes of limitation for filing a personal injury claim in truck accident cases. If you are wounded in this, or any type of automotive accident, you should seek out a qualified law firm such as Fellerman and Ciarimboil without delay. Filing a claim quickly allows fast and precise evidence gathering. This also helps to ensure your lawsuit is handled within the required time frame according to your states jurisdictional law. The rules pertaining to these filing due dates are complex, speaking to a lawyer skilled in commercial truck law quickly is imperative to facts gathering and protecting your rights. These cases will need legal experts familiar with Federal Motor Carrier safety procedures and regulations, as well as strong knowledge of fleet upkeep procedures.
You may think this allows for a great deal of time, but if you have been seriously wounded or if a death has taken place, this time can slip by swiftly. The person or entity at fault for causing the accident should be pursued for damages. This includes the truck driver and the trucking company, the owner of the trailer, the shipper, and any other contributory parties to the car accident.
