Fort Myers trucking accident lawyer

Large truck crashes are on the rise throughout the U.S., according to a new report by federal safety regulators. This news comes just as trucking industry lobbyists have begun pushing hard for relaxed safety rules on things like hours of service and CDL age requirements to combat supply chain snags and driver shortages.

Fort Myers, Florida truck accident lawyers at Garvin Injury Law were troubled to learn that fatal accidents involving large trucks (those with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000+ pounds) reached nearly 4,500 in a single recent year. That’s the highest it’s been since 2005 when overall crash rates were at record highs. Factor in buses, and that figure shoots up to 5,230. About 1 percent of the total 550,000 large truck accidents reported each year are deadly, per the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). However, the number of fatal crashes has gone up, even as the overall number of accidents has slightly fallen.

We also can’t overlook the fact that even when truck crashes aren’t deadly, people are frequently suffering injuries that are extremely serious if not catastrophic. There were 160,000 large truck crash injuries reported in 2019. Data shows us time and again that when someone is hurt or killed in a large truck accident, it’s the occupants of other vehicles – not the trucker – bearing the brunt Pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists are also at high risk.

As for when/where large truck crashes are most likely to occur, the FMCSA gives the following breakdown:

57 percent of all fatal large truck crashes occur in rural areas.
25 percent occur on interstate highways, like I-75.
13 percent fell in both categories, occurring on rural interstate highways.
36 percent of all fatal truck accidents and 22 percent of all injury crashes occurred between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
83 percent of fatal trucking accidents happened on weekdays.

The largest percentage of drivers involved in fatal truck accidents are between the ages of 46 and 55. Continue reading