November 27, 2017
It’s wintertime and you’ve parked downhill from a group of semi-trucks. “No problem,” you tell yourself. “They’re the safest drivers on the roads. Nothing can happen to my car.” But, then you walk off to do some errands and return only to find one of the trucks had rolled downhill and clipped your vehicle and destroyed others. Granted, the accident may be a fluke, but truck drivers are just human, and humans all make mistakes. And, it’s even permissible to believe that the driver could be blameless, and the actual cause of the runaway truck was due to a faulty parking brake.
In this blog, we’ll discuss and discover when truck drivers and others may be negligent in truck-related accidents.
Who is Negligent for Truck-Related Accidents?
Who’s at Fault When Trucks Cause Accidents? | Denver Truck Accident Attorney
There’s plenty of scenarios involving parked or poorly maintained trucks that cause accidents. We might not cover every scenario, but we’ll give a good cross-section of some typical truck-related accidents:
- One cable company’s repair technicians parked at the crest of a hill where it was posted for 40 m.p.h., and the driver only put up four cones for every 10 miles per hour. Unfortunately, what the truck driver didn’t account for was the icy-road conditions and the danger of being parked just over the crest of the hill. Some cars did slowdown in time to avert an accident, while others went off the road and still other out-of-control vehicles on the ice collided with others cars. It’s still too early to tell if the company will be found negligible, but they have already instituted a whole training program to deal with icy road conditions and better communications with other motorists.1
- A yard boss and a mechanic have both recently been convicted of manslaughter after one of their company dump trucks careened down a hill and hit pedestrians and parked cars following a brake failure. The truck’s driver was cleared of all charges. The dump truck, which was carrying aggregate, crashed into pedestrians and as it travelled down a steep hill in early 2015. Police called the incident a “catastrophic” brake failure. The accident took the lives of three males, ages: 59, 52 and 32; and one four-year-old girl.
- A runaway truck being loaded with construction materials crashed into a Hillsborough Forest Ridge subdivision home in North Carolina killing a five-year-old child. The child was playing with a group of children in the driveway at the time. Police reports claim a 28-year-old man was put in charge of the truck and faces a charge of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle. If convicted, the driver could face up to 60 days in jail and fines up to $1,000. If this isn’t the man’s first offense, he could be found guilty of gross negligence and fined much more for punitive damages.3
Most Common Cause of Truck Related Accidents
The following list is the most common causes of trucking accidents, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMSCA):
- Operator/Driver Error – Driver error is 10 times more likely to be the cause of an accident than any other reason.
- Equipment Failure – Design flaws, manufacturing errors and failure to provide reverse-detection warning are all considered types of equipment error.
- Weather Conditions – Trucks require more stopping room than other vehicles, due to their size and weight. They also can’t maneuver or steer as fast as cars.
- Unbalanced/Improper Load – When the load is wrongly stacked or the weight distribution is improperly configured, it can result in the load falling onto the road.
- Poor Choice of Truck Driver/Company – More and more shippers are hiring drivers who don’t have the quality of standards or training to perform the kind of work they are doing. Similarly, shippers aren’t doing enough background checking on companies to know if they meet FMSCA standards and regulations to get their jobs done properly.
Contact a Denver Truck Accident Attorney at the McLaughlin Law Firm, P.C.
Have you or a loved one been injured by a parked truck or a truck accident that involved negligence? If so, the Denver Truck Accident Lawyers at the McLaughlin Law Firm, P.C. are ready take your case and be the champion advocates for your rights. Our Denver truck accident attorney will aggressively litigate cases for victims so they can recover the compensation they may be entitled to under the law. With more than 35 years of legal representation for those who have been wronged by negligent actions, our lawyers have stacked up an impressive record of successes and dedication to getting victims the highest possible restitution in the form of settlements or jury awards for their injuries and losses.
Why wait? Come and meet with our knowledgeable and trusted attorneys to learn how we can best serve you and what your legal options are. Call today at (720) 420-9800 or email us using the form on this page.
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1“Parked Comcast Repair Truck Causes Multiple Accidents on Icy Road” published in CarScoops, December 2016.
2“Two guilty over fatal tipper truck crash in Bath” published in Sky News, December 2016.
3“Boy Killed by Runaway Construction Truck in Hillsborough Identified” published in 11 Eyewitness News, December 2016.
