Trucking Accident Attorneys

Trucking Accidents Cost Money, Pain, Lives

Large truck accidents kill and injure over 150,000 Americans per year. If you're hurt in a rollover, jack-knife, rear-end collision or other accident with a "semi" tractor-trailer, an experienced personal injury lawyer at CGR&S may be able to help.

While large trucks comprise just 3% of the vehicles on the road, they are involved in over 25% of all passenger vehicle occupant deaths in multiple-vehicle crashes.

Yet car occupants are not the only people with high risk factors for death or serious injury in large truck crashes. Over 700 truck drivers also die each year when they get behind the wheel.

Large Truck Crashes: Too High A Price

The high rate of injuries and fatalities is not the only toll inflicted by large truck accidents, since a significant financial toll is also taken:

• According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the average cost per large truck crash involving an injury is $217,000.
• The average cost per large truck crash involving a fatality is $3.54 million.
• The total cost of all large truck crashes in the U.S. is over $ 34-billion per year. This constitutes a cost of $3,894,096 per hour.

Heavier Trucks More Dangerous

There is a dramatic increase in truck crash fatality rates with each extra ton of truck and cargo weight:

• Trucks weighing 80,000 pounds are more than twice as likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a truck weighing 50,000 pounds.
• A 100,000-pound truck travels 25% further after the driver steps on the brakes than will an 80,000-pound vehicle. And a 120,000-pound truck travels 50% further than an 80,000-pound vehicle.
• Heavier trucks have increased brake temperatures when traveling downhill. This may lead to total brake failure and runaway crashes.
• Heavier trucks have a higher center of gravity, and are more likely to roll over.

Learn more about trucking accidents in news articles.