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Have you been injured in an accident involving a commercial truck? Truck driving accidents are increasing in part due to driver behavior. Truck driving accidents cause traumatic injuries due to the size and weight of the vehicle colliding with a passenger vehicle or motorcycle. The crash victims often suffer life-threatening, permanent injuries that require years of medical treatment and physical therapy. Some victims of truck accident cases require ongoing personal care in addition to ongoing medical care.
It is crucial that you have an attorney who has experience handling commercial truck accident cases. Insurance companies are extremely aggressive when defending these cases. Gordon R. Levinson used to represent the largest insurers in North America. Now he uses that knowledge and experience fighting for injured and aggrieved people against the big insurance companies. Put his experience and insider knowledge on your side.
The Levinson Law Group accepts cases on a contingent fee. That means that if there is no recovery in your case you pay no fee. And in most cases, we even advance the costs. For your free consultation, call (760) 642-5475 today.
More Needs to Be Done to Reduce Truck Driving Accidents
A news report by the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA) urges states and the federal government to take actions to reduce the number of drugged driving incidents on our roads. Officials are concerned with an increase in the number of drugged driving incidents. This could be caused, in part, to the legal use of medical marijuana in 23 states and D.C. and the legalization of recreational marijuana in four states and D.C. Furthermore, the use of prescription drugs, especially painkillers, has quadrupled since 1999.
In a first-of-its-kind comprehensive report, the GHSA and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, provides recommendations for states to reduce drug-impaired driving. The recommendations include:
- Adopting innovative initiatives such as Ohio’s Drugged Driving = Done Driving program that educates young drivers about the dangers of drugged driving.
- Examine and update current laws and/or pass new drug-impaired driving laws to discourage drugged driving by creating stiffer penalties for drug-impaired driving convictions.
- Test all drivers for drugs who are involved in fatal accidents.
- Implement data tracking to determine if efforts are working to reduce drugged driving and, if not, to improve or modify efforts.
- Provide additional training in drugged driving to law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges.
Safety Advocates Work to Reduce Truck Driving Accidents in General
Safety advocates want the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and other federal agencies to do more to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries from truck driving accidents. The AnnaLeaha and Mary for Truck Safety advocacy group is named for two sisters who were fatally injured when their family’s vehicle was struck by a semi-trailer truck on a Georgia highway.
The family alleges the truck driver was fatigued from driving too many hours when the crash occurred. The family also alleges if the trailer of the truck had adequate underride protection, the sisters may not have died. The organization is promoting a petition asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to declare a Vision Zero policy aimed at reducing fatalities to zero.
Unfortunately, truck driving accidents occur for a variety of reasons including drugged driving and fatigued driving. During 2013, over 3,800 of the 30,057 fatal crashes involved at least one large truck or bus. Non-fatal truck and bus crashes accounted for 385,000 of the 5,657,000 crashes that year. Some of the reasons we see for truck driving accidents include:
- Speeding or other traffic infractions
- Fatigued or drowsy driving
- Impaired driving (drugs and/or alcohol)
- Improperly maintained trucks and/or trailers
- Faulty repairs
- Improperly loaded cargos
- Defective truck parts
Regardless of the reason for a truck crash, the victims should be compensation for their injuries and losses. That is where The Levinson Law Group (truck accident lawyers) can help.