Articles Tagged with truck accident lawyer

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Florida truck accidents can inflict catastrophic injuries, devastating families and imposing enormous costs on society as a whole. While debate is bubbling about driverless truck technology and other futuristic advances that might help us come close to ending truck accidents altogether, those visions are a long way from reality. Furthermore, there are some simple and far more cost effective ways to make trucks safer now. One of those, proposed by federal lawmakers earlier this year, is a mandate to install tractor-trailer side underride guards.

Consumer Reports noted in a recent article that such low-tech upgrade could save hundreds of lives annually by preventing smaller passenger vehicles from ending up partially or completely underneath the truck. It essentially works like a metal bumper, hanging from the sides and rear of the trailer so cars won’t get smashed underneath in the event of a truck accident.

In 2016, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported there were 250 deaths resulting from a vehicle smashing into the rear of a tractor-trailer and 305 that involved hitting a large truck from the side. Testing by that agency showed a side underride guard was effective in blocking a passenger vehicle from becoming wedged under the side of the truck when the vehicles were traveling at 40 mph. When side underride guards on trucks are strong, they can slash the risk of serious injury in approximately three-fourths of all cases. Many are calling for legislative action to make this a required feature on all large trucks in the U.S.  Continue reading →

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Now, The New York Times reports that self-driving trucks may be closer on the horizon than expected, a development that would not only revolutionize the trucking industry, it could make for fewer trucking accidents. 

According to the report, the venture capital industry has been investing heavily in self-driving technology. Just this year, investors and firms have placed over $1 billion into development of self-driving technologies for large trucks – and that is 10 times what was being invested three years ago. The potential for growth opportunity is exponential, though our Orlando truck accident lawyers know it may raise some interesting legal questions.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has noted an uptick in trucking accidents in recent years, rising 8 percent between 2014 and 2015. This upward trend poses a safety threat on Florida roads, particularly as the trucking industry has continued to grow with the rise of online shopping. Trucks – and their drivers – are increasingly called on to deliver goods and services, with a heavy demand placed on expedience.  Continue reading →

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A truck driver who logged 50 straight hours driving from Kentucky to Florida has been charged for a crash that occurred on the return trip, in which six people were killed and several others injured. It was also after the truck itself had two mechanical failures early on in the trip – one with the brakes, and another with the fuel delivery system.

The fatal crash occurred on I-75 in Tennessee – and this was after the trucker allegedly sideswiped another commercial truck while on that illegally long haul in Florida. He was purportedly high on crystal meth at the time of the second crash, authorities say.

Investigators say on the day of the fatal crash, the driver had only logged off work for 12 hours after his 50-hour shift and returned to the road. At that point, he’d been driving for 15 hours when, at 77-miles-per-hour in a 55-mile-per-hour zone, he slammed into traffic that had slowed ahead of a heavy construction zone. The truck driver struck numerous vehicles with his tractor-trailer. Ultimately, six people lost their lives and four others were seriously injured. Continue reading →

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One was a 17-year-old, just graduated from high school, on her way to the University of Miami in the fall. The other was a 29-year-old medical student, preparing to begin his clinical rotation this summer. Now, both are gone.

It happened on I-75 through Pembroke Pines, when a construction truck hauling concrete barriers pulled out into traffic on the fast-paced highway and into the path of the medical student. The truck was then struck by the vehicle driven by the 17-year-old, as concrete barriers flew out of the bed of the truck and onto her vehicle. Another large truck then barreled into the wreckage as well.

Authorities are investigating whether the concrete barrier truck, driven by a man whose commercial license had just been suspended and then reinstated days before the crash, was properly loaded and whether the driver followed proper procedure in exiting the construction site, located in the highway median.

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