A semi-truck colliding with a passenger vehicle could cause a catastrophic incident. Especially if the crash involves high speeds, the occupants of the smaller vehicle are at risk of severe injury and massive property damage losses.
Wrecks caused by semi-trucks occur for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, one of the drivers made a mistake. Other times, can be issues with the commercial truck that caused the crash. How can maintenance and repair issues contribute to semi-truck crashes?
Maintenance is crucial when vehicles are hard to operate
Proper maintenance is key to the safe operation of a vehicle. That statement is true for any type of vehicle, but particularly for large commercial trucks. A semi-truck takes longer to slow down and stop than a passenger vehicle. They are larger and more complex, with more systems that can potentially fail on the road.
Semi-truck drivers need to be able to trust that their brakes will work and that the vehicle is in safe driving condition when they pick up a load. Improper maintenance can mean that a variety of different issues arise in traffic. Truck drivers may not be able to respond effectively to changing traffic conditions when there are maintenance issues with a vehicle. Blow-outs or other vehicle failures could directly cause a wreck.
Statistically, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) acknowledges that 10% of the crashes caused by semi-trucks involved maintenance and repair issues. A commercial truck in sub-optimal operating condition may eventually be the reason that a severe crash occurs.
Understanding what causes semi-truck crashes may help people pursue compensation after a wreck caused by an 18-wheeler because an accurate determination of what caused a wreck directly impacts liability concerns in such cases.