In the musical Man of La Mancha, one of the characters notes that “whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher hits the stone, it’s going to be bad for the pitcher.” This can sum up the situation in most collisions between a tractor-trailer and a passenger vehicle. According to a study by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), when a large truck and a passenger vehicle collide, the risks of serious injury or death are often suffered by those in the passenger vehicle no matter what caused the accident.
According to the FMCSA study, nearly 400,000 tractor-trailer crashes occur in the U.S. each year. Although truck accidents are only 8 percent of the total car accidents each year, they account for 12 percent of car accident deaths. Researchers believe that the disproportionate number of deaths in truck accidents is due to the fact that trucks are usually heavier and larger than passenger vehicles. A fully-loaded tractor trailer may weigh up to 80,000 pounds, while the average passenger car weighs only about 3,000 pounds. In a battle between these two vehicles, catastrophic injuries and deaths are more likely to be suffered by those in the passenger vehicle.
The heavier weight of a semi truck affects more than just the impact of the crash. Heavy trucks need more space to stop, turn, and speed up. Giving tractor-trailers plenty of space is one way to help protect yourself and your passengers from being involved in a crash.
If you’ve been injured in a truck crash, the experienced Chattanooga truck accident attorneys at Massey & Associates, P.C. can help. Call us today at (423) 396-0720 for a free and confidential case evaluation.
Gary Massey, Jr., is a well-known courtroom advocate practicing law in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Gary is a native of Tennessee who began practicing law in 1998. He graduated from Cumberland School of Law where he was ranked in the top 3% of his class and was an editor of the Cumberland Law Review.
