Heavy truck accidents in connecticut

Among the worst traffic accidents that New Haven personal injury lawyers encounter are those involving large trucks. People who drive passenger cars don’t need a degree in physics or engineering to understand that when a 40,000 pound truck collides with a 4,000 pound car, the occupants of the car are likely to suffer devastating injuries.

Truck traffic is so extensive in Connecticut that the state has seven of the nation’s worst “truck bottlenecks” as determined by the American Transportation Research Institute, including the I-91/I-95 interchange in New Haven. Bottlenecks may be responsible for accidents when trucks fail to slow down in response to changing conditions, but heavy truck accidents can happen anywhere that trucks travel.

Crash Data

When crash statistics are adjusted for population, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) reports that in 2014, Rhode Island had the fewest fatal crashes involving large trucks (those that weigh more than 10,000 pounds) while North Dakota had the most. Rural states tend to have more heavy truck fatalities than more urbanized states, which explains why Connecticut’s safety record is better than that of most states.

Still, hundreds of victims in Connecticut are injured every year in collisions with heavy trucks. More than three-quarters of all injury victims of accidents involving large trucks are occupants of passenger vehicles. Another 11% are pedestrians or bicyclists.

In 2015, about 15% of all fatal Connecticut accidents involving large trucks occurred in New Haven County. Nationwide, about 31% of fatal accidents with a large truck involve head-on collisions, usually caused by the truck driver crossing a centerline. Another 11% occur in intersections when trucks run a red light or fail to yield.

Passenger car occupants are more likely to survive a collision with a heavy truck when they are sideswiped, forced into another lane by a truck that is merging from an onramp, or struck by a truck that is backing up. Drivers and passengers are also more likely to survive when they rear-end a truck. Those accidents are sometimes the fault of the car driver, but collisions often occur because a truck has jackknifed or stopped unexpectedly on a highway.

Causes of Large Truck Accidents

Not all crashes involving a large truck are the truck driver’s fault. However, a study by the FMCSA found that the following factors are significant causes of large truck accidents:

Poor driver decisions. Speeding, aggressive driving, and tailgating account for nearly half of all traffic accidents caused by truck drivers.

Inattention. More than a third of all collisions caused by truck drivers result from the driver’s failure to react to changing conditions, such as slowing traffic. Drivers may be dialing a cellphone, examining a map, filling out paperwork, or looking at anything other than the road while driving.

Driver fatigue. Sleeping at the wheel occurs in a relatively small percentage of accidents, but fatigue may contribute to inattention or poor decision-making. The law limits the number of hours a truck driver is allowed to drive in a day, but no law can force a driver to get an adequate amount of sleep or rest.

Other factors. Mechanical problems (such as brake or tire failure), lack of skill (failure to maintain control of the rig), drug or alcohol use, and environmental factors (weather and poor road conditions) all contribute to a significant number of truck accidents.

Any time a driver’s carelessness contributed to the collision, the driver and the driver’s employer can be held responsible for resulting injuries or death. A trucking company can also be held responsible for accidents that result from mechanical failures, since those problems are almost always attributable to a failure to inspect or maintain the company’s vehicles. In addition, trucking companies can be held responsible for hiring or contracting with unqualified or poorly trained drivers.

Catastrophic Injuries

Not only are heavy truck accidents more likely to be fatal than other accidents, they are also more likely to result in catastrophic injuries. A catastrophic injury is one that changes a life in a drastic way. Examples of catastrophic injuries include serious brain injuries, amputations, and partial or full paralysis.

Fortunately, trucking companies usually carry adequate insurance to compensate victims of catastrophic injuries. No amount of money will restore the victim to the life that he or she enjoyed before the collision, but compensation can prevent the victim from becoming a burden to family members while improving the quality of the victim’s life.

In addition to replacing a lifetime of lost income and paying for a lifetime of medical care, compensation for a catastrophic collision injury might include the cost of remodeling a home to make it wheelchair accessible, the expense of in-home caretakers, and the cost of any rehabilitative programs that might benefit the victim.

When heavy truck accidents cause catastrophic injuries, death, or other injuries in New Haven or elsewhere in Connecticut, the personal injury lawyers at Dolan Injury Lawyers, PLLC provide caring and experienced representation to victims and their families. We ease the worries of our clients by negotiating aggressively to maximize the settlements they receive, or by using our trial skills to persuade juries to recognize the need for justice.