According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Large Truck and Bus Crash Annual Report, 658 fatalities occurred in Texas crashes involving large trucks in 2019.

The average semi truck is 20-30 times heavier than a passenger vehicle, meaning the injuries and devastation caused by trucking accidents is far greater than an everyday car crash. For that reason, our semi truck accident lawyers must prepare for these cases with a different approach that ensures you receive the best representation possible.

It goes without saying that in collisions between commercial trucks and the much smaller passenger vehicles, the injuries to car driver and passengers are often extremely severe. Commercial vehicles can cause devastating physical injuries in the event of an accident. These accidents can leave victims with severe physical consequences, such as traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, and perhaps wrongful death.

San Antonio’s Most Dangerous Highways

According to a 2017 study cited by Texas Monthly magazine, the deadliest roadways in San Antonio were:

  • Interstate 10 (I-10)

  • Texas State Highway Loop 1604 (Loop 1604 or the Charles W. Anderson Loop)

  • Farm to Market 2252 (FM 2252)

  • Interstate 35 (I-35)

  • Interstate 410 (I-410)

  • U.S. Route 90 (US 90)

  • Texas State Highway Loop 13 (Military Drive)

  • Culebra Road.

What Causes Texas Truck Accidents?

Truck accidents may result from a variety of circumstances or a combination of multiple contributing factors. In many instances, accidents occur after laws have been violated. Traffic violations that may lead to an accident include speeding, failing to yield, improper turning or lane changing and driving too closely to another vehicle. The risk of accidents from these law violations is greater with trucks than with passenger vehicles because trucks have more mass and corrective actions require more time and effort. There are many common causes of truck accidents on Texas highways:

  • Truck Driver Error

  • Employer Violations

  • Intoxicated Driving

  • Defects With The Truck

Driver Error on Texas Highways

Driver error is one of the more common causes of truck accidents. Driver error is often due to one or more of the following conditions:

  • Fatigue or sleepiness

  • Intoxication

  • Reckless driving

  • Improper loading / Being over the weight limit

  • Lack of training

Fatigue

Of these causes, fatigue is the leading cause of driver error. Several measures are in place to help guard against driving without sufficient sleep. Truck drivers are required to go off duty after 14 consecutive hours of driving, and they may not log more than 60 hours of driving in a seven-day period. In addition, drivers are required to go off duty for 34 consecutive hours after a seven or eight day duty cycle.

Improper loading / Being over the weight limit

Trucking companies often push drivers to haul as much freight as possible. This often leads to trucks being improperly loaded or loaded with so much freight that the truck is over the legal weight limit. While Texas law enforcement agencies try to stop this illegal practice, they can’t catch them all. Being over the weight limit can make it hard for truck drivers to stop. This can lead to rear-end accidents that are often deadly.

Lack of training

While all truck drivers on Texas highways are supposed to have the proper training, some trucking companies fail to provide required training and safety education to their drivers. The shortage of truck drivers in country has caused some companies to hire almost anyone they can find right off the street and put them on the roads with Texas families before they have sufficient training. Because of the great danger to the public that shares the road with the big rigs, it is important that drivers of these trucks are especially competent, adequately trained, and well-rested enough to safely operate their truck.

Delivery Truck Accident Lawyer

Delivery Truck Accidents

There are several things about delivery trucks that make accidents more likely than with other vehicles. First and foremost is that delivery truck drivers are often under time pressure. Companies like Amazon, FedEx, and UPS have strict standards on how much time it should take their drivers per delivery. Pizza restaurants sometimes guarantee that delivery will occur within a specific amount of time. Drivers nearing the end of the work day may find that they have limited time to get back to the company’s garage by closing time. The time pressure encourages drivers to speed and may impair the their concentration.

And while they may be considerably smaller than tractor trailers, delivery trucks still need more room than passenger vehicles to stop and to turn around. They are often loaded with thousands of pounds of cargo.

Other aspects of truck delivery that may cause accidents include:

  • Double parking the truck while making the delivery, which raises the risk of other vehicles ramming the truck, or pulling around it into the path of another vehicle

  • Backing up against traffic to reach a driveway or unloading area

  • Sudden and/or frequent stops

  • Cargo spilling out the truck’s doors or falling from its roof

  • Cargo exceeding the safe weight that the truck’s tires can support, causing blown tires and loss of control

  • Unbalanced or unsecured cargo that causes the truck to rollover or swerve

You Need a Team To Investigate a Truck Accident

Evidence about a truck wreck is crucial to establishing your right to recover from the driver, the driver’s employer, or the driver’s supervisor. The quicker you begin collecting that evidence, the better off you will be. That means that you need to get an experienced attorney involved as soon as possible before witness memories start to fade or the scene of the accident undergoes changes that make accident reconstruction difficult or impossible.

When a truck wreck occurs, it takes a team led by your attorney, working with other crash experts hired by your attorney to reconstruct what happened from the evidence at the scene: skid marks, police reports, photos of the position of the vehicles when they came to rest, the type and extent of vehicle damage, the type and extent of the personal injuries, witness testimony etc. This can help better determine the cause of the accident, which is the first step in establishing your right to compensation.

Free Case Evaluation

You’ve taken the first step to protecting yourself and your family. We hope you find the resources on this website useful to learn more about your rights under the law. That’s the first step.

Then, when you’re ready to take the next step…