Anyone in Ohio who drives a dump truck or ready-mix concrete delivery truck should know about the accident rates just released by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Focusing on 2016, the latest year for which they have statistics, the FMCSA has shown that severe accidents involving dump trucks (that is, severe to the point that the truck had to be towed away) went up 9 percent for a total of 8,206.
Tow-away accidents with ready-mix delivery trucks jumped up 9.6 percent to 838. As for accidents that resulted in injuries, dump trucks saw a 2.7 percent increase with 5,483 such cases in 2016, and ready-mix delivery trucks saw a 3.8 percent increase. The latter also experienced a rise from 33 fatal accidents in 2015 to 38 in 2016. Fatal dump truck accidents declined from 369 to 367 in that same period.
In the early 2000s, federal regulators and insurance companies were able to utilize new technologies and effective driver safety campaigns to lower the number of accidents among these special types of trucks. However, efforts to keep this up have stalled over the past decade.
Distracted driving and drowsy driving are two issues that factor into the increase, now a multi-industry problem. Experts say that another culprit is speeding, combined with the by-the-load incentives that many truck drivers receive.
When negligence is behind an accident, those who are injured through little or no fault of their own could be compensated for their losses. Of course, the degree of their fault will lower the amount they can receive. This is why victims who wish to file a claim might want a lawyer. A lawyer may opt to hire medical experts to show the extent of the truck accident injuries, and investigators might come in to gather the necessary proof of negligence. The lawyer can also handle all negotiations.