Category Archives: Trucking Accidents
Wrecks Caused by Trucks Parked on the Side of the Road
Working as a truck driver is not an easy career choice. Long hours hauling cargo can exhaust even veteran truck drivers, and it is also not uncommon to get a little lost when the GPS is not fully functioning. As such, truckers often pull off the side of the road to stop their vehicles… Read More »
Does Adaptive Cruise Control Make Roads More Dangerous?
Auto technology has come a long way in the last few decades, including the advancement of standard cruise control to adaptive cruise control (ACC). ACC is a system that automatically adjusts a car’s speed to keep a safe following distance and remain within the set speed limit. Sounds safe and convenient, right? Unfortunately, several… Read More »
Trucking Accidents: The Low Down on No-Zones
All semi-trucks have significant blind spots in the back and along the sides of the truck that represent the danger areas where crashes are more likely to occur. No-zones are blind spots where the truck driver virtually cannot see a car, despite the fact that it is traveling behind or beside the truck. Turning… Read More »
The Importance of Increasing Trucking Insurance Minimums
Crashes involving commercial trucks can cause severe and long-term injuries to drivers and occupants. The cost of lost wages, hospital stays, surgeries, physiotherapy, and various other necessary past and future medical care can easily exceed $1,000,000. Commercial truck insurance minimums need to provide adequate liability coverage for these crashes, but the current minimum liability… Read More »
Suspension of Trucking Safety Laws Will Remain Until End of Year
A suspension of trucking safety laws has been extended due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s unclear when things will return to normal, and the suspension is valid at the federal level through the end of 2020. The suspensions, which began shortly after COVID-19 started to spread around the United States, are designed to ensure… Read More »
Suspension of Trucking Safety Laws Extended
Back in March, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) suspended Hours of Service (HOS) laws. The agency’s decision, made after President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency in response to the coronavirus pandemic, was to support commercial motor carriers and truck drivers transporting goods and services for COVID-19… Read More »
Trucking Safety Laws Suspended for COVID-19
For the first time in history, trucking safety laws that have been around since 1938 have been temporarily suspended at the federal level due to the COVID-19 virus. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a national emergency declaration in March suspending hours-of-service (HOS) laws for commercial truckers delivering… Read More »
Final Trucking Compliance Deadline for ELD Safety Mandate Comes Dec. 16
Dec. 16, 2019, is the final compliance deadline for the federal electronic logging device (ELD) mandate affecting the trucking industry. ELDs, or electronic logging devices, log commercial truckers’ hours for when they’re on-duty and driving, on-duty but not driving and resting. The final version of the ELD mandate was published in 2015, with an… Read More »
Overall U.S. Highway Traffic Deaths Down in 2018, But Large Truck-Involved Crash Fatalities on the Rise
On Oct. 22, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released fatal highway crash data for 2018, which brought some promising news. The total number of fatalities declined by 2.4%, decreasing from 37,437 deaths in 2017 to 36,560 in 2018. Unfortunately, however, the downwards trend was not universal across every category: the number of… Read More »
Proposed Hours-of-Service Regulation Changes Decrease Trucking Industry Safety
On Aug. 14, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a notice containing five key proposed changes for the Hours of Service (HOS) standards that regulate truck operations across the nation. The stated goal of the proposed changes is to “enhance safety by giving America’s commercial drivers more flexibility… Read More »