Missouri Trucking Accident Lawyers

What causes trucking accidents?

The Hershewe Law Firm, P. C., of Joplin, Missouri, knows that truckers and drivers involved in trucking accidents brood over the haunting question: What caused the crash? Commercial trucks like eighteen-wheelers and other large freight carriers are a unique presence on roads and they present dangers that are also unique.

Most commercial truck drivers are professionals, well-trained, courteous and patient. But remember: they are trying to control a huge machine single-handedly, and the slightest error can provoke a trucking accident. The Hershewe Missouri truck accident attorneys believe that if you are aware of the common causes of trucking accidents, you can often avoid the situations that lead to those accidents.

Common Causes of Truck Accidents

One common contributor to trucking accidents is that often drivers of ordinary passenger vehicles are ignorant of a commercial truck’s performance capabilities, including limits associated with acceleration, braking and visibility. A truck may weigh 15 times as much as your car. You must be especially cautious when you share the road with commercial trucks, especially on highways at higher speeds. Private cars can make the highway hazardous for large trucks when their drivers:

• Crowd trucks and hang back in the areas behind and beside commercial trucks where the drivers has limited or zero visibility.
• Drive aggressively, causing trucks to brake or turn sharply.
• Fail to respond to truck drivers’ signals to change lanes or merge.
• Try to pass trucks in areas where passing is not safe.
• Fail to give trucks clearance to make right turns.
• Misjudge speed of oncoming trucks.
• Abandon vehicles in travel lanes, or failing to move disabled vehicles completely off the roadways.

When you drive a passenger vehicle on Missouri highways, the Hershewe truck accident lawyers urge you to remember that commercial truck drivers do make mistakes, are sometimes careless, and may be negligent. Truck drivers may be:

• tired or drowsy;
• distracted or inattentive to traffic;
• driving aggressively;
• driving with an unsecured load; or even
• using amphetamines.

Unfortunately, the Hershewe Law Firm trucking accident lawyers often find that commercial trucking companies themselves contribute to trucking accidents because they:

• don’t provide adequate training to their drivers;
• encourage more speed and more hours of consecutive driving than are safe;
• pressure drivers to meet unrealistic schedules; and
• fail to maintain equipment, including tires.

Attorneys who investigate truck accidents know that we cannot allow truck drivers or trucking companies to be careless or negligent. Drive safely, but if you are injured in a commercial truck accident in Missouri, please remember that The Hershewe Law Firm is ready to help you. In many cases, our truck accident lawyers can help you hold a trucking company responsible for an injury you or a loved one have suffered as the result of a commercial trucking accident.

Call the Hershewe Law Firm toll-free at 877-382-9734, or complete our web form.