Avoiding Texas Truck Accidents

Nobody wants to be involved in trucking accidents.  Trucking companies, insurance companies, and consultants spend millions of dollars to develop training and safety programs for truck drivers.  All the time and effort reduces the number of trucking accidents, but accidents still happen.

Many factors can contribute to a Texas truck accident, but the major causes of truck accidents are driver fatigue, mechanical failure, tire failure, and large blind spots.  Trucking companies try to combat driver fatigue by complying with federal laws that limit the number of hours a truck driver can be on duty.  The truck drivers are required to record their on-duty and off-duty hours in a log that is kept in the vehicle.  The driver logs are legal records and are subject to review and fines, if law enforcement finds violation of the on-duty laws or manipulation of the data.  This is some of the information that a Texas truck accident attorney would research it there was an injury sustained.

Preventive maintenance programs

Mechanical failures like brakes going out or turn signal lights burning out can be avoided by implementing thorough preventive maintenance programs and implementing procedures to check equipment before it goes out on the road.  Trucking companies have enough data to estimate how many miles a truck can operate before the brakes need to be replaced.  A preventive maintenance program will repair or replace mechanical parts of the truck before they become safety issues.

Drivers are required to perform safety checks on their vehicles before they go onto the roadways.  To avoid a Texas trucking accident, the driver, at a minimum, checks all the vehicle’s lights, tires, mirrors, and brakes to be sure they are all in working order.  Special attention is paid to the condition of the tires and the tire pressure.  Tractor trailers need brakes and the friction of the road on all eighteen tires to stop appropriately.  If the tires do not have proper treads or inflation, braking accidents can happen.

The length of tractor trailer units causes large blind spots for the drivers.  The use of mirrors on the cab and fenders of the tractor help reduce the size of the blind spots, but they cannot be eliminated completely.  Therefore, other vehicles should avoid driving too closely behind a tractor trailer and on either side of the trailer.  The rule of thumb is if you cannot see the truck driver’s face in one of his mirrors, he cannot see you.