As a Sacramento Trucking Accident lawyer since 1982, I’ve had occasion to represent pedestrians injured in trucking accidents on many occasions. Fatalities resulting from collisions between truckers and pedestrians represented 4 percent of all accident-related fatalities in 2012.
5000 trucks are involved in fatal accidents every year. The tractor with semi-trailer is the most common vehicle involved, Pedestrians are killed at the rate of 350 plus a year and bicyclists at the rate of around 70 per year. Men account for around 70 percent of the people injured by trucks annually.
The peak time for pedestrian truck accidents is 3PM thru 6PM, but most fatalities occur from 5:30 until 11 PM.
A truck driver who is moving through an area with high pedestrian traffic has a duty to reduce his speed as he moves through the area.
It’s more difficult to see a pedestrian if a truck is moving at a higher speed, and a trucker has less time to react and stop his vehicle at a high speed.
Furthermore, the wind speed a heavy truck creates if it passes a bicyclist or trucker can contribute to a serious accident.
The higher the truck speed, the more serious the resulting injury to the pedestrian as well. A pedestrian struck at 40 MPH has an 85 percent chance of being killed and that goes down to 45 percent if the truck is going just 10 miles slower. (30MPH)
Truckers, as professional drivers, need to be alert for younger and older adults, skateboarders, bicyclists and others who may be less aware of the dangers of heavy trucks in the area.
Commercial Insurers of trucking companies have 24 hours round the clock teams of adjusters and investigators that immediately visit the scene of an accident and try to do maximum damage control before anyone representing the injured pedestrian or family of a killed pedestrian can get out there.
I’m Ed Smith, a Sacramento Trucking Injury Attorney with the primary accident information site on the web, www.AutoAccident.com.
If you or someone you love has been in a trucking accident, call me now at 916-921-6400.
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