Truck Backing Accidents are preventable.
Statistics show that 25% of all trucking accidents involve backing up. Backing is an almost daily activity for most truck drivers and almost all of these accidents are preventable.
The standard of care is that a trucker should get out of the vehicle and scrutinize the area before backing. He should make sure he has room to maneuver and check for obstacles on all sides.
If possible, a spotter should be employed and both trucker and spotter should agree ahead of time on signals.
Mirrors should also be checked. A driver should never rely simply on the mirrors when backing.
There is now good technology available to allow a trucker to back much more safely.
Here’s a video one way such backing accidents occur and a safety device that can help prevent these accidents.
Hopefully, companies will retrofit their trucks for safety to avoid these frequent preventable accidents.
There are different types of backing maneuvers for trucks. A Straight back is as the name implies…just backing straight.
Offset Backing is backing up while moving to the lane to the right or left.
An Alley Dock is where a driver pulls straight forward and then backs up the truck to a position at a 90 degree angle to him, while staying within a zone of safety.
Parallel Parking.. A Difficult one even for seasoned truck drivers.
Point is, in Trucking School, Driver’s are taught the safe way to perform each of these actions.
I’m Ed Smith, a California Trucking Accident Attorney. Trucking accidents are almost always investigated promptly, so if you or a family member was seriously injured in a trucking accident,
call me immediately. In Sacramento, call 915-921-6400. Elsewhere call me at 800-404-5400.
My website is www.AutoAccident.com, the leading Web site on Motor Vehicle Accidents. Find out more about us on Yelp or on Avvo.