Statistics seem to show that no matter what happens, traffic incidents--and car and truck accidents—just continue to increase. This is frustrating to many as the government, analysts, experts, and educators work so hard to disseminate information regarding safety. Manufacturers are also playing a significant role as they work to add impressive new safety mechanisms to vehicles. This is especially true for large trucks.
Last year though, the disturbing trend of a rising number of accidents in the trucking industry continued. Recent news shows that medium-sized commercial vehicles were at the greatest risk, and probably because there are so many more of them on the road.
Even with new safety mechanisms in place, including driver monitoring (which is meant to cut down on distracted driving and act as evidence in the case of an accident), the same issues arise repeatedly in causing accidents, from truckers texting and driving, to setting GPS coordinates, to larger issues like drinking and drug addiction that often plague the trucking industry too. Even worse though is one continued problem—an issue that just does not seem to go away no matter what measures are in place—and that is that truckers all around the country are just plain tired.
Fatigue plays a huge role in many accidents and fatalities, along with a lack of experience. This is all true especially as the trucking industry continues to have enormous demand from consumers but not a large enough, ongoing workforce to meet supply.
“Regardless of the type of industry a company works in, the accident count continues to rise,” explains Bob Martines, CEO/founder of Corporate Claims Management (CCM) in a recent interview. “This is especially true in the delivery service segment where the pressures for ‘on-time delivery’ create havoc for the fleet manager, the logistics manager, and ultimately the driver.”
Most trucking companies continue to work even harder in training their drivers regarding better safety habits, as well as employing telematics:
“Vocational fleets with medium- and heavy-duty trucks were among the early adopters of telematics technology. Today, the programs are a little more mature, impacting their approach to safety and how driver behavior is managed. Based on our data, the instances of fast acceleration, harsh braking, and speeding were down this year, particularly among the medium-duty segment. This trend may foreshadow future accident rates as a growing number of organizations place a greater emphasis on driver safety,” said Rich Radi, director, driver excellence for ARI.
Attorney Sgt. Pike has developed a system to combat the various forces in the trucking industry attempting to defeat the rights of those wrongfully injured or killed. Based on his training and experience as a Special Forces Operator (Army Green Beret), Attorney Sgt. Pike activates the Truck Accident Response Team or T.A.R.T. ™ immediately after being hired in appropriate cases. T.A.R.T. ™ then deploys to the area of the crash.
If you have been injured due to the negligence of others, please call the law offices of Andrew ‘Pike’ Piekalkiewicz, PLLC as soon as possible at (713) 748-7453 or visit AttorneySgtPike for a no obligation case review.
