A number of different injured victims, as well as family members who have lost their loved ones in preventable trucking accidents, are claiming that the government is responsible for failing to give appropriate information and regulations for the trucking industry. Unfortunately, many different trucking accidents can be prevented either due to the negligence of the driver or the owner of the truck.
Getting support from a lawyer is essential if you have already suffered the consequences of a severe trucking accident. You shouldn’t have to cope with this serious issue, but you might not know where to turn otherwise.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that technology to prevent vehicle accidents has increased and become more popular on the market in recent years, trucking accidents continue to be a common source of fatal crashes. In fact, more than 4,300 people were fatally injured in collisions with large trucks in 2016, which represented nearly a 30% increase from 2009.
Many victims and family members of those who have been killed claim that the federal regulatory agency responsible for outlining new rules and regulations, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has failed to mandate changes over the past 20 years that could have prevented many of these severe rear end truck crashes. One recent investigation determined that repeated pleas lodged from the National Transportation Safety Board to the NHTSA were ignored.
The NSTB claims that there are many different actions that could be taken to preventing trucks in particular from rear ending other vehicles. Rear end accidents involving semi trucks are some of the most common types of accidents and yield devastating and severe accidents. The NSTB also believes that these are the easiest to prevent due to the use of technology. The Safety Board recommended at least 10 times since the 1990s that the NHTSA require mitigation systems and forward crash avoidance on all heavy trucks, but this has not become commonplace yet