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The roadway dangers of large trucks in Pennsylvania

Posted in Truck Accidents on Friday, November 28, 2014.

Large trucks pose risk, danger and hazards to the motoring public in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for different reasons. Some truck drivers are inadequately supervised and trained by employers. Additionally many truck drivers violate federal trucking regulations regarding the permitted number of hours for uninterrupted driving. Truck accidents involving cars are almost always fatal because commercial trucks are heavier and larger than passenger vehicles, which contributes greatly to the number of fatalities and injuries that have occurred in Pennsylvania roads and across the United States.

In fact, traffic safety facts recently released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated that thousands have lost their lives from crashes involving large trucks. According to that report which analyzed data for 2012, 333,000 large trucks were involved in traffic accidents, which resulted in nearly 4,000 fatalities and more than 100,000 injuries. Additionally truck accident fatalities increased four percent from 3,781 in 2011 to 3,921 in 2012. Of these, 73 percent of fatalities involving trucks were with passenger vehicle occupants. This finding showed that passenger vehicle occupants are most vulnerable to injuries and fatality when a car and truck collide.

Truck accident injuries were also up 18 percent in 2012. Again, 73 percent of the injuries came from occupants of non-truck vehicles with a quarter of the accidents involving large trucks. When it comes to large truck accidents by the state in 2012, a total of 1,800 fatal accidents occurred in Pennsylvania with 175 of those accidents involving large trucks. About 10 percent of all fatal accidents on Pennsylvania roads resulted from truck accidents, which is two percent lower than the national average.

Large trucks play a critical and important role in supplying goods to commercial retailers here and abroad. Recent findings from NHTSA 2012 report, however, showed that this important role also poses dangers and risks to the general driving public. It also illustrates the responsibility of truck drivers and trucking companies to operate safe trucks.

Source: NHTSA, “Large Trucks,” Accessed on Nov. 18, 2014