Common Causes of Truck Accidents and How They Affect Injury Claims
You may remember a truck drifting into your lane, failing to stop, or striking your vehicle, without knowing why. The answer may be buried in hours of driving records, maintenance history, cargo information, or decisions made by a trucking company before you ever encountered the truck. Common causes such as driver fatigue, unsafe driving, loading problems, and poor maintenance can affect both who may be responsible and what evidence matters to your Colorado injury claim.
At the Law Office of Steven R. Smith, we help people injured in truck accidents across New York and Long Island, including Hempstead, Westbury, Mineola, and New Hyde Park. Finding out why a crash happened can help you identify whose conduct needs to be investigated and which records may help establish what went wrong.
Driver Fatigue Can Leave a Trail of Records
A truck driver who has spent too long behind the wheel may have less time and attention available to react when traffic slows, a vehicle changes lanes, or another hazard develops. When fatigue is suspected, the driver's work history before the collision can become an important part of the investigation.
Federal hours-of-service rules restrict how long many commercial drivers may drive. For property-carrying drivers, the FMCSA hours-of-service rules generally permit up to 11 hours of driving after 10 consecutive hours off duty and prohibit driving beyond the 14th consecutive hour after coming on duty, subject to applicable rules and exceptions.
Electronic logging data, driver records, dispatch information, and delivery schedules may help show how long the driver had been working. Those records can also raise questions about whether company scheduling or other practices contributed to the circumstances surrounding the crash.
Speed and Following Distance Can Make a Collision Unavoidable
A commercial truck needs room to respond when traffic suddenly changes. Excessive speed or following another vehicle too closely can leave a driver with too little distance to avoid a truck accident.
New York law requires drivers to follow other vehicles at a reasonable and prudent distance based on factors such as traffic, vehicle speed, and highway conditions. The state's following-distance law also contains specific requirements for motor trucks traveling behind other trucks or vehicles, or for vehicles drawing another vehicle, outside business or residence districts.
Photographs, video, witness accounts, vehicle data, and physical evidence from the scene may help establish how the vehicles were moving before impact. That information can be especially important when the drivers disagree about speed, distance, or the sequence of events.
Improperly Secured Cargo Can Contribute to a Crash
A truck's cargo can become a hazard when it shifts, falls from the vehicle, or affects the truck's balance. If loading or securement contributed to the accident, the investigation may extend beyond the driver to the people or businesses involved in preparing the load.
Federal rules require covered cargo on commercial vehicles to be properly restrained. The FMCSA cargo-securement rules generally require cargo to be firmly immobilized or secured and include additional requirements for certain types of freight.
Determining what happened may involve examining how the cargo was positioned, what securement equipment was used, and who loaded or controlled the load. These details can help identify whether the problem arose before the truck was even on the road.
Through our New York truck accident services, we can examine the circumstances of a collision and identify evidence that may help establish why it happened and which parties' conduct should be investigated.
Poor Maintenance Can Put the Truck Itself Under Scrutiny
Not every truck accident begins with a mistake behind the wheel. A problem with brakes, tires, lights, steering, or another vehicle system may cause a driver to lose control or be unable to avoid a collision.
When a mechanical problem is suspected, the truck's condition and maintenance history become important. Inspection reports, repair records, maintenance records, and information about previously reported problems may help show whether an issue existed before the crash and whether it was addressed.
The investigation may also need to determine who was responsible for inspecting or maintaining the vehicle. Depending on the facts, that could involve looking beyond the driver's conduct to decisions made by the truck's owner, operator, or another business responsible for relevant maintenance or repair work.
Evidence Can Explain What You Could Not See
What happened immediately before the impact is only part of a truck accident investigation. Commercial vehicles and trucking operations can generate records that reveal events and decisions you couldn't see from your own vehicle.
Depending on the circumstances, relevant evidence may include electronic logging information, vehicle data, inspection and maintenance records, dispatch information, cargo records, photographs, video, police reports, and witness accounts.
Not every truck accident will involve all of these records. The evidence that matters depends on the suspected cause. A fatigue claim calls for different information than a cargo-securement problem or suspected mechanical failure. Connecting the right evidence to the suspected cause can clarify how the collision occurred.
Comprehensive Legal Assistance
After a truck crash, you may have access to the police report and information about the driver but know little about the company, the truck's maintenance history, or the driver's hours before the collision. At the Law Office of Steven R. Smith, we can investigate those less visible parts of the accident and determine which records and parties may be important to your claim.
We look at the evidence behind the collision rather than stopping with the explanation offered at the scene. When responsibility is disputed, we are prepared to develop the case around the records, testimony, and other evidence showing how the crash occurred.
If you were injured in Hempstead, Westbury, Mineola, New Hyde Park, or elsewhere in New York or Long Island, our Long Island truck accident team can investigate what happened before the impact and how it may affect your injury claim. Contact the Law Office of Steven R. Smith to discuss the circumstances of your crash.