The impactful force created by a moving vehicle can cause a serious injury to those in the hit car. If the impact were created by a semi-truck, the affected driver and passengers could suffer catastrophic injuries.

Special aspects of semi-truck accidents

Due to the size of the vehicle, the truck takes longer to stop. When it hits something, it creates a strong impact.Semi-trucks carry a large amount of insurance. Following an accident, the defense team for the trucking company has access to a large amount of money.

Trucking companies are expected to satisfy the established safety requirements:

• They should carry out background checks on drivers.
• They must do periodic evaluations on drivers and other employees.
• Drivers must not exceed the acceptable, daily amount of time behind the steering wheel.
• Drivers should not use alcohol or drugs while on-the-road.

A company that violates any of the above regulations provides a personal injury lawyer in Buena Park or Bell Gardens with grounds for claiming that the company’s truck should be held liable for the collision in which it was involved.

The variety of accidents in which a semi-truck might be involved:

A rear end collision, where the truck fails to stop in time and runs into the rear end of an automobile or other small vehicle. This can have tragic consequences, especially if the hit auto had one or more passengers in the back seat.

A side-impact collision: This can take place if a truck driver fails to see how close the truck is to the vehicle in an adjoining lane. Unlike a no-zone accident, the hit vehicle does not have to be moving in the same direction as the semi-truck.

Head-on collision: This might happen on the highway, if a driver were to pull into a lane in order to pass, and then discovered too late that a truck was approaching from the opposite direction, in that same lane.

Roll-over: This can happen when a driver loses control of a semi-truck, and the section with the cargo rolls over. The momentum created by that movement can cause the rolling motion to continue for several yards. It could also happen if a distracted driver veered into an adjoin lane, one in which a semi-truck was approaching.

No-zone accident: This can only happen with a truck. This type of incident requires a collision between a semi and a smaller vehicle, one that is traveling in an adjoining lane. The truck driver cannot see the smaller vehicle in the truck’s side view mirror.

The driver must move, in order to see the smaller vehicle. If the driver fails to make that required movement, the semi can collide with the tiny steel body on a set of 4 wheels.