Maryland Truck Accident Attorneys

Types of Truck Accidents

Some causes of major truck accidents are:

Mechanical brake failure

During extensive travel or commutes on steep grades, truck brakes can heat-up and potentially fail at crucial moments. Poorly maintained vehicles, older vehicles, improperly loaded rigs, or rigs that have been over-driven on rough conditions can all be susceptible to brake failure. Often, this scenario results in the truck rear-ending other motor vehicles or driving them off the road or into other lanes. Brake failures that occur on steep grades (+10%) tend to lead to more severe Maryland truck accidents.

Falling debris accidents

Trucks that carry improperly loaded, stored, or restrained materials can cause all manner of roadway accidents. If a piece of furniture flies out the back of a moving truck onto the highway, for instance, it can cause a sustained hazard to the cars behind it. Trucks carrying cargo susceptible to blow away (e.g. building debris or shrub brush) can also wreak havoc on the roads. For instance, if a truck loaded with ash debris releases its cargo, it can spawn a minor dust storm that can blind drivers.

Blind spot/no zone crash

Modern rigs come equipped with mirrors and other safety devices to provide perspective, but most trucks still have enormous blind spots. A trucker who fails to look before switching lanes, for instance, can easily clip a car that's crept up into the blind spot.

Rear-end smash ups

The greater a truck's momentum, the more force there is required to slow the vehicle down. Stopping distances increase exponentially with speed. A 16-ton rig traveling along at 32 miles-an-hour can be stopped in roughly 30 meters. That same truck traveling at twice the speed will require more than 120 meters to slow to a stop. A sizeable percentage of all trucking accidents involve some sort of stopping distance failure.

Rollover

Since trucks are massive, one might imagine they would be difficult to tip over. But rigs often have high centers of gravity. From a physics standpoint, this means that these vehicles are easier to flip and harder to control. Rollovers can happen in all kinds of situations:

• a trucker takes a curve too fast
• improperly backs out of a jackknife
• catches a wheel on grass or rough pavement
• jerks to avoid an accident

Jackknifing

Jackknifing involves the failure of the steering axel brakes. The driver loses control of the directional motion of part of the vehicle, and this in turn throws off steering stability. Jackknifing can cause horrific accidents, particularly since rigs that veer out of lane can clip oncoming traffic moving at speed.

To get help with your Bethesda truck accident case, look to Alpert Schreyer. This Maryland-based firm has a proven track record of providing injured accident victims with aggressive legal counsel. For more information about our attorneys visit maryland-truckaccidentlawyer.com, or call 1-800-489-1577 to schedule a free case evaluation with one of our legal professionals.