Kentucky’s varied roadways comprise key transportation corridors for the flow of goods and services both inside the state and across the country.
For Louisville and other areas spanning the state, that means trucks.
Big trucks.
And lots of them. Kentucky drivers and other occupants in passenger vehicles routinely negotiate traffic on streets, highways and interstates alongside trucks that dwarf them in size and power. A Kentucky legal source on commercial vehicles and adverse crash outcomes linked with them underscores their ever-present nature. And it stresses their sheer variety, noting that big trucks come in a broad range of configurations, including these:
- Wide assortment of 18-wheel rigs
- Tractor trailers
- Delivery vehicles (FedEx, UPS, Prime and more)
- Tanker trucks
- Emergency vehicles
- Construction trucks
As different as those trucks are in form and purpose, they share this common attribute: They routinely – and quite literally – drive catastrophic results when they collide with other vehicles.
Many factors contribute to truck crashes and adverse outcomes
Large trucks have an ever-ready potential to inflict devastating consequences in roadway collisions, for these and additional reasons:
- Sheer mass (a Kentucky police website defines a truck “as a vehicle with a registered weight of 10,000 pounds or more”)
- Comparatively lengthy time required to stop or even slow appreciably
- Prominent blind spots that limit drivers’ vision
- Maneuverability that is greatly reduced in comparison with a passenger vehicle
- Lapsed maintenance/repair that can undermine safe operation
- Improper loading contributing to instability
- Excessive scheduling constraints that can pressure drivers
- Confirmed industry problem with driver impairment tied to alcohol and/or drug use
How serious are truck crash injuries across Kentucky?
There is no sugarcoating the stark and heavy toll that truck collisions take in Kentucky on other motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians. The above-cited government website spotlights the downsides, noting this information relevant to a recent year:
- More than 10,600 truck crashes (that equates to about 30 on an average day, every single day of the year)
- 116 deaths
- Nearly 1,600 non-fatal injuries
- Contributing factors encompassing everything from faulty steering and defective brakes to excessive weight and load-securement lapses
- Fatal injuries occurring on every type of roadway
- Victims from every demographic
Parties injured in truck crashes (as well as surviving family members in a wrongful death matter) are far from powerless in the wake of a negligence-tied truck collision. Indeed, they can pursue a meaningful legal remedy marked by maximum compensation applicable to many needs.
A proven personal injury legal team can provide further information and work diligently to secure an optimal result following a truck collision or other motor vehicle crash.
