If we talk about the United States, the number of registered commercial truck drivers here is more than 3.5 million. No doubt, trucking has become a crucial part of the American economy.
However, at the same time, we can’t deny that the accidents caused by these trucks are incredibly horrible, dangerous, and life-threatening and often leads to fatality. In most cases, it has been observed that truck accidents occur due to the negligence of the trucking company.
As a result, many innocent people face horrible consequences, and some end up losing their lives. If you have been a victim of any such incident, then it is your responsibility to hire a professional lawyer to sue the trucking company. Below are some of the ways these trucking companies put everyone on the road at risk.
Not Choosing The Right Driver
The trucking company’s responsibility is to ensure that the person they are putting behind the wheel is responsible, licensed, and not drunk or impaired. There are several DOT testing requirements that help keep drivers safe and accountable while on duty.
To do so, there must be steps involved to do a background check as well as random drug tests to ensure that the drivers are competent enough to drive. Unfortunately, when the accident occurs because of the driver’s fault, he is either drunk, not screened for drugs, or not licensed.
Not Checking The Vehicle
Another way the trucking companies risk people’s lives and cause them harm is by not checking the vehicle properly. Every time a vehicle has to leave for transportation, it is the trucking company’s responsibility to ensure that the vehicle is safe to ride, has no technical or mechanical faults, and is perfectly fine to be driven on the road.
Improper Or Excessive Loading
The trucking companies, loading labor, and drivers must ensure that the truck is loaded correctly. Neither the truck must be overloaded nor loaded in an unbalanced manner. Improper or unbalanced loading can make it difficult for the driver to keep the vehicle under control.
Balancing issues can cause a lot of severe consequences, such as the flipping over of the entire truck on the highway. This may not only cause damage, death, or injuries to the truck driver but also disturb a lot of vehicles on the road.
Excessive Work Hours For Drivers
Excessive work hours can cause fatigue and drowsiness to the driver. Ideally, eight hours of continuous driving is more than enough for experienced drivers.
However, unfortunately, some trucking companies overlook this aspect and urge their drivers to drive for 10 to 12 hours at least. As a result, the drivers do not remain physically and mentally stable enough to stay awake and attentive, which causes dreadful accidents.
So these are some things the trucking company must take care of to avoid accidents on the highway. It is always better to focus on the little things because any minor fault in these large vehicles, like trucks, can create a lot of hassle and even cause severe injuries and life-threatening consequences.
The damage, injuries, and deaths such accidents have caused are immense if we go through some past truck accidents. Hence, there is no room for negligence at all.
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