For many Pennsylvania drivers, the fear of having a crash involving a large truck or bus can be very real. With the large size and mass of these vehicles, they have a significant potential to cause serious physical harm to other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists on the road in an accident. In addition, the number of fatal crashes involving large trucks is on the rise across the country, according to statistics released by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The report shows an ongoing trend over several years of increasing fatal truck accidents. From 2005 to 2009, trucking accident deaths declined significantly with an overall decrease of 34 percent. However, those gains are being reversed. Between 2009 and 2016, the number of fatal crashes has once again risen by 28 percent. In the last year studied, from 2015 to 2016, the number of deadly accidents that involved buses or large trucks increased by 6 percent. The number of trucks involved in such crashes also increased; while there were 4,074 commercial vehicles involved in fatal accidents in 2015, there were 4,213 in 2016.
Fatal crashes are not the only kind of accidents that are on the rise, however. Accidents that cause injuries rather than deaths are much more common and can frequently lead to catastrophic damage. In 2016, 145,000 people were injured in truck collisions, an increase of nearly 30,000 from the prior year.
Truck accidents can have devastating results for their victims, many of whom are injured as a result of someone else’s dangerous driving behaviors. People who have been injured in a truck accident may want to consult with a personal injury attorney. A lawyer may help people seek compensation for the damages they have suffered, from medical bills to lost wages.
