Many drivers in Oklahoma find driving beside large trucks to be a stressful experience simply because of the size and mass of these large vehicles. However, they can pose a significant danger on the roads, especially because they are so much larger than the cars, bicycles or pedestrians with which they share the roads. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has released 2016 statistics showing that the number of fatalities from truck crashes continues to rise across the country, with a 3 percent rise in accident deaths between 2015 and 2016.
The rising number of truck accident fatalities is not new. While deaths in truck crashes declined by 34 percent between 2005 and 2009, most of those gains have since been eliminated. Between 2009 and 2016, deaths from these crashes have risen by 28 percent. While there are more deaths, there are also more total accidents; the number of trucks involved in these fatal incidents rose by 3 percent in 2016. In 2015, there were 4,074 trucks or buses involved in deadly collisions; that number grew to 4,213 one year later.
While some of the most frightening crashes are fatal, the majority of truck accidents cause property damage or injuries. These kinds of crashes have also seen a significant spike. There were 104,000 truck accidents that led to 145,000 injuries in 2016, an increase of nearly 30,000 over the prior year.
Truck accidents can have a severe impact on a person’s life and health; the types of catastrophic injuries these accidents can cause can have ongoing effects over the years. A personal injury may can help people injured in crashes seek compensation for the harms caused by another’s dangerous or negligent driving.