Holiday Season Can Lead to More Trucks and More Accidents

Truck Accident Claims

Written by Jeremy D. Earle, JD

May 14, 2023

How Holidays Cause More Truck Accidents in Colorado Springs

According to the National Highway Safety Administration, roughly 3,903 people were killed in heavy truck accidents in 2014, with an estimated 110,000 people wounded. Many of these accidents happened over the Christmas season when the roads were clogged with huge trucks. There are various reasons why the holidays may create such hazardous circumstances for road travel. Take into account the following:

More On the Roads, There Are Trucks. To fulfill Christmas clients’ demand, retail businesses must be adequately supplied with merchandise throughout the holiday season.

As a result, short-haul and long-haul truckers are particularly busy throughout the Christmas season to meet merchant requests. Truckers must work longer hours and fulfill strict deadlines, negatively impacting their health and alertness.

More people are shopping online than ever before, and they want their shipments to arrive on time. Major online retailers such as Amazon and eBay depend heavily on logistics to earn money and retain clients. Consequently, FedEx, UPS, and USPS drivers are constantly assaulted with parcels to deliver and must adhere to rigorous deadlines to assure timely delivery.

There are more drivers on the road. In addition to an increase in trucks on the road, the holidays saw an increase in the number of drivers on the road. Friends and relatives from out of town come to visit. People go shopping for Christmas sales at local malls or retail businesses.

Seasonal employees go to the malls for jobs. For the winter vacation, students are not in school. At all hours of the day and night, Uber and Lyft drivers zoom about picking up clients. There are more drunk drivers on the roads due to more Christmas parties.

Stress Levels Have risen. Commuters, like truckers, are dealing with the holiday stress of combining work and personal responsibilities. Before the end of the year, office personnel must satisfy deadlines. Retail establishments are strewn with procrastinators shopping for last-minute presents.

People want to come home from work and spend time with their loved ones. There will be more traffic on the roads if more drivers are. Nobody likes being stuck in traffic, and this dislike may turn into road rage. Cutting off a tractor-trailer on the highway may be dangerous. Therefore everyone on the road must drive cautiously.

When large commercial trucks, semis, tractor-trailers, and tanker trucks collide, they all can cause significant casualties. In certain cases, these injuries are permanent and negatively influence a person’s quality of life.

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Statistics on Truck Accidents

A truck accident is more likely to end in death or injury than a collision between two cars. According to the National Institute of Traffic and Highway Safety, persons in the car struck by the truck suffer approximately three-quarters (73 percent) of all truck collision injuries and fatalities.

The most prevalent cause of truck accidents in the United States is speed. Truck drivers are a key contributing element in more than half of all truck accidents (55 percent). This implies that if you or a loved one has been injured in a truck accident, you may be able to seek compensation for the damage caused by the truck driver’s carelessness.

There is some evidence that truck safety in Colorado and elsewhere is improving. Although there are more trucks on American roads than ten years ago, there are fewer truck-related deaths and semi-truck accident injuries.

These figures include a 17 percent decrease in fatal wrecks and an 18 percent decrease in semi-accident injuries. Trucks have also been involved in 25% fewer property damage accidents during the same period.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has more data on truck accidents around the country:

Only 1% of all truck collisions result in a fatality.

Truck accidents occur in 23 percent of all injuries.

About 330,000 trucks were involved in collisions in 2012.

Injuries from truck collisions accounted for 8% of all fatal crashes and 3% of all automotive injuries in the United States.

On rural highways, 63 percent of tractor-trailer accidents occur.

On weekdays, 83 percent of truck accidents occur.

In 74 percent of tractor-trailer accidents, the initial accident was a truck colliding with another car.

In just 5% of accidents, the truck rolling over was the first collision occurrence.

Injuries Caused by Truck Accidents

Injury from a truck collision might be fatal. If the victim is not killed in the accident, they are generally left with horrible injuries that take years or decades to heal.

Many Colorado Springs truck accident victims come to our office have valiantly survived collisions only to be left with a worse quality of life. This is a horrible and unacceptably painful situation.

The following are some of the most common truck accident injuries:

Injuries to the back and neck

Minor neck discomfort or more catastrophic injuries, such as displaced discs in the spine, are examples. Because your back and neck are so important to everything you do, injuries to these areas often prohibit people from returning to employment or normal activities.

Bones are broken.

Truck collisions are more violent than car collisions, which means bones are more readily fractured.

Injuries to the head

Damage to the brain caused by head trauma in an accident may be life-threatening. Whiplash or fast acceleration or deceleration may cause brain damage even if there is no direct head trauma.

These injuries may not be obvious right away, and experiencing a brain injury does not always imply being knocked out—the possible symptoms of confusion, nausea, eye impairments, and different cognitive challenges. Head injuries are among the most tragic injuries in truck accidents since they often result in losing cognitive and physical abilities. After a brain injury, some individuals will never be the same again.

Internal Wounds

Internal bleeding may occur in organs such as the bladder, liver, kidney, pancreas, and spleen due to powerful impact trauma from collisions. These injuries are very difficult to recover from.

Lacerations

Truck accident cuts and lacerations are very painful, and they often leave large scars that may never heal.

Injuries to the ribs and torso

Because the ribcage shields the body’s important organs, truck collision injuries to the ribs and torso may be serious.

Injuries Caused by Seat Belts

Seat belts are designed to protect you, but they may sometimes cause injuries such as whiplash. Our truck accident attorneys highly advise you always to wear one.

Paralysis and Spinal Cord Injuries

Injury to the spinal cord in a truck collision may be very severe and result in paralysis. Because the effects of a truck collision aren’t often obvious at first, anybody who is injured in one should seek medical help as quickly as possible. MRIs can identify injuries that X-rays can’t.

Accidents involving tractor-trailers are ten times more likely to result in death than collisions with other cars. It’s a sobering reality to consider.

Only an expert truck accident attorney can hold a firm accountable when a loved one is killed in a truck accident. We understand that we will never replace what you have lost, but we can help your family get the compensation they need to go ahead.

Contact a Truck Accident Lawyer in Colorado Springs Today.

Don’t be alarmed if you or a family member has been in an accident with a huge commercial car or 18-wheeler. Warrior, is an experienced personal injury attorney who has successfully represented several truck accident victims. To discuss your claim, please get in touch with 719-300-1100 now.

Link: https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812279

 

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