Picture it: Early Saturday morning on Independence Day weekend. You are headed on a road trip with your family to do some mid-summer camping on Lake Koshkonong. 5 miles after you jump on to i-39 headed towards Wisconsin, a large truck hauling lumber merges onto the highway directly in front of you. Your immediate reaction is to get into another lane and safely pass the truck. But why is that? The easy answer is that most drivers are taught to try to avoid trucks as they are unable to stop as quickly as your average vehicle. But perhaps you are one of the people who have seen the 2003 movie Final Destination 2. This movie has an infamous opening sequence where a log truck driving well above the speed limit on a busy and slick highway, loses its cargo due to a faulty chain and causes a catastrophic accident.
Five years ago, our office wrote about how catastrophic truck accidents were on the rise in Illinois. Unfortunately, they have only continued to increase since that time.
In the past 5 days alone, ABC 7 news reported on three separate fatal crashes on Illinois highways that involved semi-trailers. The most recent crash occurred on July 1st, where a motorcyclist and a semi trailer collided near Western Springs Illinois on I-294.
In 2024 there were 167,902, large vehicles involved in fatal & non-fatal crashes, 7,173 of which occurred in Illinois. This year alone Illinois has already seen 1,438 in the first quarter of the year according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Why do these accidents seem to happen in large numbers?
There are several different factors that contribute to accident numbers. One of the biggest contributing factors is negligence by the truck drivers, speeding being the worst type of said negligence. Truck drivers often have strict deadlines for deliveries and tend to exceed the speed limits to make up for lost time. A speeding trucker is a trucker who, even if he/she has his/her undivided attention on the road, may not be able to bring that heavy load to a stop in time to avoid a crash.
Another frequent factor with truck accidents is truckers who are sleepy or fatigued. Truck drivers may push themselves (or may be pushed by their employers) beyond the limits of their endurance, including exceeding “hours of service” maximums established by federal safety regulations. The drowsiness or fatigue these drivers experience due to staying on the road too long may cause them to have both diminished attentiveness and slower reaction times, which can lead to accidents where, for example, a trucker fails to slow down in time or fails to notice another vehicle (or vehicles) in the truck’s path.
A commercial truck driver in the United States can drive a maximum of 11 hours within a 14-hour window. They are also required to take a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving, and a minimum of 10 consecutive hours off-duty before beginning a new 14-hour window. Since they spend most of the time in their cab, some truckers may end up adjusting their GPS, texting, talking on the phone or even having a snack while driving. All of these driver distractions can cause major consequences.
Poor vehicle maintenance is another huge factor in a truck accident. Things like mechanical failures, tire blowouts and loads coming undone are all too common for larger companies as they try to cut corners to save money on pricey vehicle maintenance. Semi-trucks with improperly loaded cargo can cause them to tip over or jack-knife. Flatbed trucks are especially dangerous when loaded poorly because the cargo can spill out into the road.
In a truck accident, getting a full recovery may mean holding accountable, not just the trucker, but his/her employer. There are several types of proof that may help you do that. A truck driver’s logbooks may be one place. If, for example, you have evidence that the trucker exceeded the regulatory hours-of-service maximum and then are able to prove that the employer knew about it (and allowed it to occur) or, more seriously, ordered the driver to exceed the caps, then that can be very helpful.
Additionally, if you can establish that the employer participated in “doctoring” the trucker’s logbooks to “paper over” hours-of-service violations, that proof may also help you get the judgment you need against both the driver and the entity, which will increase your chances of getting the full compensation you deserve.
To achieve the outcome you need in your truck accident case, you have to know what proof your case requires, and you have to know how to go about getting it. For this knowledge and more, depend on the experienced injury attorneys at Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca. To set up a free case evaluation, contact us at 312-263-6330 or through our website katzfriedman.com.
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