Articles Tagged with Truck Accident

A spate of serious and fatal Florida truck accidents has drawn attention to the fact that such collisions are on the rise – here and across the country, prompting safety officials and trucking carriers to weigh possible solutions.

State and federal crash data show that large semi-trucks are a substantial part of the reason Florida drivers face so much danger on thoroughfares like I-75.

In a single recent year, there were more than 4,300 large truck accidents just in Florida alone – more than 70 percent of those being the occupants of other vehicles, thanks to the size disparity between semis and passenger cars. In 2017, there were nearly 32,000 large truck crashes in the U.S.

As our Fort Myers truck accident lawyers can explain, part of making our roads safer in the face of increasing commercial truck presence is holding accountable the drivers, trucking carriers, shippers and other parties responsible when their negligence causes or contributes to the seriousness of a crash.

Sometimes, that accountability happens in criminal court. That’s the case in North Fort Myers, where a commercial truck driver ran a red light and killed another motorist, age 61, in June. Now, the 31-year-old trucker has been charged with reckless driving and vehicular homicide.

However, change can also come about from civil damage awards. Although civil cases, in general, are intended to be compensatory and not punitive, the damage awards in these cases are a proven incentive for trucking companies to adhere to federal regulations – in some cases, taking initiative to take additional safety precautions in the future. Continue reading