Each year the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration releases a Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts report. The 2015 report indicates that the number of accidents that involve large trucks and result in fatalities rose by 8 percent. Large trucks are trucks that weigh at least 10,000 pounds.
According to the report, there were just shy of 3,600 crashes that resulted in fatalities. The rate of accidents per 100 million vehicle miles driven rose from 1.34 to 1.45 in 2015, and the report also indicates that there was a 2 percent rise in the rate of truck occupant fatalities. Of the 415,000 crashes that were reported to police, 20 percent resulted in some sort of harm to a person, and 1 percent result in the death of an individual.
The report states that nearly two-thirds of accidents involving large trucks occurred on country roads. Another quarter of the accidents occurred on interstate highways. The majority of drivers involved in fatal accidents were between the ages of 26 and 65; 5 percent of drivers were 25 or younger, and another 5 percent were at or above the age of 66.
There are federal trucking regulations requiring semis to be properly maintained by companies. Additionally, these regulations require that truckers must be given a certain amount of time off between long hauls. If trucking companies do not follow these regulations, it can increase the risk that their employees will be involved in a crash. A lawyer could help a truck accident victim determine if the trucking company might be liable for the crash.