Truck accidents involving smaller vehicles or pedestrians often result in more deaths and serious injuries than other vehicle accidents.
– There are over 500,000 truck accidents on US roads each year
– About 5,000 deaths result from truck-related accidents
– 12 % of all fatalities in the US are due to trucking accidents
– More than 75 % of truck accidents are caused, not by truck drivers, but by the drivers of the smaller vehicles involved
In the last few days, there have been a number of truck accidents in the Maryland and DC areas.
In Washington DC, on June 1, the driver of a pickup truck was killed on Md. 140 when his Toyota Tacoma crossed into the other lane and crashed into a school bus. The driver of the bus, Susan Schaffer, 52, had just dropped off several children at a nearby bus stop when the accident occurred. She suffered minor injuries but refused treatment. The driver of the truck, Brian Evans, 18, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.
Also in Washington DC on Thursday, a truck that had been carjacked and was being pursued by Prince George’s County police crashed into several cars on New York Avenue NE. Four people were arrested in connection with the carjacking and sent to a hospital for evaluation.
Interstate 295 in DC had to be closed down for most of the day when a tractor trailer was rear ended by a tanker truck that then burst into flames on northbound Kenilworth Avenue near Eastern Avenue. The driver of the tanker, Stanley Bowler, 46, was treated at the Washington Hospital Center for minor burns and bruises.
Just two days before in in Maryland, a Padasena man was killed in Anne Arudel County when his pickup truck struck a guardrail and overturned after veering off the westbound side of Route 100 near Lake Waterford Road. The driver Travis Stephen Dyer, age 26, was not wearing a safety belt.
Also that day in Anne Arudel County, a dump truck heading north on Interstate 97 between Route 32 and the Benfield Boulevard exit spilled hot asphalt onto the roadway after colliding with a car. The truck driver was treated for minor injuries at Baltimore Washington Medical Center, while the driver of the car was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center as a precautionary measure.
18-year-old Killed After Truck Collides With Bus, Carroll County Times, June 2, 2006
What A Mess! The Washington Times, June 2, 2006
Pasadena Man Killed In Crash Of Pickup, Baltimoresun.com, May 31, 2006
Truck Accident Statistics, Lawcore.com
Related Web Resources:
Car/Auto Accidents And Personal Injury Statistics, Personal Injury FYI.com
Truck Accidents, Lawcore.com
If you have been involved in a truck accident and have sustained injuries or have lost someone who was in a truck accident, you may be entitled to receive legal compensation and damages under US laws. Lebowitz & Mzhen are injury attorneys who handle truck accident cases. Contact us online or call us at 1.888.311.4878 for a free consultation.