There are many potential risks when driving around large trucks, but safe truck drivers generally know how to reduce these risks. They keep proper following distances, they drive under the speed limit and things of this nature.
However, there are some things that these truck drivers can’t control. One is a load shift. This is when the materials that the truck is carrying shift while the truck is in motion, and it can cause the truck to overturn, go out of control, leave the roadway or otherwise be involved in an accident. This is highly dangerous for people around the truck because truck drivers who have been in these accidents say that there’s often nothing they can do once they’ve lost control of the vehicle.
Is it the truck driver’s fault?
The big question here is who loaded the truck. In some cases, truck drivers do load the trucks themselves, and they’re always advised to check to make sure that things have been done properly if another team was in charge.
But it is very common for that team to simply load the truck and tell the driver that it’s time to go. Things may look fine at first, but the driver doesn’t know if they strapped everything down properly or cut corners to try to get the job done quickly. As a result, that loading crew may have unintentionally put the driver in an unsafe vehicle that’s going to cause an accident down the road.
If you have suffered severe injuries in a crash with a semi-truck, be sure you know about all the legal options you have to seek financial compensation for your losses.