Truck Accident Attorney Blog

A fatal pileup late Saturday evening on I-75 just South of Gainesville started with a three vehicle crash involving a tractor-trailer, according to msnbc.com.

As a result of the pileup, 10 people died and 18 got injured. The combination of heavy smoke from a nearby brush fire, the fog and the darkness were to blame for the low visibility that caused the initial accident involving an eighteen-wheeler and two passenger vehicles. Because of this accident and the deteriorating visibility, the Florida Highway Patrol closed both I-75 and nearby US-441. Both roads were re-opened a few hours later despite the poor visibility, which caused a series of pileups that brought about the death, injuries and destruction mentioned before.

Both Sides of the Road

Poor visibility affected both sides of the interstate and accidents started happening on both the Northbound and the Southbound lanes of I-75. Steven R. Camps, a witness who was driving home to Gainesville said that once the pileup started it felt like there was nowhere to run and that it looked "like the end of the World". Visibility was so poor that rescuers arriving at the scene early Sunday had to listen for screams and moans to find victims in the mile long pileup.

Brush Fire May Have Be Arson

Police now suspect that the brush fire, which combined with fog and darkness helped blind the drivers of the vehicles involved in the deadly pileup, was arson. If so, this makes the arsonist liable for multiple counts of manslaughter. Police's suspicion of arson is based on the fact that there were no controlled burns in the area, as well as no lightning strikes. A few years ago our law firm handled a tractor-trailer accident case that occurred on I-95 in northern Florida. After an extensive investigation we were able to successfully recover money damages for our clients. Although fog is a natural occurring event, professional tractor-trailer drivers are trained on how to handle encounters with smoke and fog. In that case some, if not all of the eighteen-wheeler drivers involved failed to follow their training and good judgment.

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Commercial trucks continue to grow in size to the point that while the combined length of a tractor-trailer in the 1960's was about 40 feet, today their combined length can be 57 to 59 feet long. This, of course, not only means more weight capacity, but deadlier accidents....

Large Truck More Likely To Crash

Statistics show that while large trucks account for just 4 percent of all registered vehicles and make up for just 7 percent of all vehicle miles traveled, they are involved in 11 percent of all crash fatalities. Logically, the longer and heavier commercial trucks become, the deadlier these trucks are. The odds of those traveling in the average family car of surviving an accident with one of these large trucks decreases as the weight of the truck increases.

According to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, a commercial truck weighing 80,000 pounds is more than twice as likely to get involved in a fatal crash as one weighing 50,000 pounds. This is because of the increased braking space needed as weight increases. For example, a commercial truck weighing 100,000 pounds with unadjusted brakes travels 25% further after the driver steps on the brakes than an 80,000 pound truck.

Large truck crashes cost our economy $19 billion every year. And, a final chilling accident statistic: the annual death toll from truck related crashes equals 26 major airplane crashes every year....

Larger Trucks Do Not Equal Less Trucks On Road

Studies continue to show a steady increase in the number of commercial trucks in our roads, despite their larger size over the years. This means that the fact that they are now bigger, has not translated into fewer trips or less miles travelled. As a matter of fact, according to the Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety, the number of trucks and miles traveled per truck continue to consistently grow every year despite the growth in size of the trucks themselves. As a matter of fact, the number of tractor trailer trips is expected to grow tremendously in the next 10 years putting more cars and their occupants in harm's way.

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Parts of a tire from a tractor-trailer caused a deadly accident on I-95 late Monday evening, according to Jacksonville.com.

Pick Up Truck Flipped After Hitting Debris

The victims, Rebeca Hernandez-Martinez, Danial Lopez-Solis and the driver, Jose Camacho were in a Ford Explorer which flipped over and collided with a tree after hitting the tire debris from the tractor-trailer. Unfortunately, although all three were wearing their seat belts, Hernandez-Martinez lost her life, while Lopez-Solis had to be taken to Halifax General Hospital in critical condition. The driver, Jose Camacho, only suffered minor injuries.

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