Delivery Truck Accidents: Causes and Liability

Logistics is one of the many procedures businesses deal with everyday. Shipping and delivery is the first step in sending out the products to potential customers. The demand for their products brings in revenue for companies. Naturally, in order to bring in the demand, they will need a form of transportation.

Trucks are the most common vehicles used for delivery. These vehicles can carry a lot of load for ground delivery. Besides, getting trucks is cheaper compared to other forms like air or water transportation.

A fully-loaded delivery truck can weigh 80,000 pounds or more. Because of the weight and size of the truck, and the weight of the load it’s carrying, the damage caused by delivery truck accidents damages are always in great quantity, not only in terms of financial trouble, but also in the physical and mental injuries that the people involved may sustain.

Aside from the size of the truck, the attitude of truck drivers may also be the cause of accident. Long hours of driving make delivery truck drivers prone to dizziness or falling sleepy while behind the wheel. Sleep deprivation or poor health alters the senses, which must always be fine when driving.

A truck driver’s blind spots put people or vehicles that fall on it in danger. Negligence and disregard to traffic rules are also important factors in this kind of accident. Other possible causes may be the following:

• Failure of the driver to engage the parking brake hile hand-delivering a package, causing it to roll into traffic or pedestrians.
• Backing-up after passing an address instead of going around the block.
• Attempting to do a sudden left turn to save time.
• Failure to yield when merging onto a highway.

Companies are subject to the regulations made by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which established requirements for safety operation of commercial trucks. Some of them are:

• Mandatory driver recording to determine service hours
• Maintenance and repair
• Drug and alcohol prevention program for drivers
• Driver training

Employers may be liable for the accident if proven that they fail to provide these requirements. A poorly loaded vehicle can be a factor in accidents, thus the company that loaded the goods to the truck may also be held liable.


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