Car accidents can happen in Sacramento between any two vehicles on the road. However, you might also have a situation where a car and a commercial vehicle collide. You might blame the car’s driver, but you may also see occasions when a commercial trucker makes a mistake and hits a much smaller vehicle.
Collecting damages following a Sacramento truck accident isn’t always easy. You might have a trucking company that drags its feet because they feel you caused the accident, or you and the truck driver share the blame. Perhaps a trucking company feels that if they cause enough problems and delay for long enough, you’ll eventually go away and forget a lawsuit or payoff through sheer frustration.
However, if you’re sure a trucker caused your accident, you must persevere and keep pushing till you collect your money. You should also know about some of the most common reasons why Sacramento truck accidents occur. We’ll discuss those right now.
Exhausted Drivers
Certain regulations exist regarding truck drivers and how long they can stay on the road at one time. A driver can’t remain on the road for 24 hours without stopping, even if they’re chugging coffee or Red Bulls the whole time.
Most truck drivers and companies monitor their road time carefully. They understand the danger if they act recklessly in this regard. Still, you might have a driver or company that bends the rules sometimes if they think they can get away with it.
That might cause an accident if you have an exhausted driver who doesn’t see a car next to them on the highway. Maybe they’ll change lanes without signaling. A single nudge can easily kill or seriously injure a car’s driver.
As a car driver, watch closely when you’re near a truck this size. Maybe you can’t know whether you have a trucker who’s coming off a 16-hour shift, but you can at least see if they’re swerving or acting erratically. Keeping your distance in such cases can save your life.
Vehicles in One of a Truck’s Blind Spots
As a car driver, you probably know all about blind spots. All vehicles have them. You can monitor them with mirrors to some extent. As a cautious and responsible driver, you know you must check your blind spot before you switch lanes.
Blind spot alerts with cars help modern motorists with this issue. Trucks have blind spots too, though, and since they’re bigger vehicles, they have larger blind spots.
Trucks have one on the side, like cars, but they also have them directly in front and behind. If you are behind a truck, keep a few vehicle lengths back so the driver can see you. If you’re in front of a truck, try to stay a few lengths ahead.
Sometimes that’s difficult in certain traffic patterns, but you must make the effort. Again, this simple technique can often avoid accidents with careless truck drivers.
Intoxicated Drivers
Intoxication can cause accidents, no matter what you’re driving. It’s dangerous when someone leaves the bar and drives home in their car after one beer too many. It’s so much worse when a truck driver does it, though. That’s when a multi-ton vehicle can become an instant killing machine.
Much like truck driver exhaustion, you can’t usually tell if a driver has a flask under the seat and they’re taking sips whenever it’s convenient. However, you can watch and see whether a truck stays in its lane or if it acts improperly.
Trucks swerving, changing lanes without signaling, or otherwise acting recklessly should immediately get your attention. You can keep your distance, and you can also contact the authorities if you get a chance. That sort of behavior can easily injure someone else, even if you stay away and reach your destination safely.
Smartphones
People love their smartphones, and with good reason. You can use one at any time to look up that actor’s name that you can’t remember or to call for help if you have a medical emergency.
Looking at your smartphone while driving can cause an accident, though. It can happen instantly. One moment, you’re checking the ball game’s score, and the next, you’ve rear-ended the retiree in front of you.
Truck drivers should know they must stay off their smartphones, and that’s the law. However, there’s no law that some drivers won’t break.
You’d hope trucker drivers would know better, but you might have one with a veritable cell phone addiction who can’t help but glance at theirs.
Keeping your distance from trucks should help with this issue, but it’s not a foolproof strategy. Unfortunately, hoping a trucker knows to keep their cell phone in their pocket while driving must serve as your only real protection.
Other Distractions
You might also have a truck driver who lets something else distract them. Maybe that’s some music they’re listening to or a billboard with a funny slogan or provocative picture on it.
Distracted driving can kill or injure the trucker and other drivers around them. Again, you must hope the trucker knows better.
Speeding
Speeding can become dangerous quickly, whether you’re driving a beat-up old van or a multi-ton truck. If you obey the speed limit, you can more easily keep your vehicle under control. With trucks, that matters more than you might imagine.
Any time you have a trucker who speeds just a little, that can unbalance the load they’re carrying. That might shake up the freight they have in the back, but it may also impede their ability to stop suddenly in bad weather or if they’re going downhill.
Five miles per hour might not seem like a huge difference, but it could mean a truck can’t stop in time, or the driver loses control while going downhill in a rainstorm. Much like all these other dangerous behaviors, you must hope the driver knows to keep their rig going at the proper rate of speed.
