Tractor Trailer, Semi Truck, Big Rig And 18 Wheeler Accidents Merit Personal Injury Attorneys

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Increasingly, truckers rule Americaīs roads, even though large trucks are only 3 per cent of the vehicles on them. But tractor trailers, semi trucks, big rigs or 18 wheelers are so massive, heavy and potentially destructive that drivers of cars and other smaller vehicles must keep a wary distance.

Sadly, not all such drivers survive encounters with these barreling behemoths, in part because tractor trailers often are driven past speed limits to meet a shipping deadline, or are operated by fatigued, distracted or ill-trained drivers.

Indeed, America suffers more than half a million trucking accidents yearly, leading to 5,200 deaths and 100,000 injuries, many of them debilitating. The top state for such tragedies is Texas, which endured 446 fatalities from large truck accidents in 2006 alone.

Rarely are drivers of tractor trailers or semi trucks seriously injured in big rig accidents. Given the size differential, itīs car drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians who perish. And often such calamities are due to negligence by the 18 wheeler driver, owner, company or manufacturer.

In such cases, Americans can rely on personal injury lawyers with experience handling tractor trailer accident cases. Trucking lines and their insurance companies arenīt eager to pay the enormous costs their vast vehicles can cause in an accident. But a tractor trailer lawyer or personal injury attorney can fight for a victimīs legal rights to secure fitting and just financial compensation.

Though large trucks represent only 3 per cent of all registered vehicles, they account for 12 per cent of all fatal traffic accidents in America. And thatīs no recent aberration. Rather, itīs been the case consistently since the late 1970s, reports the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration in Washington, D.C.

The NHTSA also found that, as the weight of a truck and its cargo increase, so do the chances for a devastating tractor trailer rollover accident. Yet the trucking industry is currently campaigning for trucks to be allowed another axle, thus making them bigger and enabling them to carry larger loads. Such profit-geared boosts in size inevitably would lead to even more trucking tragedies.

Though truckers arenīt to blame for each accident in which theyīre involved, their industry is poorly regulated. That means deadline-obsessed drivers are free to work for too many hours and without enough rest. Such fatigued drivers are far more likely to cause an accident due to slowed reaction times.

Truckers also are statistically more overweight than other drivers and thus are more prone to sleep apnea, a disorder which can make them even more dangerous behind the wheel, say Harvard University scientists.

The NHTSA takes no U-turns and makes no double-talk about it. "Crashes involving large trucks," it says, "are a serious traffic safety problem."

If you or a loved one has been harmed in such an accident involving a tractor trailer, semi truck, big rig or 18 wheeler truck, chances are youīve suffered enormous financial damages due to death or serious injury. Such costs can include medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost present and future wages. And these burdens should not be shouldered alone.

Yet just as statistics may weigh against you on the road, the truths behind them can work for you in the legal realm. Thatīs where a response to trucking tragedies must be measured, efficient and authoritative.

To be sure, victims of tractor trailer accidents are far more likely to gain full and fair financial recovery by engaging a personal injury attorney or tractor trailer lawyer than if they depend solely on themselves -- or on the kindness of trucking companies and their insurance providers.

"Often an insurance company waves a check for a very small amount in someoneīs face, and they donīt know the value of their case," says Jim Adler, founder of longtime Texas personal injury law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates. "Thatīs where they need us. People need to know the value of their case -- and then let us go get it for them."

Jim S. Adler & Associates is a Texas personal injury law firm established in 1973. Working from offices in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Channelview, Adler & Associates helps Texans across the state with personal injury legal needs, including car, motorcycle, tractor trailer and drunk driving accident injuries.

www.jimadler.com

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