If you have ever been driving alongside a tractor trailer or other large commercial vehicle, you know the feeling you get when all of a sudden you realize just how much bigger and heavier these vehicles are than your normal passenger vehicle. Even a pickup truck or SUV can be no match for a semi truck in an accident. The size and weight differentials are just some of the reasons that crashes involving commercial trucks can be so dangerous and even deadly.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tracks a variety of statistics from accidents around the country. In looking at the NHTSA’s records for Florida, a serious jump in the number of people killed in large truck accidents is evident from 2014 to 2015. The number of deaths in large truck collisions rose from 190 in 2014 to 225 the next year in 2015. The 2014 death count was only seven fewer than the year before. In both 2011 and 2012, there were 213 such fatalities in accidents involving large commercial trucks each year.
In southern Florida, Collier County was the location of 26 fatalities in large truck accidents between 2011 and 2015. In Miami-Dade County and Broward County, 54 and 49 lives were lost in crashes with large trucks, respectively. Lee County lost 36 people in these types of accidents while Hendry and Monroe Counties recorded seven and three deaths, respectively.
If you would like to learn more about large truck accidents and how to seek compensation after being involved in one, please feel free to visit the collision compensation page of our Florida personal injury website.