The trucking industry pays approximately $37 billion in taxes to the government each year. The industry pays nearly $21 billion just to operate on the roads. The trucking industry uses in the neighborhood of 53 billion gallons of fuel to operate. There are approximately 3.5 million truck drivers carrying some $671 billion dollars worth of manufactured items each year. The average truck driver makes approximately $32,000 per year. The trucking industry transports more goods than air travel in around 2.5 million trucks. That’s a lot of money! As can be plainly seen, this industry is gigantic. With this many tractor-trailers on the roads, there are bound to be accidents. *Estimates say over half a million trucking accidents occur each year. *75% of truck accidents are caused by passenger vehicles. *Less than 18% of truck accidents are caused by truck drivers. *This kills almost 5,000 people each year.
In St. Louis alone, there are 24 U.S. Routes going in each compass direction in addition to 17 Interstate highways that conduct traffic, including tractor-trailer trucks to diverse cities. This is simply a recipe for Missouri tractor-trailer accidents. Some of the causes of St. Louis semi truck accidents include driver fatigue. Truck drivers, by law, have to have ten hours of sleep or off time for every ten hours they drive. Add a tight delivery schedule to that, and you get speeding, drugs to help the driver stay awake, and driving too fast for conditions when it rains or snows. Other causes of truck accidents are overloading the truck, the load on the truck shifting, causing the trailer to skid, or the truck and trailer being improperly repaired or maintained. Further compound the problem with the miles of U. S. Routes and Interstates running throughout St. Louis, and you get an alarming rate of St. Louis semi truck accidents. These big trucks can cause big accidents in collisions with buses, fire trucks, or smaller delivery trucks, and passenger cars. Liquid container trucks have a tendency to slosh their contents, sometimes propelling the tractor pulling them into collisions. While not a normal occurrence, trucks have been known to hit pedestrians. Of course, a common problem in the winter is the snow and ice.
All these are reasons a St. Louis truck accident attorney can help in the event of an accident. Not only is the driver of the truck potentially at fault, but his insurance carrier, the trucking company, the company of the driver’s destination, and their insurance carrier all could potentially be held liable in the event of an accident.
