With Less Truckers on the Road, Will More Accidents Happen?

We’ve all driven past truckers on the highway or local roads. Though you might not have realized, there has been a decline in the trucking industry this year. Over 3,000 truck drivers have lost their jobs in 2019, especially truck drivers for small businesses, as reported by Business Insider.

A whopping 640 commercial trucking companies went bankrupt in just the first half of this year, which is over triple the number from the same time last year. This fall in business was caused by many factors, as told by Business Insider, including a drop in consumer spending, cost of insurance, decline in goods shipped, and the amount of drivers being over capacity.

Cincinnati Trucking Facility Closed

Bankruptcy in the trucking industry might seem like a problem that won’t hit close to home, but it already has. A facility in our own Cincinnati has gone under just like many others across the nation.

New England Motor Freight Inc. (NEMF) filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. NEMF was a privately owned trucking company based in New Jersey with many facilities across the Northeast. Its facility in Cincinnati closed, causing 43 workers to lose their jobs in our city alone, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier. Across the state, a total of 269 employees are now out of work after the shutdown starting in February.

So will this decrease in truckers cause an increase in truck accidents?

Effect on Truck Accidents

You might be thinking, “Less trucks means less accidents because there are fewer on the road to cause them.” While that is a logical thought, there’s more that goes into trucking that could affect traffic when there are less of them on the road. In 2017, large truck crashes increased by 9%, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That was two years ago, and with less trucks on the road this year, that could continue to rise.

Here are some of the reasons that truck accidents might increase due to less trucks on the road:

• Overweight trucks. When there are fewer large trucks on the road, companies are forced to pack more shipments into a single unit. This makes the truck heavier because it is hauling more goods. This might seem harmless, but it actually makes the trucks harder to control, and especially harder to slow down. Not only will heavier trucks make accidents harder for truck drivers to avoid, they will also make the force of impact in collisions higher.
• Driver fatigue. Drivers also feel more pressure to meet tighter deadlines when there are less trucks on the road. Even though truck drivers have regulations on how many hours they can drive before they have to rest for so many hours, if their deadlines are shorter than usual, they might push that envelope and drive while exhausted. This fatigue could easily lead to a commercial truck accident.
• Speeding. When drivers are rushing to beat the clock, they might also speed to make their deadline. Speeding in a regular sized car gets dangerous very quickly, and that’s just the weight of the car. In a semi-truck, speeding is even more dangerous because you are not only hauling the weight of the truck, but also the goods in the trailer. On average, a loaded tractor trailer weighs 40 tons and needs caution while operating, so a fully loaded truck could weigh even more and require even more attention.

Bey & Associates, LLC, Can Help

Truck accidents can be traumatic and debilitating for everyone involved. When you’ve been a victim of a commercial truck accident, you have a long road ahead of you for recovery. Medical treatment, psychological treatment, and inability to return to work compounds together to create financial stress. Your next step should be contacting a Cincinnati truck accident lawyer at Bey & Associates, LLC, to help you fight for the compensation you deserve. Contact us today for a free case review so that you can stop putting your life on hold.

The above blog may be considered advertising material and should not be used as legal advice.