Businesses like making use of larger and more efficient vehicles. Commercial trucks can transport a huge amount of goods and materials to a client in a short amount of time, making them relatively efficient when compared with smaller vehicles.
Of course, commercial trucks also impact modern society in negative ways too. They serve to increase the degree of risk that people have in re: suffering potentially fatal collisions. When a semi-truck or 18-wheeler collides with a four-wheeled passenger vehicle, the occupants of the smaller vehicle are likely to sustain major property damage expenses and injury-related losses as a result of the collision. The following factors increase the likelihood of a crash that will injure or kill those in smaller vehicles.
Large blind spots
One of the biggest safety concerns related to commercial vehicle use is how a bigger truck creates bigger blind spots. The trailer attached to a truck is quite long and usually at least twice as tall as the average vehicle in traffic. There will be blind spots that impact what the truck driver can see, as well as blind spots behind a truck that could put people at risk of causing a crash should they attempt to pass a semi-truck in traffic.
Wide turns
The way that the cab of a semi-truck attaches to the trailer makes it very efficient for the operator to quickly transfer loads. However, the hinge point between the vehicles is a source of risk and vulnerability that affects the way that vehicles interact at intersections. The wide turns that semi-trucks conduct often push them into other lanes of traffic and increase the chance of a crash occurring between a commercial vehicle and a smaller passenger vehicle at an intersection.
Greater momentum
Commercial truck drivers generally need to maintain slightly lower speeds and noticeably larger following distances in traffic. It will take longer for them to speed up, slow down or change lanes when compared with smaller vehicles, which means that they need to account for those operational limitations for the safety of others in traffic.
Unfortunately, commercial drivers often focus their efforts primarily on how quickly they can bring a load in rather than on the safest way to do so. When a commercial vehicle causes a crash, the people in the smaller vehicle may have grounds to pursue either an insurance claim against a commercial policy or possibly a lawsuit against an owner-operator or the company that employs a truck driver.