Passenger vehicles driving on the roads and highways with large commercial vehicles need to be especially careful. Commercial vehicles, also called big-rigs or 18-wheelers, can weigh up to 80,000 pounds. This is approximately 40,000 times more than the weight of a typical four door passenger sedan. Sharing the road with these commercial vehicles poses specific challenges and creates a need for extra caution on the part of both the truck and car drivers. Accidents may be caused because drivers of cars are often not careful enough around these big trucks. Seemingly minor errors can have drastic consequences. Drivers of passenger vehicles are often not aware of how dangerous a commercial vehicle can be.

Some examples of driver error that can lead to an accident with a commercial vehicle include:

• Unsafe passing
• Driving between large commercial vehicles
• Pulling into traffic in front of a truck and not accelerating quickly enough
• Merging improperly in front of a truck
• Changing lanes in front of a truck – causing the truck to swerve
• Misjudging a truck’s ability to stop or speed up when making a turn in front of a truck
• Failure to remove a disabled vehicle from a road or highway

You should know that 90% of collisions between passenger vehicles and commercial trucks are due to truck driver negligence.

Some common causes of truck driver negligence are:

• Driving too fast for the road conditions
• Aggressive/reckless driving
• Driver fatigue due to lack of sleep/working long hours
• Failure to stop, swerve, or maintain control of the truck when there is a possibility of a collision with a passenger vehicle
• Failure to use a turn signal, tailgating, swerving into another lane
• Lack of good judgment in the event of bad weather
• Driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol
• Driving with an improperly secured load
• Driving with an unbalanced load
• Failure to maintain/inspect the truck before driving
• Putting off repairs
• Multi-tasking (talking on cell phone, texting, changing radio station, filling out log book) while driving

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