Why has there been so many high-profile semi crashes in the Seattle metro area lately? Here's a sample of what we found in just the last few weeks in King County and Pierce County. On April 5, a truck driver was killed when his vehicle's brakes failed on a downhill slope in Tacoma, forcing [...]
Off-tracking truck: Rear wheels take a different, shorter path than the front wheels when the semi truck is turning or cornering. We might think of it as "cutting the corner" of a turn. I have seen this before, with a client who was run over by the back wheels of a semi-truck turning the corner. In this [...]
Micheal Belzer, an economics professor at Wayne State University, recently published a study showing a strong correlation between truck driver pay and road safety. In this article, Truck drivers are overtired, underworked, and underpaid, he explains his findings. The data suggest that economic factors affecting drivers contribute significantly to truck crashes. A link between truck driver pay and safety [...]
It is undisputed: there is a commercial truck driver shortage across the U.S. The Trump administration is pushing forward on a pilot program that would allow people as young as 18 years old to drive commercial trucks. The pilot program will train young people with military experience; it is laying the groundwork for lowering the minimum [...]
No one was injured. No other vehicles were involved. But 40,000 pounds of feathers were dumped onto I-5 in Federal Way around 3 a.m. when semi-truck driver caused a roll-over crash. https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/999268630029156353 The truck driver told a local reporter that he had fallen asleep. "I drank coffee and took one of those pills that had [...]
Recently, I reviewed a Police Report where the truck driver admitted he only had 3 hours of sleep the night before he caused a serious crash.* For many of us, losing a couple hours of sleep at night just means we’re a little less productive the next day. When your job is driving—especially if you’re [...]
