Tractor Trailer Accidents Problematic in South Carolina
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Despite our best efforts, we cannot control what other drivers on the road are doing. We were especially saddened yesterday to learn of another death to an innocent victim, Melody Wilson, a wife, and proud mother of four who was killed by an 18 wheeler that overturned onto her car in Hanahan, South Carolina.
Although Federal guidelines that dictate the weight limit of commercial trucks on the road, investigators believe that the truck, which was carrying wood chips was 2,000 pounds over the weight limit.
Yet another accident occured this morning, in Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina between a tanker truck carrying diesel fuel and a pickup truck. The man, who has not been identified, is currently partially lodged under the 18 wheeler. Authorities will have to lift up the tanker truck in order to get the driver of the pick up truck out. Fortunately, the man is able to talk with emergency responders.
Trucking is a highly regulated industry. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration FMCSA (linked) is the Federal agency charged with creating these regulations. There are hundreds of regulations, prerequisites for a commercial truck driver to place a tractor trailer on the road.
Despite these existence of these regulations, many truck drivers choose to drive fatigued, without proper training or experience, drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol, fail to maintain their truck in proper working order, blatantly disregard size, weight, and loading requirements, fail to adhere to trucking industry regulations, ignore posted speed limits, weather conditions, and fail to pay attention by talking, texting, or otherwise. On average, 500,000 tractor trailer accidents occur each year.
When an accident occurs between a semi and a regular automobile, 80,000 pounds of force is brought against an average vehicle weight of 3,000 to 5,000 pounds, forcing unsuspected motorists to instantaneously be faced with injury or even death.
Please drive defensively out there. Know that semi trucks need more time to come to a stop, have larger blind spots on all sides, carry larger amounts of cargo, have a high center of gravity leading them to be more likely to overturn, and despite your best efforts to avoid them, cause on average 500,000 accidents per year.
Strom Law Firm is a personal injury and criminal defense law firm centrally located in Columbia, South Carolina. Our firm proudly handles personal injury, criminal defense, defective products, class actions, pharmaceutical liability, toxic torts, medical malpractice, nursing home neglect, workers compensation, social security, veteran's benefits, qui tam, predatory lending, tax investigations, business litigation, and wills and estates. Our lawyers proudly edit the Columbia, South Carolina Injury Board as well as the Strom Law Blog as a pro bono effort to provide the public valuable information. Our lawyers are licensed in: South Carolina, New York, Georgia, Florida, and the District of Columbia.