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Commercial Motor Vehicle crashes may be caused by one or more sets of factors. Oftentimes it is difficult to isolate a single cause, and potentially even more difficult to demonstrate responsibility or fault.
Common crash factors include:
Those drivers who disregard safety regulations tend to do so habitually and over the course of a career as a CMV driver. Studies show that “a driver’s past safety performance is a strong predictor of future safety performance.” 1
Driver factors such as fatigue are especially precarious because, unlike mechanical problems such as deficient tires, they cannot be identified or remedies in advance of a long drive.
A worn-out tire or a malfunctioning steering system can be spotted during a maintenance survey, and repaired before the drive begins. Fatigue, by contrast, emerges as an extremely high risk slowly, imperceptibly, and while the drive is still underway.
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By definition, distracted driving is when “a driver’s attention is diverted away from driving by a secondary task that requires focusing on an object, event, or person not related to the driving task.” 2
According to a report from the National Highway Safety Administration, external distractions include objects and events outside of the vehicle, for example:
By comparison, internal distractions occur inside the vehicle and may include use of a handheld electronic device, adjusting mirrors, sound, or other vehicle controls such as air conditioning, retrieving an object from the front passenger seat or floor of the cab, eating, drinking, or smoking.
One of the most insidious forms of distracted driving involves a handheld electronic communication device, such as a cell phone.
As such devices present a serious hazard for people driving their own cars, they present an even more serious danger in the context of a large, fast-moving truck. The National Highway Safety Administration classifies three kinds of electronic device use while driving:
1 David E. Cantor et al., “A Driver-Focused Truck Crash Prediction Model,” Transportation Research Part E 46 (2010): 689.
2 National Traffic Law Center. (2017, May). Investigation and prosecution of distracted driving cases (Report No. DOT HS 812 407). Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. LINK
3 T. M. Pickrell, et al., Driver Electronic Device Use in 2015 (Traffic Safety Facts Research Note. Report No. DOT HS 812 326). Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. LINK
Contact our award-winning attorneys at FVF Law to handle your commercial motor vehicle accident case in Austin, TX. You can call us by phone at (512) 982-9328 or by filling out our contact us form.
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