Piering Law Firm
Practice Areas and Legal Definitions

Truck/Semi Truck - Big Rig Accidents

Over 250,000 dangerous large truck and 18-wheeler accidents occur each year in the U.S., and large truck related accidents kill and injure over 150,000 Americans per year. While large trucks and semi tractor-trailers comprise just 3% of the vehicles on American roads, they account for more than 25% of all passenger vehicle occupant deaths. In fact, nearly 78% of the people killed and 84% of the people seriously injured in 2-vehicle crashes involving a passenger vehicle and a large truck are the occupants of the passenger vehicle.

Serious injuries and fatalities are not the only toll inflicted by large truck accidents. They also inflict a significant financial toll:
The National Transportation Safety Board shows the average cost per
large truck and semi tractor-trailer crashes involving an injury is $217,000.
The average cost per large truck crash involving a fatality is $3.54 million.
The total cost of all semi tractor-trailers and large truck crashes in the U.S.
is over $ 34-billion per year. This constitutes a cost of $3,894,096 per hour.

Trucking accident lawyers see these three (3) most common risk factors in large truck accidents:

1. Reckless Driving

2. Mechanical Failures

3. Driver Fatigue

SUV Rollover and Collision Overview

Sports Utility Vehicles (“SUVs”) present potentially significant hazards to occupants of passenger vehicles involved in collisions with them. In fact, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, since 1995, of the people killed in SUV vs. passenger car crashes, nearly 98 percent were occupants of the passenger vehicles.

Since 1992, collisions between SUVs and cars have resulted in more fatalities in than have car-to-car crashes. This is due to the SUV's greater weight, added height, and the tendency of the higher, heavier SUVs to ride over the safety "crumple zones" of most cars and penetrate the passenger compartment. As a result, SUV-to-car collisions are six times more likely to kill the occupants of the smaller vehicle, compared to fatalities in car-to-car collisions.

In 1975, Congress passed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which established Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards to force car manufacturers to increase vehicle fuel economy. In order to comply with CAFÉ standards, auto makers gradually reduced the weight of small and mid-size passenger vehicles. Weight was reduced by substituting lightweight plastic for steel in bumpers and other impact-absorbing structures. As a result, passenger cars have become lighter and more vulnerable to SUV’s and trucks with higher clearances. Passenger car occupants have much higher risk factors for serious injury and death when involved in accidents with SUVs.

The high center of gravity of SUV’s also make them more likely to roll over during quick maneuvers to avoid an accident at highway speeds. Statistics show that in all but the heaviest SUV's, occupants have higher death rates in single-vehicle accidents. The principal factor is vehicle rollover.

According to NHTSA, SUVs rolled over in 37 percent of fatal crashes, compared to a 15 percent rollover rate for passenger cars. Rollover crashes account for 53 percent of all SUV occupant deaths in single vehicle crashes. Only 19 percent of occupant fatalities in passenger cars resulted from rollover crashes.

While rollover problems have been documented in the Ford Bronco II, Suzuki Samurai, and Isuzu Trooper, the risks of deadly SUV rollover accidents appear greatest in the Ford Explorer. According to a study published in the Washington Post, in 5,870 single-vehicle accidents in Florida, the Explorer had 13 percent greater risk of rolling over than other SUVs.

Ford Motor Company executives blamed the rollovers on the Firestone tires that were standard equipment on Ford Explorers until the summer of 2001. However, The Post's accident analysis revealed that Ford Explorers were equally as likely to be involved in rollover accidents when equipped with Goodyear or other tire brands, as with Firestone.

For that reason, The Post study concluded that "an unstable suspension design" and an excessively high center-of-gravity more likely caused the Explorer's rollover tendency. It was no accident that the 2002 Ford Explorer featured a re-designed suspension and ground clearance reduced by several inches.

Talk with an ethical and dedicated lawyer committed to your recovery. Contact the Piering Law Firm to schedule your free and confidential initial consultation. All cases are handled on a contingent fee basis, meaning there is no legal fee charged until we recover for you.

Crash Worthiness Cases

Crash-worthiness refers to the ability of a vehicle to protect its occupants during a collision, rollover, or other impact. Aspects of the vehicle contributing to its crash worthiness include the structural design, passenger restraints such as seat belts and air bags, locks, suspension, tires, and many other structural elements.

Car manufacturers around the world subject new vehicles in development to extensive testing to determine their safety for passengers in the vehicles. In the United States consumers have frequently seen televised enactments of crash-test dummies placed in vehicles that are then placed in crash simulations, such as a rear-end collision, or sideways collision, or a vehicle rollover. In each of these test scenarios, instruments are attached which record the type of impact and its force. This testing allows automotive engineers to evaluate the nature of impacts, and the severity of potential injuries.

For years, actions have been filed against manufacturers of vehicles when seatbelts did not hold, or when poor and unsafe designs within the vehicle made collision injuries far worse than they should have been. This type of litigation is often referred to as crash-worthiness litigation. Sometimes in a collision the seatbelt will break causing a person’s body to catapult in a way that results in a serious injury. Had the seatbelt not broken, the injury would have been relatively minor. Sometimes there will be an implosion in the vehicle that causes part of the vehicle to intrude on the passenger space, causing massive injuries to passengers or driver. Statistical research may show that in better designed vehicles such intrusion injuries simply do not occur.

Contact the Piering Law Firm to schedule your free and confidential initial consultation. We are available to speak with you 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, with home and weekend appointments when necessary. All cases are handled on a contingent fee basis, meaning there is no legal fee charged until we recover for you.