Sharing the road with tractor-trailers can be stressful, but we trust that commercial vehicle drivers do everything within their power to travel safely on Mississippi roads. A recent report indicates that some of that trust could be misplaced.

Drug use among truck drivers and operators is at its highest levels since the establishment of the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in 2019. Let’s take a closer look at current drug use trends in the trucking industry and what that could mean for the safety of Mississippi motorists.

If you were involved in an accident with a large tractor-trailer, you may be owed compensation for expenses like medical bills, lost wages, auto repairs, and much more. Securing that compensation can be an uphill battle, though, especially if you are dealing with an insurance company that refuses to acknowledge liability.

Your ability to recover, repair your vehicle, and return to as normal a life as possible hinges on your ability to negotiate a full and fair settlement with the trucking company and its insurer. This is no small feat, and even the most well-intentioned accident victim will not have the skills and knowledge required to hold the trucking company accountable for what happened.

Truck accident injuries are often catastrophic for occupants of smaller motor vehicles. If you were injured in a collision involving a tractor-trailer, you may be owed compensation for your lost wages, medical bills, and more. Trucking companies have powerful insurance companies and lawyers on their side, so you’ll need a knowledgeable and aggressive attorney who is prepared to advocate for your rights.

At Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC, our attorneys are familiar with the most common causes of truck accidents resulting from negligence. We thoroughly investigate every case to determine what exactly caused an accident and who was at fault. With this information, we build strong truck accident cases that can stand up to the insurance company’s scrutiny.

Most of us drive alongside large trucks on a daily basis, no matter whether we only navigate city streets here in Jackson or highways and major interstates. While sharing the road with truckers makes some of us uncomfortable for various reasons, one danger you may not often consider is the prospect of a truck having a defective hitch.

A collision with a large truck is a life-altering experience. A fully loaded tractor-trailer unit can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds and around 35,000 pounds when empty. The average midsize motor vehicle only weighs 3,300 pounds, making your car no match for a commercial truck.

Driving is a task that requires all your focus, attention, and effort. You might feel this more acutely than ever when you are sharing the road with big trucks like tractor-trailers. Your vigilance behind the wheel may not be enough to prevent a collision, though.

Big truck drivers are notoriously overworked, with companies pushing them to spend long hours on the road as they transport consumer goods across Mississippi. Fatigue is a serious, ongoing problem in the trucking industry, and it’s putting you and everyone else on the road at risk for a trucking accident.

Why do some semi-trucks have spikes on the wheels? You may have seen them before—you’re traveling down the highway, look to your left or right, and notice that the 18-wheeler beside you has a cluster of shiny metal spikes attached to the wheel.

A jackknife truck accident is one in which the cab and the trailer fold in on each other as the vehicle comes to a stop. In some cases, the cab and the trailer may come apart, which can increase the risk of serious injuries or fatalities to the truck’s driver and others in the vicinity of the damaged vehicle. Let’s take a closer look at what causes this type of accident and what to do if you are involved in a crash caused by a commercial truck.

By their mere presence, commercial trucks 20-30 times the size of a passenger vehicle pose a threat to other cars with which they share the roads. And these giants of the highway become weapons in the hands of drivers who are reckless behind the wheel. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), 97% of individuals who are killed in tractor-trailers accidents are the drivers of the smaller passenger vehicles, not the truck drivers themselves. Truck drivers have a duty to bear this fact in mind while operating their vehicles.

As a firm of personal injury lawyers in Jackson, we have represented our clients in many legal cases involving commercial trucks. The law gives injured parties and surviving family members of wrongful death victims the means to take action against those who wrongfully caused harm to another. But most of these truck accidents can be prevented by simple acts of vigilance. We as involved citizens owe our friends and neighbors the watchful attention and care we would give our own family members. In this way, we can all play our part in making the roads safer for everyone.

When you’re driving in a regular-sized vehicle, it’s normal to feel some concern while driving alongside a commercial truck. It makes sense—large trucks are up to 30 times bigger than passenger vehicles, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). This feeling also makes sense because the fatalities of truck accidents are occupants of passenger vehicles 67 percent of the time, compared to truck drivers who are the victims 16 percent of the time.

If you’ve been involved in a collision with a large truck that wasn’t your fault, then you could use the help of a lawyer. A truck accident attorney from Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC can provide you with the legal representation you need after a crash in Jackson.