Federal Motor Carrier Safety ActPreventable Truck Accidents

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act defines a preventable accident (on the part of the motor carrier) as an accident that involved a commercial motor vehicle and that could have been averted but for an act, or failure to act, by the motor carrier or the driver. Preventability is found if a driver, who exercises normal judgment and foresight could have foreseen the possibility of the accident that in fact occurred and avoided it by taking steps within his/her control which would not have risked causing another kind of mishap. A Board Certified Truck Accident attorney can investigate whether a particular truck accident was a preventable accident. Patterson Law also has a licensed Class A CDL driver on staff to evaluate whether driver error contributed to an accident.

If you are involved in an accident with a commercial truck, bus or other commercial vehicle you may have a valid injury claim if the crash was preventable. Preventability is one of the most overlooked aspects of truck accidents. Ordinarily, an injury lawyer hears a simple recounting of an accident and makes a nearly instantaneous decision as to whether the case should be pursued. A preventability analysis looks at all the actions taken by the commercial driver and his company before the accident occurred. Preventable truck accidents can arise from many different types of failures on the part of the motor carrier or truck driver. Hours of service violations, choosing to drive in hazardous conditions, improper securing of cargo and inadequate driver training can all lead to preventable accidents.

The United States Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration produced the Preventable Accident Manual. The manual identifies multiple types of accidents and methods to reduce preventable accidents. With each accident category the manual identifies the potential causes of the preventable accident and the countermeasures that could have been taken to prevent the accident. Trucking companies and their drivers are not likely to volunteer errors and failures to follow rules that may have contributed to a crash.

An investigation conducted by an experienced truck accident attorney can uncover whether a person was injured in a preventable accident. This involves seeking publicly available information, sending preservation letters and in some cases arranging inspections of the commercial vehicle. The failure to take these steps can result in the evidence being lost forever. Preventable accidents may appear to be difficult cases to win. But once evidence is obtained that the driver or truck company could have prevented the accident a valid injury claim can be pursued.

If you or a loved one was injured in a truck accident please call 301-888-4878 to speak with a lawyer to conduct a preventable accident analysis.

• Equipment Failure
• Rear End Collision
• Lane Change Sideswipe
• Vehicle Lighting and Conspicuity
• Full Trailer Coupling
• Wheel retention and deterioration
• Tire Wear and deterioration
• Tire Inflation
• Brake performance
• Driving in Adverse Conditions
• Failure to negotiate downgrades
• Negotiating curves
• Planning Schedules, Loads and Routes
• Improperly Secured Cargo
• Unbalanced Payloads
• Suspension Failure
• Steering Failure
• Texting while driving

Any preventable accident that falls under the above categories or may have been the result of the above listed problems may be enough for liability to be found against the truck driver, his company or both.