Last year, there were more than 78,000 accidents on Minnesota highways involving commercial trucks, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. 1 That’s approximately six percent of the state’s total highway accidents. Nationwide, the statistics are similar. More than 500,000 truck-related accidents occur every year on America’s highways. 3 And, since the weight of the average truck is far greater than the average weight of a car (around 3,000 pounds), the outcome is heavily weighted against the occupants of the car. In fact, 74 percent of the fatalities associated with car-truck accidents involve the occupants of the vehicles other than the truck, according to OSHA.
Freightliner of St. Cloud Takes Steps to Improve Truck Highway Safety
To help educate truck drivers on the new technology available to improve highway safety, one Minnesota area truck dealer is making a Freightliner Cascadia semi mini-cab outfitted with all of the latest safety features available to area drivers for one week. Owner/operators can swap out their existing rig for the Cascadia so they can see how all of the features work and how it handles.
“It’s an expensive show and tell,” Freightliner of St. Cloud General Manager Jon Pearson said, “but we wanted to actually show customers (the safety features).”2
Just a few of the safety features on the Cascadia include a windshield mounted camera system, a front-mounted radar system, active brake assist, adaptive cruise control and lane departure warnings. Of course, Pearson reiterates, “the driver is still the number one safety control.” That’s why they created this program. Freightliner of St. Cloud expects to have 15 to 20 drivers take advantage of the program before they sell the truck to a prospective customer.
Truck Accidents
Sometimes truck-car accidents happen despite all of the latest and best safety technology. That’s where our truck accident lawyers can help. If someone you care about has been involved in a serious accident with a commercial truck, it’s important to contact an attorney as soon as you can so that you have someone who is intimately familiar with the applicable laws protect your rights and those of your family. This type of situation is too serious and the consequences too long-lasting to leave to the mercy of the court and the trucker’s insurance company. To learn more about a possible personal injury claim or wrongful death suit and to schedule a free case analysis with a truck accident lawyer, call our office today at 1-888-377-8900.
Sources:
- http://www.sctimes.com/story/money/2015/10/10/improving-safety-one-hands-demonstration-time/73552458/
2. http://www.startribune.com/improving-truck-safety-one-hands-on-demonstration-at-a-time/333464151/
3. https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/trucking_industry/safetyinfo.html