First and foremost, many truckers are excellent drivers who put a lot of care into driving safely each and every day. These are professional drivers who have far more experience than your average person on the road. They fully understand what it takes to be safe.
However, it’s also true that getting involved in a car accident with a semi is more dangerous than being involved in an accident with another car. A semi truck is much taller than a passenger vehicle and can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds, which could be 40 times what a car would weigh. This is why it’s so important for commercial drivers to focus on safety, but do they have any incentive to drive dangerously?
Getting paid by the mile
One thing that can influence truck drivers to push the limits is that many of them are paid by the mile. So you can imagine that a truck driver who gets stuck in a traffic jam would be frustrated, feeling that they are wasting time without earning money. They could then be tempted to break the speed limit after they get out of the traffic jam, trying to make up for the time – and income – that they lost.
Additionally, truck drivers have deadlines to meet. If the truck driver is feeling overly fatigued, driving late into the night, they may not feel like they have the option to pull over and take a nap. They have to hit that deadline, so they keep driving, even though they fully understand that it’s dangerous.
If you’ve been injured in an accident involving a semi, you need to know what legal options you have to seek compensation.