WASHINGTON, DC -- The Semi Truck Accident Victims Center is launching an advocacy program for victims of commercial vehicle accidents with instant access to "top notch national legal representation.". In a press release Monday, the group states: "with increasing truck driver fatigue, or driver negligence, we fear more deadly semi truck, or commercial truck accidents involving completely innocent victims."
A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration three-year study completed in 2006 entitled "The Large Truck Crash Causation Study" concluded that driver behavior was the cause of most truck crashes.
What is not made clear in that report, but is artfully buried in a table entitled "Critical Pre-Crash Events," is that 64% of accidents involving commercial vehicles are attributable to the "driver behavior" of 4-wheelers, to pedestrians, and to accidents where the trucker was "not involved in first harmful event." Direct trucker error accounts for 34% of the total with 2% listed as "Other." 15% of the accidents make up the "not involved in first harmful event" tally and are included with the "Other" statistic for a total (on their table) of 17%.
The opaque of the press release does not seem to extend the offer of legal representation to all completely innocent victims of truck crashes--but only the 34% minority where the trucker was found at fault.
The Semi Truck Accident Victims Center press release and FMCSA Critcal Pre-Crash Event table from The Large Truck Crash Causation Study
