Tampa Collision Highlights Truck Dangers on Florida’s Highways
Anyone who has ever driven on a highway in the Sunshine State knows that Florida has a problem with large trucks on its highways. More than in many other states, the highways in Florida are clogged with large trucks that endanger drivers on our highways and cause accidents all over the state. These accidents are often more destructive and involve greater chances of serious injuries and fatalities than other types of accidents. An incident in Tampa recently involved the death of a two-month-old girl and another person after the vehicle in which she was traveling was in an accident with a dump truck and eight other vehicles. This baby was just the latest tragic fatality in Florida involving a large truck. These large vehicles can be a menace on the roads of Florida and throughout the country and too often it is innocent motorists that suffer injuries or are killed when an accident involves a large truck.
The Accident in Tampa
According to a report on the Tampa accident, the accident occurred when traffic was slowing down on Interstate 75 and the dump truck’s driver failed to adequately brake in time to deal with the stopped traffic. The dump truck hit a commercial truck and a Toyota Corolla and then overturned onto a van. The overturned dump truck, carrying the crushed van along with it, continued forward and hit five other vehicles in a chain reaction crash. The driver of the van was killed in the accident. The rest of the individuals involved in the crash suffered minor injuries, with only one being transported away from the accident scene for treatment for his injuries. The 74-year-old driver of the dump truck told a reporter who went to his home to interview him that he could not speak with the media about the crash due to the possibility of legal proceedings related to the accident. The accident shut down all lanes of southbound traffic on I-75 afterwards and it took more than four hours to clear the wreckage so that traffic could resume. The baby was injured in the initial collision and later died of her injuries from the crash.
Federal and State Data Show the Dangers Posed By Trucks in Florida
According to another report from Tampa’s News Channel 8 regarding the accident and recent efforts to make Florida’s highways safer, both state and federal safety statistics have shown that large trucks, such as the dump truck involved in this particular accidents in Tampa, have contributed to making Florida’s highways much more dangerous. According to federal government data, more than 4,300 people in the year 2016 alone were killed in collisions with semi trucks, tractors trailers and other large trucks across the state of Florida. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency responsible for ensuring the safety of motorists on highways throughout the United States, found that 72 percent of the people killed in accidents involving large trucks were not the ones in the large trucks. This means that it was not the truckers that died as a result of their actions and the destructive capacity of their vehicles, but instead innocent motorists or third parties that simply had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Large trucks are also more likely to be involved in accidents on Florida’s highways than other vehicles according to federal government safety data. According to a May 2018 report by NHTSA, those large trucks were more likely to be involved in fatal multiple-vehicle crashes than were passenger vehicles in 2016.
Contact Schwed Adams & McGinley if You Have Been Injured in a Florida Truck Accident
If you are a motorist and you have been involved in an accident in Florida caused by a tractor trailer or other large truck, then you will need an experienced personal injury attorney in order to help you to recover maximum damages for your injuries. Contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at the law firm of Schwed, Adams & McGinley, P.A. today. We have achieved great success in representing clients in collisions involving motor vehicles and large trucks during our attorneys’ more than 150 combined years of practicing law in Florida. Contact us today at (877) 694-6079 or contact@schwedlawfirm.com for a free consultation regarding your situation.