The best way to prevent semi-truck accidents is make it expensive for trucking companies to operate where profits are ahead of safety. Currently, it is more financially valuable for trucking companies, and semi-truck companies to higher untrained drivers, who keep poor logbooks, who drive too many hours, who are paid too little, and who threaten every other driver on the road.
The most significant way to change this formula is lawsuits when someone gets serious injured or killed. The semi-truck company must pay for the damage they created in society, on the injured person’s family, and the injured person themselves.
Semi-truck accidents cause more serious accidents because of the basic physics involved. Everything that hits something else has what is called a velocity. The momentum of a semi-truck is the weight (mass) of the truck multiplied by the velocity (speed and direction of travel). Smaller cars have significantly less mass than semi-trucks. Semi-trucks have a large amount of mass, therefore the inertia the semi-truck has when it hits something is seriously harmful. This is why the thought of getting hit by a semi-truck is so much more scary than by a regular vehicle. Therefore when they are in a collision, there is less damage, harm, and possible harm that results from the accident.
Semi-trucks have extra safety features to try to reduce the risk of accidents, because they are so much more serious when they occur. The safety features are extra mirrors, lights, multiple backup systems, braking assistance, and video cameras. In addition to safety features, the semi-trucks have mandatory rules. These are rules like hours semi-truck drivers can drive, logbook requirements, drug and alcohol prohibitions, and others.
