Wide Right Turn Truck Accidents

Over the last decade, truck accidents causing injuries have been on the rise across the United States, with yearly totals breaking 100,000 in a recent year. The same is true of fatal truck crashes, according to data collected by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Some of these crashes are undoubtedly a result of careless or inexperienced truck drivers making wide right turns. A hitch mechanism that pivots during turns connects the tractor and a semi-truck trailer. Trucks need extra space to the left to make safe right turns, but when turns go wrong, the trailer pivots too far to the left, causing serious and sometimes fatal accidents.

This guide provides an indepth look at wide right turn truck accidents what they are, how they happen, how insurance companies and courts determine liability for them, the damages you might recover following one, and how a truck accident attorney can recover those damages for you.

Truck Accident Case Results:

• $3,200,000.00 – Wrongful Death – Trucking Accident: Recovery from a company truck that struck our clients’ vehicle head on, killing one and injuring another.
• $2,250,000.00 – Wrongful Death and Personal Injuries – Trucking Accident: Recovery from trucking company whose truck struck our client on the interstate at night.
• $1,475,000.00 – Wrongful Death – Trucking Accident: Recovery for the death of one client and for catastrophic injuries suffered by another.
• $1,970,000.00 – Wrongful Death – Trucking Accident: Recovery for death of our client caused when his truck was struck head on by another truck on I95.
• $600,000.00 –Wrongful Death – Trucking Accident: Recovery on behalf of a client who was struck and killed by an eighteen-wheeler when the truck violated the client’s right away.

Two Types of Wide Right Turns

Florida’s Commercial Drivers License Manual explains the two types of wide right turns that large trucks make: jug handle and button hook. Truck drivers are supposed to make button hook turns, which involves keeping a truck’s wheels as close to the curb as possible and swinging wide after beginning the turn.

Staying close to the curb prevents other drivers from trying to pass you on the right because they think you are making a left turn. A jug handle turn occurs when drivers swing wide to the left before making a right-hand turn. This movement causes the truck to swing into oncoming traffic, potentially leading to dangerous accidents and injuries.

When a truck driver makes a wide turn into an opposing traffic lane, the truck can collide head-on with another motor vehicle. Squeeze-play accidents involve trucks attempting to make wide right turns and leaving too much space between the right curb and the truck, enabling a vehicle to drive between the curb and the truck and the truck striking the vehicle during the turn.

Squeeze play accidents may involve:

• Truck drivers who do not use turn signals before completing turns. Other drivers may assume trucks were going straight and pulled into turn lanes alongside them.
• Cars driving in the blind spots of trucks. Commercial trucks have major blind spots on all four sides, especially on the right-hand side. When a truck driver fails to see a vehicle alongside the truck, they often assume there is sufficient room to make a turn.
• Inadequate training. While truck drivers should undergo significant training on performing wide turns safely, many truck drivers do not receive sufficient training before operating their vehicles.
• Truck drivers failing to wait for other vehicles to clear intersections before making turns.
• Reduced visibility because of inclement weather, especially at night. These conditions can make it more difficult for truck drivers to see other vehicles.

Factors That Increase Wide Right Turn Accidents

Driving a semi-truck or any other commercial truck requires a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Obtaining a CDL requires passing a written test and a road test. During both examinations, truck drivers must demonstrate they can safely make turns in the vehicles they will be operating – including wide turns. With these requirements, you might think that wide right turn accidents are unlikely. Certain factors promote the likelihood of a truck driver making an improper wide right turn, which can lead to dangerous sometimes fatal accidents.

Inexperienced Truck Drivers

The trucking industry continues to suffer from a massive shortage of drivers to transport the goods Americans want and need across the country. Market forces have caused trucking companies to hire inexperienced drivers, potentially making accidents more likely. Each intersection can present different challenges and provides varying types of information that a driver must process to turn safely.

In some cases, an improper turn leading to an accident results from inexperience. Drivers haven’t had enough practice driving trucks to get it right every time. In other cases, trucking companies haven’t provided adequate training to ensure that their drivers can make safe right turns and avoid wide right-turn accidents.

An American Trucking Associations (ATA) report said the trucking industry needed to hire almost 900,000 more drivers to meet rising demand. CNBC reported a shortage of 80,000 drivers last year, an all-time high expected to reach 160,000 by 2030.

Impaired Truck Drivers

Impaired truck drivers cannot appropriately react to everything in an intersection. If truck drivers don’t clear their blind spots when making a right turn, they can cause a dangerous wide right turn accident. Impairment might result from fatigue, alcohol use, illegal drug use, and prescription drug use. Importantly, the law holds commercial truck drivers to a higher standard regarding impairment than non-commercial drivers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the U.S. agency that regulates the trucking industry, requires drivers to undergo random drug and alcohol tests to ensure that they don’t have controlled substances in their system. Those who hold a CDL cannot have any illegal drugs in their body, and their blood or breath alcohol limit must be less than 0.04 percent, half the legal limit of other motorists.

Prescription drugs, especially when mixed with illegal drugs or alcohol, can also impair a truck driver’s ability to judge time and distance. This kind of impairment can make it difficult to discern when to start a wide right turn, highlighting the importance of drivers taking prescription medication as directed by their physicians. Finally, truck drivers have demanding schedules, which include long hours, and many must drive overnight.

Although the FMCSA mandates the number of hours a trucker can drive in a day and a week, drivers who don’t get the rest they need when they aren’t driving are at risk for fatigue or drowsy driving. According to the FMCSA, 18 hours without sleep impairs a person’s body to the same extent as a 0.08 blood alcohol level, once again impacting how a driver might judge distances when making a right turn.

The FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse recorded over 56,000 drug and alcohol violations last year. Violations increased by about 10,000 over the final two months of the year.

Only 1,203 of the total driver violations were alcohol-related, and most were for drivers who tested with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.04 or greater. Of 56,000 violations, 84 percent involved truck drivers testing positive for drugs or alcohol.

Some of the most frequent substances for which drivers failed tests included:

• Marijuana: 29,500 violations
• Cocaine: 7,940 violations
• Amphetamines: 4,953 violations
• Alcohol (BAC of 0.04 percent or higher): 1,203 violations
• Attempt to cheat drug test: 1,120 violations

Unfamiliar Surroundings

Some truck drivers run the same routes daily or weekly, so the truckers become familiar with the roads on their routes, especially city streets and main intersections where they must make right-hand turns. When drivers are especially comfortable with their routes and surroundings, they sometimes learn shortcuts or tricks to avoid making right-hand turns at busy intersections.

Truck drivers who regularly have different delivery stops and must follow different routes may struggle with unfamiliar surroundings. When drivers concentrate on their routes and where to go, they sometimes become complacent while driving, forgetting to hug the curb when they make a right turn and potentially causing a wide right turn accident.

While most truck drivers become accustomed to driving on interstate highways, it can be far more difficult for a truck driver to less familiar areas. In such scenarios, truck drivers are less likely to understand local speed limits, know exact spots where to turn, and may forget to properly signal turns.

Distracted Driving

When you think of distractions while driving, your mind probably goes to cell phones. Using a cell phone and texting is dangerous and illegal for all Florida drivers. However, it’s unlikely that a wide right turn accident or other truck accident will occur because of cell phones. The FMCSA has regulated cell phone use in the trucking industry for over a decade.

Truck drivers can only use their phones with a hands-free feature and may not use more than one button to initiate or end a call. Yet, truck drivers might get distracted in many other ways, potentially leading to a wide right turn accident. Some examples include drinking and eating, adjusting climate controls, personal grooming, reaching for an item on the floor, watching an event outside the truck, and daydreaming.

Truck drivers can easily be distracted using the dispatching devices inherent to most commercial trucks. It is also entirely possible that a truck driver may be distracted by something completely outside their cab that catches their attention.

In fact, a three-year data collection effort by FMCSA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that an estimated 11,000 truck crashes nationwide involved distractions external to the truck cab.

Another study of real-world driving, Driver Distraction In Commercial Vehicle Operations, showed that texting while driving increased a truck driver’s chances of being involved in a safety-critical event by 23 times. The same study found that in the moments before a safety-critical event, drivers texting while driving spent almost 5 seconds looking at their phones.

FMCSA also reported that the study found that using a dispatching device while driving increased a truck driver’s chances of being involved in a safety-critical event by nine times. The same study showed that writing while driving increased a truck driver’s chance of being involved in a safety-critical event by eight times, and reading a map while driving increased the chances of being in a safety-critical event by seven times.

Recovering Damages After a Wide Right Turn Accident

If a wide turn truck accident injured you, Florida law entitles you to seek compensation for losses you incurred if you take legal action within the four-year statute of limitations and exhaust the limits of your mandatory Florida personal injury protection (PIP) coverage.

If you reach a settlement or a court rules in your favor, you might recover:

• Medical costs, including ambulance and emergency services, surgery, hospital stay, medication, and radiology
• Future medical costs when a wide right turn accident causes a severe injury requiring extensive recovery or a permanent injury requiring lifelong healthcare
• Lost wages for time away from work as a result of an accident, injury, hospitalization, or recovery
• Future lost wages when a wide right turn truck accident causes an injury that prevents someone from returning to their job or from otherwise seeking gainful employment
• Rehabilitation expenses, including assistive devices, such as wheelchairs and crutches, as well as visits to physical therapists, occupational therapists, and other specialists
• Cost of travel and gas to and from follow-up appointments
• Physical pain and suffering
• Emotional suffering
• Loss of consortium with a spouse
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Loss of quality of life
• Other non-economic costs that might apply to your case

If you have lost a loved one in a wide right turn accident, your ability to recover compensation depends on your relationship with the deceased. Eligible surviving family members might recover funeral and burial expenses, non-economic losses dependent on the relationship with the deceased, and economic losses resulting from the death. A qualified truck accident attorney can advise you on the most prudent action for you and your family.

Determining Liability in Wide Right Turn Truck Accidents

If you have suffered harm in a wide right turn truck accident, you will likely assume that the truck driver caused the accident by turning improperly. Although this may prove true, liability in traffic accidents, especially commercial vehicle accidents, isn’t as simple as it seems. In many cases, the trucking company will be liable.

If a trucking company owns the involved truck and not the driver, you have two parties that the court can potentially hold responsible for the accident.

Some examples of scenarios where the trucking company might be partially or wholly at fault for a wide right turn truck accident include:

• The trucking company improperly loaded or overloaded a truck, making it more difficult to control while making a right turn.
• The trucking company failed to provide adequate training to the truck driver.
• A maintenance issue caused a truck driver to lose control while making a right turn.
• The company hired a driver without a commercial driver’s license or other proper qualifications.
• The trucking company forced the driver to break FMCSA Hours of Service regulations, causing fatigue.

Truck drivers and trucking companies are only two possible liable parties. For example, a truck accident resulting from a defective truck part can result in a claim against a part manufacturer. A defective part usually results in a product liability claim since the defective product caused an injury. There may be other parties in the distribution process that also bear liability.

Right turn accidents may stem from how the crew loaded the cargo. If so, you can hold the parties responsible for loading the cargo liable for damages. Some loads may not be adequately secured, causing trailer problems while the driver was performing their turn.

A governmental agency may also be at fault for a dangerous road design when it fails to correct a defective road condition or notify drivers of dangers.

Contact an Experienced Truck Accident Attorney After a Wide Right Turn Truck Crash

If you suffered injuries or lost a loved one in a wide right-turn truck accident, you shouldn’t have to shoulder the financial burden in the wake of an accident caused by another party. An experienced truck accident attorney does more than simply file a lawsuit for you. A lawyer can help by:

Investigating the Accident

Your attorney will gather evidence and uncover the facts surrounding your wide right turn accident to build the best case. This evidence can include obtaining police reports, medical records, and eyewitness statements. Also, your attorney can ask for the truck driver’s cell phone records, electronic logbook entries, and truck maintenance records to support your accident claim.

Additionally, your lawyer might consult with experts like accident reconstruction specialists to help determine and prove liability in your case. As your lawyer builds your case, they might consult medical professionals who can speak to the nature of your injuries and your prognosis to help place a value on your case.

Negotiating With the Insurance Company

A trucking company or driver may deny liability for your accident if you suffered an injury in a wide right turn. Even if you were in the driver’s blind spot, they must clear those blind spots before making any maneuvers.

Insurance companies will aggressively attempt to minimize their payout when they know their policyholders are at fault. Sometimes, they offer victims a quick settlement amount to avoid paying much larger damages awarded by a court, but this quick offer should be a starting point for negotiation.

Lawyers are skilled negotiators who can communicate with insurance companies to maximize your chances of receiving full and fair compensation for your injuries. Additionally, insurance companies look for you to say things they can use to devalue a claim. Your attorney can protect you from these kinds of tricks.

You should avoid speaking to any insurer until you have legal representation. An insurance company may tell you it needs a recorded statement, but do not provide one without having an attorney present.

Insurers often trick people into saying things that ultimately damage their claims and lead to a reduction in or denials of injury claims. Even when an insurance company offers you a lump-sum settlement, you need to question if the amount will be enough to cover every single cost you will be facing.

Some accident victims only consider their present damages. You can still incur many future medical bills. If you settle too soon, you will risk closing your case without enough compensation and leaving yourself with no options to recover additional money later if necessary.

Litigating Your Case

Sometimes negotiations don’t go well with insurance companies. They might argue that the accident didn’t cause your injuries, that you aren’t as injured as you claim, or about the overall value of your claim. When insurance companies don’t want to offer fair compensation to an individual who has suffered an injury by their policyholder, litigation is necessary.

An experienced truck accident attorney can fight your wide right-turn truck accident case in the courtroom to help you secure compensation for all your injuries and losses. If you still have questions, call a truck accident lawyer today.