Recently, a semi truck accident involving a semi and three other vehicles caused a closure on Interstate 71 in Kings Mills, Ohio.
But this post isn’t specifically about the details of that crash. Rather, it’s about considering the scale and scope of what such accidents frequently entail. Look at some of the terms mentioned in the first sentence: A semi truck and three other vehicles. A highway closure — an interstate highway closure, at that.
We have mentioned it before, but it bears repeating — semi trucks are huge. They outweigh every other vehicle that commonly uses the interstate highway system, and the interstate is their common means of transport. Drive any interstate highway in the United States for any distance whatsoever, and you will come across these vehicles, often several at a time. The interstate-semi truck relationship is a vital part of the American economy, and as such, when you drive on the highway you’re going to see a lot of that relationship play out.
So, these trucks are the largest on the road, and they’re on the highways all the time. Just by the law of averages, accidents will happen involving these trucks. Add in the fact that many truckers are unofficially pushed to drive much longer hours than is safe for them to do and still operate heavy machinery, and you have the perfect circumstances to create more accidents still.
And remember, a few weeks back a semi truck side-lined a train so hard that it killed a conductor in the engine room of the vehicle. Trains outweigh semi trucks by several orders of magnitude, and still an impact from a semi derailed and set fire to the train. Now consider that numerous smaller vehicles like passenger cars and minivans are frequently involved in semi truck crashes. They don’t stand a chance.
Highway closures also cost the states a great deal of money. They cost motorists a lot of time as they wait, stuck in traffic, burning gas and being made late for work, until the closure is reopened. They cost businesses money as other trucks are held up by the collision.
The point of all this? Semi truck accidents are very serious, and should be viewed within the light of legal action for those involved and harmed, rather than as freak inconveniences.
