How Vehicle Recalls and Defects Contribute to Truck Accidents

Car accidents are so prevalent that they only make the news if they are incredibly catastrophic. On the other hand, truck accidents always make the news—thanks to their size and build, collisions involving them are almost guaranteed to be serious. In some cases, crashes are a result of a driver’s error. In others, they happen because of a vehicle defect or missed recall.

If you have suffered injuries in a truck accident, you may be entitled to fair compensation for everything you have lost. Discuss your claim now by calling Bailey Javins & Carter at 800-497-0234.

Common Truck Defects

Trucks put on serious mileage on a weekly and monthly basis, which means their parts wear out far quicker than passenger vehicles’ parts. While any part of a vehicle can fail at any time, some components are more prone to defects and design flaws than others:

• Blowouts: The effects of a tire blowout can be catastrophic. They leave debris strewn across the road, often cost an entire truckload of cargo to be lost and cause enormous damage to other parts of a truck. While some blowouts are just bad luck, others are the result of tires that aren’t durable enough for the trucks they’re meant to be used on.
• Overheating engine: An overheated engine may be a sign of numerous flaws within the truck. Regardless, ignoring a “check engine” sign for too long can cause the engine to fail completely, resulting in even more costly repairs.
• Faulty brakes: While you never want any part of a truck to fail, an unexpected brake failure is perhaps one of the worst things a driver can experience. The large loads that today’s drivers carry put enormous strain on the brakes, and if they aren’t up to the task or are poorly maintained, they can fail completely.
• Starter failure: Although this is more common in cold states, a truck’s starter can start to fail when the temperatures drop.

In some cases, these defects are due to a manufacturer’s failure to design or build components correctly. This is more common than you may think, as trucks now carry far larger loads than they did in the past. The components that were sufficient ten years ago simply do not stand up to today’s workloads. In other cases, issues are caused by a truck driver or trucking company failing to maintain a vehicle.

Recalls Cause Delays and Extra Expenses

Delays are another major issue for truck drivers and trucking companies. The fact is that any recall notice should be attended to immediately, even if that means delaying loads or missing deadlines. Otherwise, you risk destroying an entire load if the recalled component fails on that trip.

However, companies don’t always go this route. They often push off necessary repairs, promising to schedule them “when things slow down.” The bad part is that things never slow down, so recalled components stay on the truck and become a ticking time bomb.

This ultimately results in more delays and expenses for trucking companies and consumers. When the recalled part ultimately fails, the trucking company is likely to be on the hook for all associated repairs—while manufacturers foot the bill for recalled components, they don’t do that if a vehicle owner ignores the recall notice and runs the vehicle into the ground. This can put an entire truck out of commission for days or weeks, causing a serious backup in a company’s workload.

This affects accident rates in another way. When one truck is out of commission in a fleet, the company may still try to meet deadlines and keep all of its scheduled loads. How does it do this? It pushes the drivers to put in longer hours, finish hauls faster, and take another load with less turnaround time. The result is fatigued, physically and mentally exhausted drivers on the roads for far longer than they should be.

Injured in a Truck Accident? Call Bailey Javins & Carter

If you’ve been hurt in a truck accident in Charleston, don’t wait any longer to find out if you are entitled to compensation. We’re here to help. Call our firm at 800-497-0234 or send us a message online to set up a free consultation right now.