• 26
  • August
    2011

After an accident that killed three motorists and injured another, tractor-trailer driver Ronald Eugene Graybeal was arrested for numerous charges including DWI, death by vehicle and drug possession. While driving on I-40, Graybeal crashed into four vehicles, causing damage that even surprised veteran police officers.

"This is one of the worst I've seen in a long, long time, especially with the number of vehicles involved," State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Gordon said in an interview with WNCN-TV. "Any time you have a major interstate such as this, you have higher speeds and when we do have those collisions, they're pretty dramatic in nature."

Causes of Truck Accidents

While the Graybeal case is an extreme example of the importance of truck safety, trucking accidents in North Carolina are all too common. According to the Truck Safety Coalition, there were over 1,400 truck accidents around the state from 2001 to 2008.

Although state legislators are considering measures to keep truck drivers around the state safe - such as a bill prohibiting truckers from using cell phones and texting while on the road - the adoption of safe driving habits by motorists can help them avoid accidents with truckers.

Motorists in cars are frequently uneducated about the power of trucks. This can lead some drivers to become impatient and engage in risky behaviors, such as quick lane changes in front of trucks and failing to slow down when a tractor trailer is changing lanes. Exercising caution when passing and driving at a safe speed is the easiest way for drivers to keep themselves out of harm's way.

Even with these measures, however, sometimes safety is not enough. Tight deadlines and compensation structures push too many truckers into driving at excessive speeds for long periods of time. The danger is compounded by truckers who fail to take sufficient time to rest between runs. All of these practices cause truck driver fatigue and increase the danger to drivers on the road.

In addition to exhaustion, inexperience can also be a factor in tractor trailer accidents. New truck drivers who receive inadequate training to develop safe driving techniques and defensive driving maneuvers pose an additional hazard on the highway.