Personal Injury Law

Driver of 18-wheeler suffers heart attack on the road

By LaBovick Law

Traffic accidents involving commercial trucks  happen everyday, therefore drivers must pay careful attention while on the road. This week in West Palm Beach, there was a truck accident involving an 18-wheeler. According to reports, the driver of the  tractor trailer suffered a heart attack. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the driver and his family as he recovers.

The driver, a 61 year old male was taken by Trauma Hawk to St. Mary's Medical Center. The West Palm Beach truck accident occurred after the driver had a heart attack and lost control of the vehicle. The tractor-trailer rolled over and ended up in a canal, thankfully, emergency workers managed to get the driver out of the cab after about 25 minutes of prying the cab open.

Commercial Trucks are very important to transporting goods throughout the country. The Trucking Industry is an important industry that creates approximately 255.2 billion dollars a year. There are over 3 million truckers that drive on our highways, as independent drivers and as contract employees for trucking firms. However, since large tractor trailers and other commercial trucks share the highway with motorists, there is a level of responsibility that must be maintained to help keep the roadways safe to prevent truck accidents.

The FMCSA indicates that a number of factors can contribute to poor driver performance, which in turn can cause truck accidents. These factors can include:

• Speeding
• Fatigue
• Distractions such as Cell Phone Use or Texting while Driving
• Use of Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drugs

Florida 2008 truck accident statistics: 11,500 accidents involving medium, heavy and tractor-trailer trucks.

• Over 290 truck crash fatalities and more than 6,400 truck accident injuries
• Medium Truck (Four Rear Tires): 72 Fatal Crashes; 2,596 Injury Crashes
• Heavy Truck: 77 Fatal Crashes; 1,939 Injury Crashes
• Tractor-Trailer (Cab): 145 Fatal Crashes; 1,867 Injury Crashes

18-wheeler driver may have suffered heart attack before crash - Palm Beach Post

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on May 13, 2010 (boomark / email).