FedEx Truck Driver Crashes Into Telephone Pole
A recent article in CBS Philly reported that a FedEx delivery truck accident occurred in the Nicetown section of the city. The driver stole the truck and “led police on a chase in Philadelphia.” While the high-speed chase and crash did not produce any known injuries, the incident raises concerns about dangerous truck accidents in urban areas. Eyewitnesses at the scene of the accident emphasized how the driver “could have killed somebody” as he raced through Philadelphia streets. Indeed, “during the pursuit, the suspect clipped several parked cars with the FedEx truck.”
News outlets in eastern Pennsylvania reported on the FedEx truck accident the same day that a truck accident occurred in nearby Delaware County, Pennsylvania, according to NBC Philadelphia. In that crash, an automobile driver was killed when he careened into a utility truck that had been stopped at a light.
How frequently do truck accidents occur? Are other drivers on the roadways at risk of injury in a truck accident?
Truck Accidents Cause Fatalities and Severe Injuries
The U.S. Department of Transportation takes truck accidents very seriously, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently released a report about truck accident trends across the country. Notably, more than half of large-truck occupants who suffer fatalities are involved in single-vehicle accidents, and nearly two-thirds of these accident victims are male.
Additionally, based on the above report and additional statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), truck accidents briefly showed a hope of decline in the early 2000s but have since increased.
The statistics are startling:
• 3,215 large trucks were involved in fatal crashes in 2009. From 1999-2009, there was a 35 percent decrease in fatal truck accidents, while crashes that resulted in serious injuries appeared to decline by nearly half in that decade.
• By 2012, however, NHTSA’s data revealed an increase in large truck fatalities, with 640 deaths in 2011 and 697 deaths in 2012. The number of injuries also increased by 2,000 people.
• Light trucks, or passenger trucks, also showed an increase in both fatalities and injuries between 2011 and 2012, with a one percent increase in the number of reported deaths and a 4.7 percent increase in the number of injured occupants.
In addition to an increase in the sheer number of accident-related deaths and injuries, the number of accidents in both rural and urban areas also increased. Indeed, urban areas actually saw a larger percentage increase, which suggests drivers in the Philadelphia area need to be particularly careful when they are on the road.
According to NHTSA, these unsettling increases in the number of truck accident fatalities and injuries are some of the first we’ve seen since the early 2000s. With more large trucks on the road every year, it’s difficult to know whether truck accident injuries and deaths will decline anytime soon. If you have suffered severe injuries, you should consult with a truck accident lawyer.
