Rollover accidents pose a particularly serious threat to vehicle occupants. The typical San Francisco rollover accident poses many dangers, including the potential for vehicle ejections, roof crush injuries road departures and other hazards that can result in severe pain and disability. When the vehicle involved in the collision is a commercial truck of 80,000 pounds of steel, the risk of fatality from crushing injuries is much greater for a passenger vehicle occupant, motorcyclist, bicyclist or pedestrian. Rollover accidents involving commercial trucks often cause catastrophic injuries, such as spinal cord damage, traumatic brain injuries, amputation of limbs, paralysis and even wrongful death.
A fatal commercial truck rollover accident on Interstate 680 in San Jose last week serves as a grim reminder of the potential fatal consequences of a Bay Area trucking accident. The fatal accident occurred when the driver of a big-rig loaded with broccoli attempted to navigate a curve at too high a rate of speed. According to reports from the California Highway Patrol, the San Francisco commercial truck rolled over onto a Toyota Camry crushing the vehicle and resulting in fatal injury to the Camry passenger.
There are strict trucking regulations that govern commercial trucks when they are transporting loads. These regulations apply to such factors as the maximum weight of the load and how the load is secured. When a vehicle is not loaded properly or the load exceeds the maximum allowable weight, the risk of a deadly Bay Area rollover trucking accident increases substantially. Both truck drivers and commercial carriers sometimes disregard regulations governing appropriate commercial trucking loads to increase profits by reducing the number of loads required to transport cargo to its destination.
Most commercial truck accidents are avoidable if the truck driver and commercial carrier take reasonable care, including proper loading and driving of a tractor-trailer. A heavy fully loaded commercial truck is prone to tip when negotiating curves at excessive speeds because the vehicles are top heavy. It is never appropriate for truck drivers to operate their commercial truck above posted speed limits for big-rigs especially when navigating curves.
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If your are injured in a San Francisco commercial trucking collision, our experienced San Francisco trucking accident lawyers at Zimmerman Law may be able to help. If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco big-rig crash, you should contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply. We invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.