While data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed a slight decline in highway fatalities in 2018, crashes involving large trucks increased by nearly one percent.

There are a lot of circumstances that can contribute to truck accidents, including road conditions, weather, lighting, and more. While state-specific data isn’t available, we can assume that Georgia follows the rest of the nation in terms of what factors lead to truck accidents.

A first-harmful event is an action that initially causes a wreck. A collision with another vehicle that’s also on the road is a common example of this. This accounted for 72.5 percent of all fatal accidents. Colliding with a fixed object was the second-most common first harmful event, accounting for 9.2 percent of all fatal truck accidents.

The largest portion of fatal accidents occurred in zones where the speed limit was 50-55 miles per hour (34.6 percent), followed by speed limit zones of 60-65 miles per hour (20.2 percent). Because these are the most common highway speeds, it’s no surprise that the majority of fatal truck accidents happen in these zones; the average speed limit for fatal truck accidents in 2016 was 55.6 miles per hour.

In addition, most fatal accidents happened during the daytime, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. About 63 percent of fatal truck accidents happened during this time. Overall, 77.5 percent of injury crashes happened in the daytime, as did over 80 percent of PDO crashes. This isn’t too surprising, since this is when most people are on the road.

What may be surprising is that the majority of crashes happen during the week, and not the weekend. Only about 15 percent of fatal accidents, 12 percent of injury crashes, and 13 percent of PDO crashes happen on the weekend. Most crashes happen on the roadway, as opposed to on the shoulder or median of the road.

What may be unexpected is that most crashes don’t happen at intersections. In fact, nearly three-quarters of fatal crashes, about 60 percent of injury crashes, and about 65 percent of PDO crashes don’t happen at intersections. However, four-way intersections are generally the most dangerous type of intersections for truck accidents.

Finally, most crashes (85 percent of fatal wrecks, 79 percent of injury wrecks, and 82 percent of PDO wrecks) happen on dry roads. Clear weather conditions were present at over 70 percent of fatal crashes, 69 percent of injury crashes, and nearly 73 percent of PDO crashes

Truck accidents most often happen during the safest, most normal conditions. You assume that truck accidents are more likely to happen when it’s dark and rainy on back roads, but the majority of wrecks happen on highways and other main roads during bright, dry, sunny days.

No matter the cause or factors leading to your truck accident, you have legal options. At Rafi Law Firm, we have helped truck accident victims throughout Georgia get the compensation they deserve. We know how the insurance companies work, and we know how to fight for your rights in and out of court.

Before you accept any settlement offer from the insurance company and forfeit your right to seek greater compensation, give us a call to talk about your case at no cost to you. Call us at 404-800-1156 or contact us online to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with an Atlanta truck accident lawyertoday