The study was conducted bythe Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which recommends that texting should be banned for all drivers.

Methodology of the study included video mounts in the cabs of large trucks. The study found that drivers took their eyes off the road for around five seconds when texting. At highway speeds, that’s long enough to cover a football field.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia already ban texting while driving. The study of long-haul truck drivers could lead to more sweeping restrictions. Other studies have shown that reaction time and steering ability were worse while texting than while the drivers were actually drunk.

If you or someone you love has been involved in a semi truck accident, contact a truck accident lawyer at the Pritzker Olsen law firm. We have collected millions for victims of large truck crashes and if we agree to take your case, we don’t get paid unless you do. Contact our firm at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free), or complete one of our online forms for a free case consultation.

Using grant money from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the state will spend $4.64 million to beef up law enforcement, including inspection of large trucks and a 20 percent increase in the number of mobile roadside inspections of large trucks on back roads and bypass routes.

The program stems from results of a 2006 Large Truck Crash Causation Study that found driver behavior is ten times more likely to be the cause of the crash than other factors such as weather, road conditions and vehicle performance. In Wisconsin, more than 50 percent of large truck crash deaths occur on rural roads rather than urban roads.

A report on the Wisconsin safety program said: “Wisconsin must continue to increase its focus on the behaviors of both commercial motor vehicles and non commercial drivers to reduce the incidence of serious crashes.”

The state wants to improve on a baseline of crash data from 2002-2006 that showed an average of 464 fatalities and serious injuries resulting from large truck crashes. In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, the number was 433.

That goal of the program is to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries from truck crashes to 353 by 2011.

The program will focus on counties with a higher than average number of truck crashes: Brown, Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Dun, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Juneau, Kenosha, Marathon, Milwaukee, Outagamie, Racine, Rock, Sauk, St. Croix, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha and Winnebago.

If you or someone you know has been injured in a truck and car crash, call a truck accident lawyer at Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, a premier personal injury law firm with a proven record of success in securing compensation for families and victims of serious accidents. Contact us by calling 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or complete a free case consultation form.

The safety measure has support from the Governors’ Highway Safety Association and at least one association representing large commercial trucking companies.

“It’s crazy that it is legal in this country to drive an 80,000-pound vehicle as if you were driving a car that weighs 3,000 pounds,” said Steve Owings, who founded the advocacy group Road Safe America after his 22-year-old son, Cullum, was killed by a tractor-trailer in Virginia.

Owings’ organization and other advocates for speed control equipment are pushing for a top speed limit of 68 mph for large rigs. The public comment period for the proposed change expired March 27.

The Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will have the final say. The agency studied the issue in 1991 and said it wasn’t needed.

Nationally, one of nine traffic fatalities in 2007 resulted from a collision involving a large, commercial truck. In Minnesota, excessive speed contributes to about 150 traffic deaths and 7,000 injuries a year.

No adverse weather conditions were reported for 87 percent of the fatal crashes and for 89 percent of the nonfatal crashes involving large trucks. Rain was the most common adverse weather condition.

In other findings from the 2007 Large Truck Crash Overview published recently by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), speeding was a factor in 25 percent of fatal crashes involving a large truck.

A good truck accident lawyer like those at PritzkerOlsen Attorneys closely examines all the factors in any crash that results in injury or death. From experience, some of the most common factors cited for drivers of large trailer trucks and drivers of passenger vehicles are the same: Driving too fast, failure to keep in proper lane, inattention and failure to yield the right of way.

In truck accidents, it is important to sort out who are the liable parties.  The possibilities include the trucking company, the owner of the tractor trailer cab and trailer, the driver of the truck, the employer of the driver, the manufacturer of the tractor trailer cab or of the trailer, or a third-party maintenance company that may take care of the truck.

The 2007 Large Truck Crash Overview, FMCSA also found that in two-vehicle fatal rear-end crashes, passenger vehicles struck large trucks in the rear approximately three times more often than large trucks struck passenger vehicles in the rear — 16 percent versus 5 percent.

There was a similar imbalance for head-on fatal crashes, where a large truck crossed the center line in 1 percent of fatal accidents involving a large truck versus a passenger vehicle crossing the center line in 16 percent of the fatal accidents.

But in other crashes, large trucks struck passenger vehicles 32 percent of the time versus passenger vehicles striking large trucks 24 percent of the time.

Additionally, 24 percent of fatal crashes that took place in work zones — areas of construction, maintenance, or utility activity — involved a large truck.

The rate for large trucks in 2007 — the most recent year for which figures were available — was 2.02 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled by large trucks.

The rate for passenger vehicles in 2007 was 1.60 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled by passenger vehicles, the report said.

Both ratios were down 20 percent from the previous year.

The FMCSA report said that from 1998 to 2007, the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes dropped from 4,955 to 4,584 — down by 7.5 percent.

During the same 1998-2007 time period, the number of large trucks involved in injury crashes per 100 million vehicle miles traveled declined by 26 percent, while the rate for passenger vehicles dropped by 31 percent.

In 2007, large trucks accounted for 7 percent of all vehicle miles traveled and 4 percent of all registered vehicles in the United States. In motor vehicle crashes, large trucks represented:

• 8 percent of vehicles in fatal crashes
• 2 percent of vehicles in injury crashes
• 4 percent of vehicles in property-damage-only crashes.

The report said large truck tractors pulling semi-trailers accounted for 62 percent of the large trucks involved in fatal crashes and 46 percent of the large trucks involved in nonfatal crashes.

The truck accident lawyers at PritzkerOlsen Attorneys continually follow trends in fatal crashes and injury crashes involving big rigs. PritzkerOlsen is a premier personal injury law firm with extensive experience representing  motorists injured in crashes with large trucks. There are specific actions you should take to protect your rights if you are involved in such an accident and a truck accident lawyer at PritzkerOlsen can help.

Please contact our law firm by calling 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or complete a free consultation form.