Semi Truck Lane Departure Accidents Studied by AASHTO
Jacksonville, Florida's Channel 4 website News4Jax.com reported that a semi truck (aka 18 wheeler or tractor trailer) was involved in an accident in South Florida when it overturned and spilled Gatorade and orange juice all over the road. Apparently, the semi truck driver drifted off of the highway, drove onto the shoulder, realized the mistake and tried to get back on the highway but over-corrected and overturned his vehicle. This is not an uncommon tractor trailer accident scenario. Although it appears that there were no serious injuries from this crash, semi truck rollovers can be very serious accidents that result in significant injuries.
Tractor trailer drivers are supposed to be trained to avoid drifting off of the road. If they do drive off of the road, they are supposed to be trained in how to safely get back on the road. When a driver of a tractor trailer or other vehicle drives off of the road, the initial instinct may be to sharply turn the wheel back towards the road. However, this can be counterproductive and dangerous depending on several factors including the speed of the vehicle, the composition of the shoulder beside the road and any dropoff from the road to the shoulder. Quickly turning back towards the road often translates into an over-correction scenario where the vehicle driver loses control and either overturns the vehicle or drives all of the way into the opposite lane and into oncoming traffic.
Interestingly, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) just conducted a study dealing with crashes when vehicles drift from the road. According to the AASHTO study, approximately 42,000 people die each year in crashes caused by their vehicles leaving the road. Because of the problems with semi trucks and other vehicles crashing when they drive off of the road, some states are placing barriers, lane markings and rumble stripes along each side of the travel lanes on the road to keep these vehicles safely on the road. The states that have enacted such lane departure prevention mechanisms have reported decreases in the number of death and injury accidents caused by lane departures.
