Georgia Truck Accident Lawyers Blog

According to the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration, more than a third of all traffic accidents involve a speeding driver. A 28-year-old woman was killed and two others were injured after a fatal trucking accident in Georgia. The woman that was killed was a passenger in a tractor-trailer that was carrying logs that overturned after colliding with an SUV and two other vehicles, according to CBS Atlanta.

The accident happened on I-85 and held up rush-hour traffic for hours. The accident happened when a pickup truck swerved into the emergency lane because of a flat tire. The maneuver caused the tractor-trailer to hit an SUV and then collide with another tractor-trailer and a sedan, according to reports.

Trucking accidents on interstates can oftentimes turn deadly. Our Atlanta trucking accident attorneys understand that large trucks traveling at such high rates of speed are extremely dangerous in the event of an accident. Motorists are urged to be extremely cautious when traveling on Interstates and expressways with these big rigs.

Speeding not only increases risks of fatal accidents, but it can do quite a number on fuel costs. In an attempt to reduce truck's consumption of fuel, the Obama Administration is making its first attempt at regulating the efficiency of heavy-duty trucks, including city buses and garbage trucks. The administration aims to improve tractor-trailer fuel economy by about 20 percent by 2018. These savings will total about $50 billion in fuel cost savings over the span of five years and will decrease carbon- dioxide emissions.

“It’s an exciting time for our industry,” said Bill Graves, president and chief executive officer of the American Trucking Associations in Arlington, Virginia. “It was a win-win for everyone.”

The reduction of fuel costs will make big rigs more expensive though. The cost of a one of these trucks will increase about $6,220 because of the new fuel-saving technology. But in the long run truck operators will end up saving $73,000 in fuel costs over the lifetime of the trucks, according to Bloomberg.

“If the customer saves $2,000 a year in fuel, then he’s willing to pay for that,” said Martin Daum, president and chief executive officer of Daimler Trucks North America LLC. “If he saves very little then we can’t ask for something. It’s a function of what technology we put on the truck and what the fuel price is.”

Trucking companies are the ones who will have to dish out the up-front costs for the more expensive technology, but they will be able to pay for the investments through fuel savings in 18 months to 24 months.

It's the small-business truckers that will have a hard time paying for the new technology in these trucks, especially when costs from other regulations like electronic data recorders and mandatory speed limiters are factored in.

Still, the effort is worth it. Speeding trucks exponentially increase the devastation in the event of an accident.