Trucks are the massive machines with which we share our roads, and as such, they pose a serious threat when it comes to traffic accidents. One of the most elemental safety factors of any vehicle is its braking system, and this is even truer of the commercial trucks that travel our national highways. In response to this critical safety issue, a recent safety event took a closer look.

Brake Safety Day

As part of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s (CVSA) Brake Safety Day on September 7, 2017, enforcement personnel throughout the United States and Canada conducted brake inspections on thousands of commercial vehicles—14 percent of which were pulled from service due specifically to violations that related to their braking systems. Brake Safety Day’s intention is to perform roadside inspections of commercial trucks to aid in the betteridentification of and the more effective removal of those trucks that are in violation of critical brake regulations and that, therefore, endanger others with whom they share the road. When a semi-truck’s brakes aren’t in safe working condition, it can cause a serious accident or canexacerbate any ensuing accident. This is a critical safety issue because truck accidents are among our roadways’ deadliest accidents.

If you’ve been injured in a truck accident, you know just how harrowing that is and you’re likely to be unsure about what to do next and about where to turn for support. The experienced legal team at The Levin Firm is here to help. Our dedicated truck accident attorneys have the skill, knowledge, and commitment to fight for your rights and for your rightful compensation.

The Safety Data

Brake Safety Day elicited helpful data related to truck safety:

-More than 6,000 trucks were inspected in the United States;
-Fourteen percent of these trucks were pulled from service for brake-related safety violations; and
-Twenty Two percent of these trucks were pulled from service for safety violations of any kind.

In other words, Brake Safety Day implemented a safety event that utilized a large, inclusive sample of commercial trucks on our roadways and, in so doing, determined that a significant portion of these trucks were in violation of brake-related safety regulations and shouldn’t have been on the road in the first place.

Antilock Braking Systems

The safety event also calculated for how well antilock braking systems (ABS) were functioning in the commercial trucks that were inspected. ABS help truckers to stop their massive vehicles in the shortest possible driving distance under a variety of driving conditions and also help drivers maintain control of their steering in those situations where a truck’s tires begin to slip. In other words, antilock braking systems are critical to maintaining safely functioning big rigs on our roads.

If a semi’s ABS malfunction light wasn’t working or if the malfunction light remained on (in indication of a problem with the ABS), it was registered as an ABS violation in the study. The findings revealed that a significant percentage of those commercial trucks that are required to have well-functioning antilock braking systems were in violation of that requirement.

Brake-Related Violations

The president of the CVSA relays that “brake-related violations are the largest percentage of all out-of-service violations cited during roadside inspections.” Further, he shares that Brake Safety Day allows the CVSA the opportunity to improve the brake safety of trucks on our nation’s highways and byways. In this effort, the CVSA works to decrease the number of accidents caused by unsafe braking systems through the implementation of roadside inspections and via improved education related to brake safety for truckers, trucking companies, and truck mechanics.

Improving Safety on Our Roads

Properly working braking systems are elemental to the safe operation of commercial trucks. When these systems are installed improperly or are poorly maintained, it can reduce the truck’s ability to brake effectively and can increase its stopping distance—both of which can greatly contribute to serious truck accidents. Properly functioning antilock brakes—in combination with safely maintained braking systems—help to create a rigorous platform in support of the truck’s stability control and allow for further functional enhancements in other safety-related systems.

Trucks and Safety

Because of their extreme size, semi-trucks experience reduced maneuverability and are inherently dangerous. There are however methods for forging a safer trucking industry that are instrumental to helping to keep our roads safe. One of the most critical means of accomplishing this is through effective brake-maintenance programs that are implemented by the trucking companies themselves. Unsafe braking systems play a major role in dangerous commercial-truck accidents, and as such, it is critical that they be adequately monitored and maintained.

Truck Accidents

Truck accidents are some of the deadliest accidents on our roads, and they often lead to extensive physical, psychological, and financial devastation. In fact, it’s difficult to overstate the negative effects evinced by truck accidents. There are, however, some sobering statistics related to these terrifying accidents that can help clarify the safety issue they pose:

-Those occupants of the vehicle that’s not the truck in the truck accident are far more likely to become traffic fatalities; in 2015, 97 percent of truck-accident fatalities wereeither occupant of the other vehicle or pedestrians.
-From 2009 to 2015, truck-accident fatalities rose by 22 percent.
-Eleven percent of all traffic fatalities in 2015 involved an 18-wheeler.

These numbers are so significant that they should serve as an important reminder that – because you share the road with commercial trucks – it is always in your best interest to proceed with caution.

If You Have Been Injured in a Truck Accident, Consult with a Skilled Philadelphia Truck Accident 
Lawyer

If you or someone you care about has been injured in a truck accident, you are no doubt overwhelmed by its enormous impact. Help, however, is available. The dedicated truck accident attorneys at The Levin Firm in Philadelphia understand the difficulty you’re going through and are committed to aggressively advocating for your just compensation. Our experienced legal team is here to help, so please contact or call us at 215-825-5183 today.


What are CMV conspicuity requirements, you ask. Let’s break that question down a little bit. A CMV is a commercial motor vehicle and conspicuity requirements refer to federal requirements that CMVs incorporate retroreflective treatments or reflex reflectors, such as reflective tape. That’s better. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires CMVs to incorporate these safety treatments on their trailers and the on the rear of their truck tractors to help prevent motorists from crashing into a tractor’s sides or rear when traveling by dark of night or in other situations where visibility is reduced and to help prevent motorists from rear-ending a truck tractor (absent its trailer) under similar circumstances.

Reflective Tape

Reflective materials, and thus reflective tape (or retroreflective tape) and other conspicuity treatments, are made to enable objects (such as CMVs) to be more visible at night or in other low-visibility situations. In fact, the NHTSA reports that reflective tape can help reduce dangerous impact accidents with truck trailers by 29 percent, and as such, the agency mandates that all CMVs be outfitted with an appropriate form of this safety mechanism.

If you’ve been injured in a truck accident, you understand just how harrowing that is. At The Levin Firm in Philadelphia, our skilled truck accident attorneys have the compassion, experience, and dedication to fight your just compensation, and we’re here to help.

Length and Width Requirements

Reflective tape comes in a variety of sizes and colors, but the NHTSA recommends that CMVs incorporate reflective tape that alternates between red and white sections, and that the reflective tape should be cut into pieces that measure no less than six inches long and no greater than 18 inches long. A cut measurement of reflective tape, however, should be trimmed if its length will cause it to be obstructive. Further, the tape employed on CMVs should be either 2 inches (DOT-C2), 3 inches (DOT-C3), or 4 inches (DOT-C4) in width.

Getting It Right

Randomly plastering a tractor and trailer with reflective tape doesn’t meet the safety requirements laid out by the NHTSA. Instead, a truck’s trailer should have reflective tape in those locations where it is most effective at increasing the CMV’s visibility, which includes the trailer’s sides, the trailer’s lower-rear section, the trailer’s upper-rear section, and the tractor’s rear section.

The NHTSA gets more specific on the matter:

The sides of the trailer should have reflective tape positioned as horizontally as feasible in sections that begin and end as close to the trailer’s front and rear as practicable. While the tape should be in sections that are spaced evenly along the trailer—rather than in one continuous strip—the overall length of the tape should be approximately half the length of the trailer. Finally, the centerline of the tape’s width should be between 15 and 60 inches above the roadway (when the tractor is empty)—or as close to this distance as possible.

The lower-rear section of the trailer should follow the same NHTSA guidelines except that the entire lower-rear section should be covered by one continuous piece of red and white reflective tape.

The requirements for the upper-rear section of the trailer are slightly different. For this segment of the trailer, the reflective tape should be all white (instead of incorporating the alternating red and white color scheme) and should be comprised of two pairs of white tape that form an inverted L shape at both upper corners (as close to the edges as possible).

The tractor’s rear section should have red and white reflective tape placed as close as possible to the edges of its mud flaps (or their support brackets) or on the tractor’s rear fenders. Further, the tape should be positioned on the cab’s upper contours (much as they should be on the upper-rear section of the trailer).

Proper Maintenance

Once the reflective tape is properly placed, it is only as effective as it is visible to motorists with whom the truck shares the road. Reflective tape can’t adequately catch the light and reflect it when it’s covered with mud, dirt, ice, or snow, and as such, must be kept clean to be effective.

Tractor-trailers are massive vehicles that, due to their immense size, experience diminished maneuverability as they barrel down our highways and byways. In other words, they are extremely dangerous vehicles. In fact, commercial truck accidents are some of the deadliest experienced on our roads.

What Not to Do

After being injured in a truck accident isn’t necessarily a great time to be making important decisions related to any ensuing legal claim. There are, however, some things to keep in mind that you probably shouldn’t do in such a situation. You are not required to speak to (or make a statement to) any representative of the trucking company, the insurance company, or the legal counsel that’s involved—nor should you. Allow your experienced Philadelphia truck accident lawyer to do the talking for you. Further, don’t sign away your rights by agreeing to the trucking company’s fair settlement offer without first consulting with an attorney. Again, your attorney will help you decide what’s fair and what isn’t. Finally, although every truck accident is harrowing and you may want to simply move on with your life by forgetting about the entire affair, it’s important to recognize that Pennsylvania has a two-year statute of limitations for truck accident claims and that your rights are too important to leave to chance.

If You’ve Been Injured in a Truck Accident, Consult with a Skilled Philadelphia Truck Accident Attorney Today

Truck accidents are horrifying and often wreak devastating damages. If you or someone you care about has been injured in a truck accident, you understand how difficult coping with the aftermath is, but help is available. At The Levin Firm in Philadelphia, our dedicated truck accident attorneys are committed to aggressively campaigning for your legal rights and for your just compensation. Our experienced legal team is here to help, so please contact or call us at 215-825-5183 today.

The Levin Firm is a Bucks County Personal Injury and Automobile Accident Law firm. The Bucks County Personal Injury and Automobile Accident Lawyers at The Levin Firm have practiced for many years in the Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey State and Federal courts, and are qualified to represent you. Our injury attorneys have diverse backgrounds, allowing us to assist you in a wide range of legal matters.

A large portion of our practice involves representing clients who have been injured in incidents involving motorized vehicles. Obtaining legal representation after a car crash in Bucks County can help victims of serious collisions get the maximum amount of compensation possible for their injuries. In addition, auto accidents often raise complicated legal issues, so it is advisable for anyone involved in one to retain an experienced attorney as soon as possible. At The Levin Firm, we understand how to effectively represent car crash victims and work hard to bring each case we handle to a successful resolution.

The Levin Firm handles many types of cases and is qualified to help you. Obtaining legal representation soon after the accident is critically important. Your rights have to be protected. Evidence needs to be collected. We have a team of lawyers and investigators ready to work on your case and ensure that you are in the best position possible should litigation be necessary.

We take fighting for victims seriously. We are passionate about our jobs and enjoy helping people get back on their feet. When you call for a consultation you will speak with an attorney every time. The lawyer who will be handling your case always handles the initial consultation in the office. We want to meet you and we want you to know who your lawyer is. When you call in with a question your lawyer gets on the phone. It is this kind of personal service that will make your experience at The Levin Firm exceptional and it is what separates us from the rest. We look forward to helping you.

CONTACT:
The Levin Firm
922 Bustleton Pike, 1st Floor
Feasterville-Trevose, PA 19053
Phone: (267) 538-0861
Email: levin@levininjuryfirm.com














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