Truck (18 Wheeler) Jackknife Accidents in Pennsylvania

Some of the most dangerous accidents with commercial trucks is an accident known as a jackknife accident. During these accidents, the driver will lose control over their trailer that weighs thousands of pounds. The trailer then folds against the cab of the truck like a folding knife, potentially causing the truck to crash into itself.

A jackknifed trailer presents many obvious dangers. A trailer that is swinging out of control can hit other vehicles in its path across multiple lanes of traffic. A report by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis concluded that jackknife accidents account for 10 percent of all truck-related occupant fatalities.

If you or a loved one was hurt in an accident, call the Philadelphia truck accident lawyers at The Reiff Law Firm today at (215) 709-6940 for a free case assessment.

About Jackknife Accidents

Not every vehicle is susceptible to jackknife accidents. These type of accidents only happen to articulated vehicles, which are vehicles that have a moveable joint. Articulated vehicles often include tractor-trailers, trains, certain buses, and other commercial vehicles. As the name suggests, a jackknife accident occurs when the trailer or hitched component loses control and swings towards the front section and thereby folding against itself like a folding knife. These crashes are often brought about by dangerous loading, weather, road conditions, and improper handling of the vehicle, but we discuss that more in depth below.

Once the truck begins to crash, it poses additional risks. A swinging trailer can hit another car, a crashed truck can flip or spin into other vehicles, and once the truck is stopped in the lane, other vehicles behind it can crash into it. These crashes are often incredibly violent and sudden, and they often draw in all of the cars around the truck into the crash, potentially injuring dozens of drivers at once.

Causes of Jackknife Accidents

Driving a vehicle that can weigh up to 80,000 pounds is not an easy challenge, and drivers are under constant pressure and stress to not only meet strict and demanding deadlines but to pay attention to the road and navigate difficult conditions. While there are many reasons why a truck may be involved in a jackknife accident, most of them are entirely avoidable:

Improper Cargo Loading

Trucking companies are required to load cargo in a manner that generally keeps it from shifting during transit. In some cases, cargo is fine if it slides around a bit, but there are complex laws dictating how much weight a trailer can carry and how the cargo should be secured.

The core safety issue that often needs to be observed to avoid jackknife accidents is that the weight in a truck should be secured at the front, near the connecting point to the cab, and low to the ground. If the trailer’s weight is primarily focused at the back of the truck or high up off the floor, then any bumps or shifting of the vehicle can be exaggerated, with the trailer potentially swinging and swaying to the side much further than it would if the cargo was all at the front. This fishtailing motion can continue, forcing the truck into a jackknife crash.

Road Conditions

As noted, when a road surface is less than ideal, tractor sway can increase, potentially increasing the risk of a jackknife crash. Truckers often have deadlines to make, and they cannot stop just because the road is under construction, coated in gravel or road salt, icy, snowy, slick from rain, or damaged. However, all of these can contribute to the risk of a crash.

Especially when it comes to slippery or gravelly road surfaces, tractor-trailers can slide across this surface more easily, allowing them to fishtail and sway until a jackknife crash happens.

Weather

Rain and snow are going to be some of the biggest factors in changing road conditions – and those changes might happen suddenly before a driver even realizes that their trailer is fishtailing behind them. However, wind is also a big factor in causing trailers to sway. When crosswinds can gust up to 20 or 30 miles per hour, truck trailers can easily be pushed to the side, forcing the driver to correct. If the driver overcorrects or the trailer sways back the other way, this can quickly turn into an unstable wobble and cause a jackknife crash.

Speeding

Speeding is one of the leading causes of jackknife accidents. When drivers exceed the speed limit and/or drive too fast for the road conditions, any fishtailing or trailer sway is harder to get back under control. When this happens, a truck can go from speeding down the highway to crashing within a few hundred feet of roadway. Especially when the road is bumpier than expected, when the road surface is under construction, or when the road conditions are a bit slippery from rain or snow, speeding can cause a jackknife crash very quickly.

Poor Training

Commercial drivers are required to undergo different licensing requirements in order to be able to drive a tractor-trailer. However, many have complained that these requirements are simply inadequate to create a safe, capable driver. Drivers who are not properly trained or do not have enough practical, on the road experience as to how to operate their vehicle can cause jackknife accidents simply through their inexperience.

Improper Braking

Because a tractor-trailer is articulated, drivers need to be careful how they bring their vehicle to a stop. If a driver hits their brakes too hard, they can cause the trailer behind them to continue moving forward and cause a jackknife accident.

Trucks need to approach hills carefully, regulate their speed at all times, and avoid sudden stops and turns, or else the driver’s braking pattern could set off a jackknife crash. Because of this, other factors like speed, road conditions, cargo loading, and training need to be under control or else they will exacerbate the risk of a crash in an emergency situation.

Drunk Driving

Commercial drivers have much stricter laws regulating drinking and driving, while states generally find that a person is driving while intoxicated if they have a BAC of 0.08%, a commercial driver generally has a much lower standard and even a BAC of 0.02% could be enough to deem the driver impaired. While this may seem like a strict standard, it is for the best considering the potential serious effects of a jackknife accident.

What to Do After a Jackknife Accident with a Semi Truck in Pennsylvania

When you are involved in an accident with a truck that jackknifed, you might have been hit on the side while the trailer swayed or hit by the truck as it crashed, or you might have crashed into the truck as it landed across the roadway. In any case, your injuries might be serious, and there are important steps to take right away to keep yourself safe, report the accident, and help with a potential claim our Pennsylvania truck accident lawyers can help you file afterward:

Get to Safety

If the truck is stopped across the roadway, it is likely that the traffic behind you has also stopped and no one is trying to get through the area. However, if there is still a potential for traffic to come through the roadway, you should move your car to the side of the road and get yourself to the side of the road and out of harm’s way. If your car will not move, get yourself to the roadside and stay in a well-lit area if possible. If there is severe weather, do what you can to keep warm/cool while you wait for emergency responders.

Call 911

Do not assume that someone else will call 911; always make the call yourself. When you call, report where the accident is and ask for police and EMTs, and if anything is on fire, ask for the fire department to respond as well. When large trucks crash into cars like this, it often means that people might be in need of physical rescue from crushed vehicles. If that is your situation, definitely call 911 and try to remain calm until the first responders arrive.

Get Medical Attention

If you need any medical attention at the scene, let the EMTs treat you. If they want to take you to the hospital in an ambulance, go along with them; there is no point in delaying the care you need, and it might make things worse for you later if you refuse treatment. Not only could this increase your injuries and make recovery harder and more expensive, but you might be blamed for that share of damages, or the defense could claim your injuries weren’t that severe if you didn’t need care.

Talk to the Police

You should give the police officer at the scene any details they need, including showing them your driver’s license, your insurance information, and your vehicle registration, and answering any questions about the facts of what happened. Do not editorialize or try to argue about what happened, and do not apologize or say anything that might be confused for a confession to causing the crash.

Get Information and Take Photos

Gather what information you can about the crash as well. If you are well enough to stay at the scene, get the other drivers’ contact info, find out what company the trucker works for, what they were carrying, and what their insurance info is. Also check to see that they are licensed and get their employer’s contact info as well as their personal contact info. You should also take pictures of the accident scene, the vehicle damage, injuries, and the location of the accident, as this is all going to be good information to have later. Note where the accident happened, what the road conditions and lighting were like, and any other info you think you note.

Keep all of this info for your lawyer.

Call a Lawyer

In the days after you receive medical care and begin to get your life back on track, you should call our lawyers as soon as you can to start work on your case. Do not accept anything or give any statements to insurance companies without first discussing your case with our lawyers, as you do not want to take any money that might be considered a settlement and block you from filing claims or suing for additional damages later.

Injured in a Truck Crash? Contact a Truck Accident Lawyer Today

If you have suffered a serious injury in an accident with a commercial vehicle, you potentially have legal options to make the responsible parties financially accountable for your injuries. To speak to strategic and aggressive commercial truck accident lawyers call (215) 709-6940 today.