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Tanker Truck Explosions

Tanker truck accidents occur typically due to malfunctioning equipment, driving error, poor vehicle maintenance, and improper loading.

Actions and decisions by the truck driver while maneuvering or driving the vehicle can result within seconds in a critical accident.

Unique factors can normally result in a number of accidents involving a tanker truck explosion, such as:

The sheer size and weight of tanker truck and load necessitate sufficient distance to stop on the roadway to maintain safety.

Weather conditions, accidental mishaps, and inexperienced drivers can cause catastrophic calamities when the trucker doesn’t allow sufficient distance to come to a full stop.

Loose materials and liquids transported in a tanker truck can cause the rig instantly to become unstable, when the driver drives too fast, swerves the vehicle, attempts too quick of a stop, or attempts to maneuver on uneven roads trailer and truck.

Empty or filled tanker trucks can easily jackknife when the air brakes of the rig failed to perform as intended.

Braking downhill can heat the system of the brakes, and cause unique dilemmas when making an attempt to manage the maneuvering, or stop the tanker truck.

Causes of Tanker Truck Explosions

The most typical causes involved in a tanker truck explosion include the following:

Trucking companies and/or the truckers move flammable and hazardous cargo; they must maintain a responsibility that’s moral to keep the public safe.

Delivery commitments and deadlines of the trucking company, however, usually push management and drivers to drive long distances and extended hours when the trucker becomes tired, fatigued, or ill-equipped to arrive safely.

Investigators usually find that truckers involved in an explosion were improperly trained by the company on how to adequately handle the rig while transporting flammable, dangerous, or hazardous cargo.

An improper balance of cargo, or an overload regarding the rig size can result in a situation that is problematic, especially when the vehicle becomes a challenge to maneuver, handle safely, or stop promptly on the road.

Due to the harmful nature of transported cargo, any rig maintained improperly at the most critical time can break down, to create conditions unsafe on the road for the truck driver and other motorists.

Signal lights, braking systems, axles, tires, and other truck components must properly work to minimize the likelihood of failure in equipment.

Investigators, often times, find design flaws, defects in manufacturing, or improper component installation, which can result in failure in equipment when the truck is out being driven.

The trucking company has a responsibility to implement, develop and maintain appropriate policies of safety adhered to by supervisors, truck drivers, managers, loaders, and unloaders to ensure the transport of the cargo is safe.

Trucking companies, for property damage, injuries sustained, or death, can be held liable legally due to a lack of policies in safety.

Truck drivers involved in an explosion often have operated trucks irresponsibly, or erratically, to cause an accident with severe injuries, or a fatality.

Key road hazards, which include roadway construction, weather conditions, busy traffic, and other catastrophes, can result in a tanker truck explosion.

Contact us for a free consultation or call Anzalone Law Firm PLLC, at: 603.548.3797.

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