Nonmotorist fatalities in truck accidents
Sadly, truck accidents take thousands of lives a year here in America. Among the individuals who are sometimes the victims of fatal truck crashes are nonmotorist. For example, pedestrians are sometimes fatally struck by big rigs.
According to federal data, every year between 2012 and 2015, the number of nonmotorist killed in crashes involving large trucks in the U.S. landed somewhere between 390 and 441. For each of the years in this period, around one in every ten people killed in U.S. large truck accidents was a nonmotorist.
Federal data also points to pedestrian fatalities being the dominant type of nonmotorist deaths in crashes involving large trucks. Every year between 2012 and 2015, the vast majority of nonmotorist killed in such crashes were pedestrians. The remaining were bicyclists or other types of nonmotorist.
All traffic crashes that take the lives of nonmotorist are tragic. However, there are many things that differ between such crashes. This includes:
- Their circumstances.
- What impacts these circumstances have for the victim’s family when it comes to legal matters.
When a crash that caused a nonmotorist to lose their life involved a large truck, what sorts of circumstances it can be particularly important to look at when looking into pursuing legal claims over the accident can be a little different from other fatal motor vehicle crashes. So, talking to an attorney familiar with the special issues truck accidents raise can be important for a family when it is navigating legal issues following a loved one being fatally struck by a truck when out walking or biking.
Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, “2017 Pocket Guide to Large Truck and Bus Statistics,” June 2017
