Our Texas injury lawyers have been examining the economic growth in South Texas and the accompanying growth in the number of truck crash injuries and fatalities in the area. The great generator of all this activity is the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas development. The shale extraction boom there in South Texas has added thousands of jobs and millions of revenue dollars to the Texas economic equation.
A lot of the new jobs are trucking jobs. Drivers are needed to pilot the oil tankers, water trucks, sand trucks, heavy equipment trucks, and heavy-duty pickup trucks that keep the Eagle Ford Shale economic engine going. Apparently there are so many trucks needed that companies can’t always find enough drivers.
And the congestion from the heavy truck traffic has considerably slowed down travel times in some of the more dominant Eagle Ford Shale counties. Some TxDOT data indicates that the slowdown may be a blessing in disguise. Our Texas injury lawyers note that at faster speeds, even more serious truck crash injuries and fatalities might occur.
The soaring increase in the number of truck-related accidents has already caught the attention of authorities and government agencies concerned with traffic safety. TxDOT says that in McMullen County, for instance, commercial vehicle crash numbers have increased over tenfold since 2008. From 4 in 2008 to 46 in 2011.
TxDOT attributes the causes of the crashes predominantly to truck drivers ignoring signs in construction zones and to defective headlights. With so many trucks pressed into service for the oil and gas boom, some trucking companies have been ignoring basic maintenance, such as headlight and tire issues, to try and maximize productivity and profits.
Our Texas injury lawyers point out that failure to yield right of way is another common cause of fatal accidents in the Eagle Ford Shale, just as it is all around the state. Not long ago, a young tanker truck driver perished in a fiery crash on a Sunday morning when another tanker truck driver failed to yield the right of way. That crash happened on Texas 16 around F.M. 624.
Truck driver fatigue continues to cause many accidents. The oil and gas trucks are exempt from many federal regulations that limit drivers’ consecutive working hours. So some truck drivers take to the road for long drives at the end of shifts that have already lasted more than 20 hours. Some weeks back, for example, in a fatal accident that claimed two lives, a semi truck veered over the centerline of Texas 72 by Tilden and smashed into two other oncoming trucks.
The danger of truck crash injuries and fatalities in the Eagle Ford Shale region only seems to be growing as roads continue to deteriorate and more vehicles get added to the already congested roadways. Learn what to do if you suffer injuries from a collision with a truck. Download our Texas injury lawyers’ free guide to making a successful truck crash injury claim from this web page.