Truck driving can be a particularly stressful career with the stress coming from essentially every direction—and usually all at once. Dispatchers yell, trucks break down, traffic gets stalled, shippers and receivers want it picked up and delivered quicker and there is usually a family at home with their own set of problems which the trucker is trying to handle from 2000 miles away. Any time a trucker is behind the wheel of the truck they are under the gun to get the load delivered yesterday.
Truckers only get paid for the time they are actually on the road, so there may be pressure from home for the trucker to continue driving even when they are exhausted and burned out simply to pay the mortgage from month to month. The company the trucker works for may also have little interest in the mental health of their driver—the longer that driver stays on the road the better their bottom line looks at the end of the month. So, truckers are pulled in every direction from a large number of people day in and day out.
Aggressive Trucking Behaviors
While some truckers learn to manage this stress through deliberately learned coping skills, others simply engage in aggressive trucking behaviors as a way of letting off steam. The patience level may be simply non-existent from the constant pressure the driver is under and when a truck driver feels others who share the road are prohibiting them from effectively meeting their deadlines, aggression can ensue. Other truckers, by virtue of the 80,000 pound truck they are driving, truly feel as though they own the road. They may feel they are not bound by the same rules of the road as other drivers are therefore may drive at excessive speeds, may refuse to use a signal when they turn or change lanes or could stubbornly hold onto the right-of-way even when a potential accident could ensue.
Blind Spots
Truckers are also hindered by serious blind spots which prevent them from seeing the much smaller passenger cars directly behind them or in certain spots on either side. An overly tired, short on patience trucker may exhibit aggressive lane changes without ensuring there are no vehicles in his blind spot, leading to a sideswipe accident which could have potentially fatal consequences. Drivers who were in a huge hurry to get on the road may have neglected to ensure their cargo was properly secured or mandatory pre-trip inspections could be skipped. At present only about a quarter of the states have addressed the problem of aggressive driving through legislation and it was an uphill battle for those states.
Getting the Help You Need
Serious, life-changing injuries or fatalities can result from an aggressive trucker’s disregard for the safety of others. Those injuries lead to medical expenses, time away from work and emotional trauma. It is important that an experienced personal injury attorney be consulted in order to ensure all damages are properly compensated. Aggression and anger caused by the extremely stressful working conditions can lead to inattentive, aggressive, angry drivers who may even engage in drug abuse in an attempt to deal with their toxic emotions. If you’ve been injured by a truck driver you believe was engaging in aggressive behaviors your attorney will thoroughly investigate the accident in order to ensure you are not left with medical expenses as well as long-term injuries to deal with.