US 441 Lanes Closed After Fuel Tanker Accident

GAINESVILLE, FL- Wcjb.com writes that a wreck involving a tanker truck and two other vehicles led to the closure of all lanes of US 441 earlier this week. The crash involved the truck, a car, and an SUV.*

Reports indicate that responders had to rescue two individuals who became trapped inside their vehicles in the collision. 

The truck driver's vehicle landed on its side and pinned the man's arm, causing severe injuries.

Police say two individuals were hospitalized. The cause of the collision is not yet known. 

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), in 2017, 4,102 people died in collisions involving large commercial trucks. Of those killed, only seventeen percent were the individuals driving the large trucks. Sixty-eight percent of the victims were occupants of smaller vehicles, and the remaining victims were motorcyclists, cyclists, and pedestrians.

When a semi-truck and a passenger car collide, any resulting fatality is almost certainly going to be the person or people in the smaller car. In 2017, 97 of the time, the victim was an occupant in a passenger vehicle, and on only three percent of crashes, the truck driver died.  

Truck drivers involved in crashes with other trucks face a higher risk of fatalities. In 66 percent of accidents that killed truck drivers, two or more semis were involved. 

While overall traffic deaths are on the decline, wrecks involving large trucks continue to rise throughout the United States. Newer trucks now have crash prevention technology, which makes some experts optimistic that we can reduce the number of fatal truck accidents that occur each year. 

Accident News is a safety and education initiative from Montlick & Associates, designed to help people better understand and thereby avoid common accident causes.  To learn more about our injury prevention programs, including iridesafe.com - click here. We hope you are never in an accident, but if you or family member are injured, call Montlick & Associates 24/7 for your free consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333) or use our live chat at Montlick.com.

Source:https://www.wcjb.com/content/news/Semi-crash-shuts-down-US-441-in-Gainesville-565478741.html and https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/large-trucks