Kentucky Injury Law News
Kentucky residents may be interested to know that 20,648 drivers were pulled over during Operation Safe Driver Week in October. That figure includes both commercial truck drivers and those driving passenger vehicles. There were 19,657 citations or warnings issued in the United States while another 991 were issued in Canada. Of those citations, roughly 75 percent of them were for speeding or other moving violations.
The goal of Operation Safe Driver is to reduce the number of injuries and deaths related to unsafe behavior on the road. Examples of unsafe behavior include speeding or failing to use a safety belt. Other common infractions include driving while distracted or refusing to obey a traffic control device. Of the citations issued to passenger vehicles, 39 percent were for speeding while 20 percent of all citations given to commercial vehicles were for speeding.
During this year’s campaign, 11,182 citations were given to commercial drivers. This was a significant drop from the 13,807 in 2015. However, the number of citations or warnings given to passenger vehicle drivers increased from 7,205 in 2015 to 9,466 in 2016. Numbers were taken from data collected by almost 3,000 law enforcement officials in both the United States and Canada.
Every year, thousands of motorist are injured due to reckless driving on the part of commercial operators. Those who are involved in a truck accident may wish to talk to an attorney. Legal counsel may be able to prove that a victim was injured because of a negligent truck driver. The amount of compensation may be decided by a jury or through a settlement negotiated outside of court.