When you’re sharing the road with semis and other large trucks, it’s important to remember that they take far longer to stop than a passenger car. This can, in some cases, lead to rear-end accidents. This may happen if the driver is distracted or tired and simply doesn’t start braking soon enough. At a certain point, there’s nothing more they can do because they just don’t have enough stopping distance for the vehicle.
In general, your average car takes a little bit over 300 feet to stop if it was driving 65 mph. An 18-wheeler, on the other hand, can take around 525 feet to stop. This is nearly twice as much distance.
Why is it so different?
There are a lot of reasons why these stopping distances are different, but it usually comes down to weight. A normal car is probably only going to weigh around 4,000 lb. Fully loaded, an 18-wheeler can weigh up to 80,000 lb. That’s not to say that every single truck you pass weighs 80,000 lb, but it’s almost always significantly higher than the vehicles around it.
Even a truck that has excellent brakes and brand new tires simply requires more distance to stop, and there is nothing that the driver can do to change that. This is why it’s so important for them to stay alert and make sure that they begin braking at the proper time.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work out as well as it should, and you could be seriously injured in a rear-end accident caused by a truck. If this happens to you, you need to know how to seek financial compensation.