West Virginia commercial truck drivers face challenges when navigating heavy traffic, but rural roads appear to present the greatest hazards. According to a report from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 60 percent of fatal truck accidents happened on rural roads in 2015 compared to only 25 percent on interstate highways.

That same year saw an 8 percent increase over the previous year in the number of trucks that played a role in deadly crashes. In 2015, law enforcement recorded about 415,000 accidents that involved commercial trucks. Only 1 percent of those crashes resulted in fatalities, but this still totaled 3,598 fatal truck crashes for the year out of the 4,050 vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds involved in deadly accidents.

Twenty percent of the fatal accidents involved a single truck and either a pedestrian, a person on a bike or another non-motorized vehicle. Two-vehicle accidents accounted for 64 percent of fatal wrecks.

Numerous issues can result in truck accidents, such as truck driver fatigue, tire blowouts or poor truck maintenance. Someone injured in a crash with a big rig might miss work while recuperating or face lifelong disabilities. To pursue financial damages, an injury victim could work with an attorney to prepare a personal injury lawsuit. In an effort to document negligence, an attorney could look for violations of regulations like an unqualified truck driver or inaccurate trucking logs. An attorney might also investigate the trucking company to see if it skimped on truck maintenance. Evidence documented by an attorney could justify the amount of compensation requested in the lawsuit and qualify the victim to receive a settlement from the trucking company’s insurance policy.