Encountering commercial trucks is a common occurrence for most people who navigate Connecticut’s roadways, but that does not make sharing the road with them any less stressful. The dangers you face when you share the road with semi-trucks are especially severe when the people driving those trucks lack proper training, which can make them more likely to get into crashes that experienced truckers could likely avoid. At Kennedy, Johnson, Schwab & Roberge, L.L.C., we recognize that there is a clear connection between truck driver inexperience and brake failure, and we have helped many people who suffered injuries in wrecks involving commercial trucks pursue recourse.

According to Transport Topics, safely leading a large semi-truck down a steep hill takes more than good brakes – it takes experience and extreme caution, which is something many younger, less-seasoned truck drivers lack. Without experience, many truck drivers make avoidable errors that can lead to problems with the air brake systems that many modern trucking companies rely on.

For example, if a truck driver presses down on the air brakes for an extensive period of time, which can occur while, say, driving downhill, the brakes can overheat, fail, and ultimately, catch on fire. In other cases, air brake failure occurs not because of a trucker’s actions, but rather, because the system itself fails to supply the brake with the compressed air it needs to work properly.

Navigating hills with steep grades requires adjusting the brake system. Informed truckers know that they must adjust all of a truck’s brakes before making their way down these hills, or risk having the brakes that they did adjust heat up far faster than those they did not. Inexperienced truckers, however, may not understand the critical nature of adjusting brakes, or adjusting all brakes at the same time, which can lead to brake issues and truck crashes. Find more on this topic on our webpage.