Commercial Trucks Can Cause Serious Injury, So Are Required to Have Large Insurance Policies
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The tractor trailers which haul so much of the products to stores in Virginia (VA) and throughout the United States are everywhere in our cities and towns, and especially on the major highways like Interstate 64 (I 64), Interstate 95 (I 95), and Interstate 81 (I 81) which are the major arteries in Virginia (VA) headed to neighboring states like North Carolina (NC), West Virginia (WV), Maryland (MD), and the District of Columbia (DC). There are especially a lot of big rigs hauling container boxes in the port cities in Hampton Roads, Virginia, such as Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk. Because of the size of these large vehicles and the weight of the material they often carry, they pose unique risks to other drivers on the road. The danger of a serious injury caused to someone in a car by an eighteen-wheeler is significant, especially if the big rig turns over or loses control striking a car. With all that weight, there are special problems posed by trucks as far as being able to safely operate them, including the brake systems and the proper loading of material to prevent shifting of the cargo.
Federal Motor Carrier Regulations require these large commercial trucks, which cross state lines, to carry minimum insurance coverage. Typically, a commercial transportation company will have at least a million dollars ($1,000,000.00) of insurance coverage on each component of the big rig. This means that the tractor probably has at least a million dollars of insurance coverage on it and usually the trailer, a similar amount. This is true even for smaller companies which haul freight. These rules are a good thing to protect the public because with the big risks of injury and death to other people on the road comes the responsibility to provide insurance in the event somebody is hurt.