- Negligent inspection and maintenance -- Trucking companies and truck owners have the duty to regularly inspect, maintain, and repair every truck in the fleet and that certainly includes brakes. If a maintenance crew fails to properly do so, brakes can fail and the company can be held liable.
- Defective brake parts -- Many brake parts on commercial trucks are defective from the start. Defects can cause the brakes to suddenly malfunction and often cause devastating crashes. In such cases, the manufacturer of the brakes can be held liable.
Brake Failure in a Texas Semi Truck Crash
Semi trucks and other large commercial vehicles can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds and often travel at higher speeds on interstate highways. As you can imagine, it can require a substantial amount of braking power to slow down or stop such a heavy vehicle from 60 miles per hour. For this reason, having working, reliable, and well-maintained brakes is essential to avoid collisions with other vehicles.
However, following many different commercial truck accidents, the driver will claim that the brakes suddenly failed and caused them to lose control. In fact, the Department of Transportation (DOT) reported1 that brake problems were reported in nearly 30 percent of truck accidents. While brakes certainly can fail and cause crashes, it many cases the driver claims that the brakes fail to avoid taking responsibility for distracted driving2 or another dangerous driving behavior. For this reason, a skilled Texas 18 wheeler wreck attorney will know to fully investigate whether the brakes actually failed and, if they did, who was liable for that failure.
The following are a couple of main reasons why brakes can fail and who may be held responsible: