Large trucks have caused many of those lately, including four deaths in a horrific Phoenix, AZ crash when a dump truck driver — who admits he was doing paperwork while driving — slammed into nine motorcycles which had stopped at a red light. Just days earlier, an 18 wheeler in Kentucky careened into a van, killing 11 members of a church.

Also recently, a trucker crashed into a woman’s car when its driver was watching streaming pornography on a laptop computer; a big rig sparked a 50-car pileup in Wyoming; a tractor trailer ran into the rear of a Greyhound Bus in Bowling Green, KY; and a truck smashed into the back of a van in Indiana.

As with car wrecks, the cause of many of these large truck accidents may have been driver distractions, from paperwork and laptops to cell phones and texts. An 80,000 pound truck traveling at 70 miles per hour can go the length of a football field in the time it takes its driver to read a text, and even then such huge vehicles need more time and space to stop than smaller, lighter cars. It’s called physics.

In short, drivers of diesel trucks, tractor trailers, big rigs, semi trucks and 18 wheelers bear a larger responsibility on our roads, due to their larger vehicles which cause such greater damage. Indeed, while only 3 per cent of vehicles on America’s roads are big rigs, they are involved in far more traffic accident fatalities: 12 per cent of those nationally, 10 per cent of those in Illinois, and 15 per cent of those in Missouri.

Long-haul truck drivers also may not get enough sleep, and when they do sleep, they may suffer from a condition called sleep apnea. Such sleep disruption makes them more tired when they’re behind the wheel.

Anything which reduces a trucker’s awareness and alertness for even a second can cause a truck crash that kills and injures horribly. No mere diversion is worth that. Truckers must hold themselves accountable for driving with greater caution, because too many lives are at stake.

If you or a loved one has been harmed by a diesel truck driver or other big rig drivers, alert a semi truck accident lawyer or tractor trailer accident lawyer with USALegalHelpCenter.com. We can provide you with an 18 wheeler accident lawyer or diesel truck accident lawyer in any of America’s 50 states.

Since it’s not enough to say “Hang up and drive” and expect everyone to do it, anymore than it’s not enough to say “Just say no” to drugs and expect everyone to do it, states are passing laws to, in effect, legislate common sense. Up to 18 states and the District of Columbia now have laws on the books making texting while driving illegal.

Some will say this can’t do any good, since it will be difficult if not impossible for law officers to discern if drivers are texting while driving. But the same argument was made regarding seat belt laws, and those have helped save many thousands of lives. Besides, texts and cell calls leave an electronic trail, including times. It wouldn’t be that hard to determine if a driver was using his or her phone at the precise time of an accident.

The trucking industry thinks it should be above such laws and not have to obey. It argues that truckers use computers in their vehicles to stay in touch with fleet managers and so forth. But that’s no excuse. Taking your eyes off the road even for a second can be just the wrong second, leading to a horrendous semi truck accident. And besides, idle checking of computer screens is probably the indulgence of many truck drivers, not sending or receiving crucial information.

All of us who use America’s roads have a responsibility — to ourselves and to each other — to make driving safety our chief priority. When chatting endlessly to a friend or texting a colleague becomes the priority instead, tragedy can ensue. That’s not an opinion — it’s a fact. So yes, hang up and drive. But do so because you know and understand how important it is, not just because you were told to do so.

Indeed, drivers are the most vital variable in car wrecks and other traffic accidents — not weather, defective parts or road conditions. Though such reasons and many others do arise in wrecks, most collisions continue to be due to drivers who — quite simply — make a momentary but lasting mistake.

Which cities and states have the best drivers? According to the 2009 Allstate America’s Best Driving Report, Sioux Falls, SD, is the nation’s safest-driving city, followed by Fort Collins, CO, and Chattanooga, TN.

Cedar Rapids, IA, Knoxville, TN and Fort Wayne, IN also get high marks.

Among cities with a million or more residents, the safest in terms of drivers are Phoenix, AZ, San Diego, CA, New York, NY, Houston, TX and San Antonio, TX. They’re followed by Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Los Angeles, CA and Philadelphia, PA.

The cities with the most improved drivers begin with Alexandria, VA, followed by Lexington-Fayette, KY, Arlington, TX, Hampton, VA, Virginia Beach, VA and Aurora, CO.  Reno, NV and Shreveport, LA also fared well.

Of course, as a man might say about his in-laws, everything is relative. Having more safe drivers doesn’t mean these cities don’t suffer many agonizing traffic mishaps. It just means they have fewer car fatalities and auto accidents than in even worse places.

Yet Americans do have some reason for hope. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the 37,261 Americans killed in car accidents and other collisions in 2008 marked the lowest number since 1961, and the first months of 2009 have sustained such improvement.

Still, think about it: 37,261 killed. That sounds like the final tally after a horrendous war — and it’s only one year’s worth of car carnage on America’s roads. It also doesn’t count the millions of people who suffer severe injuries, perhaps involving paralysis or amputation, and the billions of dollars in medical bills, lost productivity and property damages.

Beyond that, some stats are alarmingly rising. America’s motorcycle deaths have increased for 11 straight years. Motorcyclists now represent 14 per cent of America’s traffic fatalities, though they’re just 2 per cent of all drivers.

Also, the recent decline in fatalities is being partly offset by new safety problems. Even though states are increasing their vigilance against drunk driving, even though many cars have more safety features, even though more people than ever wear seat belts, and even though roads are built and designed for greater safety, more than 37,000 Americans still perish in traffic accidents. And why?

Driver error. Drivers ignore road signs, fail to yield and disregard oncoming vehicles. They tailgate, suddenly change lanes and fail to stop for obstructions ahead. And they do such things in large part because drivers, quite simply, are distracted.

Perhaps when they first learned to drive, people were taught to pay rapt attention to the road at all times. They carefully checked their rear-view mirrors, signaled before changing lanes and yielded to other vehicles. And perhaps, for a time, such lessons stayed with them.

But with repeated driving for thousands of miles and a number of years comes an illusory comfort zone. After all, it’s just driving, and it’s done every day. This prompts drivers to believe they’ll be fine on the road, even if they are juggling a fast-foods drink in one hand and a cell phone in the other while they try sending a text message which has no immediate need.

Such multi-tasking is killing many Americans, and preventing the USA’s accident deaths, damages and injuries from dropping even further. Thousands aren’t dying and millions aren’t being maimed due to “accidents,” but rather due to avoidable mistakes. And that’s not to mention those who drive drunk, an avoidable error in itself.

Correcting Americans’ many driving errors can be hard to legislate, though states are trying, taking measures such as passing laws to curtail calling and texting behind the wheel. But beyond laws against such flaws, if knowledge is power, then raising awareness of these mistakes can help, too.

Thus, in the face of those 37,261 deaths last year, all drivers should rededicate themselves to the old adage of “safety first.” They should recognize and obey the rules of the road and realize that impatience, indulgence and selfishness can be the worst excuses for cutting across three lanes of traffic to make a freeway exit that they almost passed because they weren’t paying enough attention. After all, a friend had to hear their “LOL” joke via a text.

Yet not everyone will get this wakeup call, and harmful if not fatal accidents will persist. But when they do, at least there’s help.

If you or a loved one in your state has been harmed in an auto accident or car wreck due to another driver’s mistakes or negligence, you have a legal right to refresh or extend the education of the driver who caused the crash. Contact a qualified car accident lawyer or auto accident personal injury attorney in your state and let him or her press your case for full and fair financial compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

USA-LegalHelpCenter.com offers such support in all 50 states of America. Fill out the free case evaluation form on this web page, and a legal representative will get back to you shortly about your car accident or traffic collision case.

Once a driving error has caused hardship to you or a loved one, don’t make your own error by failing to pursue all legal means for recovering your full and just financial compensation. In time, that, too, may help curb the driver negligence that’s costing so many Americans — too many Americans — their lives.

Lots more. Just take a look at Urbana, Ohio, where a semi truck rammed into a row of cars which had rightly stopped for a school bus which was letting off young passengers.

As is often the case in a semi truck accident, the large truck’s driver was not injured. Probably not even a scratch. But as is also the case so often, the innocent drivers and passengers of the cars struck by the big truck most definitely were injured.

In this case, five persons in the cars had to be hospitalized, and one of them — who was in the first car hit by the semi — is in serious condition. Fortunately, the school bus at the other end of the line was not hit and no children were hurt.

The semi truck driver, by the way, was cited by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. See you in court.

Why the 18 wheeler driver failed to stop isn’t clear. In many cases, semi truck drivers are distracted or inattentive while talking or texting. Or perhaps they’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Or perhaps they’re fatigued by working longer hours than allowed. Or perhaps they’re speeding and don’t leave enough room to stop, failing to keep in mind that it takes far longer to brake a monstrous truck than to a halt a smaller car.

Whatever the cause, such accidents have become all too familiar on the USA’s roads and highways, where the barreling behemoths known as 18 wheelers, tractor trailers, big rigs or semi trucks are killing and injuring many thousands of Americans.

Now the trucking industry wants permission to make its trucks even larger and heavier — and thus more dangerous. If  trucking companies get their way, still more accidents will happen.

It’s time to fight back. If you or a family member has been harmed by a semi truck in a large truck accident, engage a skilled 18 wheeler accident lawyer or semi truck accident attorney via  USA-LegalHelpCenter.com.

We can provide you with legal assistance from Texas to Michigan, from California to New York — indeed, in all 50 states. And in doing so we can help put a stop to the growing carnage caused by tractor trailer tragedies and other big rig accidents.

Fill out the free case review form on this page, and let us drive home the point that such slaughters will not stand. Large trucks may be the biggest vehicles on the USA’s roads, but USA laws are even bigger than them.

Your priority is the health and safety of your family while getting from point A to point B. The trucking industry’s priority is boosting bigger loads and bigger profits. Well, at least we know where it stands.

Calling for such change is the “Coalition for Transportation Productivity,” a trucking industry group whose very name suggests a cure-all remedy from spin doctors. Let’s see, your industry is involved in many highway deaths, yet you want to risk even more carnage in order to make even bigger profits? That’s simple enough: Just say it’s in the name of “productivity.” Then it will sound positive.

Actually, it doesn’t — not when such “productivity” means letting truck companies place even bigger behemoths on America’s roads and highways.

For most Americans, that kind of “productivity” at any price isn’t worth it. They’d rather be safer around rumbling and intimidating big rigs.  But for the trucking industry, the fact that truck drivers survive virtually all fatal tractor trailer accident tragedies must make it easier to give safety a backseat to “productivity.”

To achieve this, the coalition is advocating new laws to enable big rigs and tractor trailers to add another axle, and thus be able to carry even bigger and heavier loads. Of course, the bigger and heavier that a truck becomes, the harder it is for that truck to maneuver and stop safely. Again, safety doesn’t seem to be part of the trucking industry’s “productivity” equation.

Instead, it wants larger loads at a time when Americans are being slaughtered by semi trucks and other lumbering leviathans which already are too big for far smaller cars.

Often, such slaughter from an 18 wheeler wreck or tractor trailer accident is due to driver fatigue. That’s because another element of truckers’ “productivity” involves tight deadlines to deliver products.

Many truck drivers work longer hours than they should, fighting off drowsiness behind the wheel so they can meet those deadlines. And this  drowsiness — along with big rigs being hard-to-control — makes these drivers and vehicles an accident waiting to happen.

Of course, large truck drivers aren’t supposed to overwork themselves and drive for an extended time time without rest. But being on an honor system of self-regulation, they do so, anyway. Gotta be “productive,” you know.

For others, being productive means being aware and wary of this gambit by trucking concerns to make Americans even less safe. But at least activists like Joan Claybrook of the Truck Safety Coalition are standing up to the trucking industry on behalf of Americans’ safety.

Also joining her are personal injury lawyers and 18 wheeler accident attorneys who champion the individual over giant trucking concerns. Provided in all 50 states by USA-LegalHelpCenter.com,  a semi truck accident lawyer or tractor trailer accident lawyer fights for victims’ rights not just to secure financial recovery, but to send their own message: For true “productivity” with the biggest benefit to all, big trucks should be more safe, not less.