People often think of pickup trucks as very safe vehicles, perhaps because of their reputation as tough, rugged machines. They are tall and powerful. They have four-wheel drive. They tend to dwarf compact cars and hybrid vehicles. People who drive trucks every day — even if they’re just commuting or heading to the grocery store — feel safe on the road.
But are they? How safe are those trucks?
There are still serious dangers, even in pickup trucks. While it’s true that size and weight can protect the occupants when they crash into a smaller vehicle, there’s no guarantee they will not get injured or even killed. That’s especially true, according to recent studies, for the passengers.
What the study found was that someone sitting in the passenger seat in a pickup truck faces far greater injury odds than the person driving that truck. Officials said that right corner impacts tended to cause the truck’s structure to deteriorate, leading to this elevated risk. In an interview, the chief research officer with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said: “Clearly as a class, they’re not offering state-of-the-art occupant protection.”
These studies fly in the face of modern perceptions and the idea that a pickup truck is a tough, reliable vehicle that will keep people from harm. The truth is that, no matter what type of vehicle someone drives, they face serious risks if they ever get involved in an accident.
As such, it is important for those who get hurt in these crashes to know what rights they have to seek financial compensation from the driver response.
