A deadly car accident between Kansas City and St. Joseph, Missouri, is a perfect example of how the size of the vehicles can change the severity of the crash.
Accident Involving Ford F750 Pickup Truck Proves Fatal
The crash happened on U.S. 45 near the town of Farley, just northwest of Kansas City and 40 miles south of St. Joseph.
According to the initial reports of the crash, a southbound Ford F-750 crossed into the northbound lane and hit a 2005 Acura head-on.
The driver of the Acura died at the scene of the crash. His two passengers were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
The driver of the pickup truck also suffered serious injuries in the crash.
The Role of Vehicle Size in Car Crashes
There are a lot of factors that influence how severe a car accident can be. For example, head-on collisions are far more likely to be deadly than rear-end collisions, while crashes involving high speeds are more likely to be severe than those that happen at low speeds.
Another important factor is vehicle size.
When one vehicle in the crash is far bigger and heavier than the other, the occupants in the smaller vehicle are far more likely to get severely hurt.
For example, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), in fatal accidents involving large trucks – the largest vehicles on the roadways – 84 percent of the fatalities were people outside of the truck.
An old report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that reducing the weight of cars by 100 pounds would increase the number of deaths by 302 per year, while decreasing the weight of light trucks by the same amount would reduce annual roadway fatalities by 40.
In this particular crash outside Kansas City, the reports do not say exactly what type of car the Acura was. However, in 2005, nearly all of Acura’s cars in the U.S. were luxury sedans that weighed around 3,500 pounds – around average for a passenger vehicle.
The Ford F-750, however, is one of the largest vehicles that can be driven without a commercial driver’s license. It is large enough that the bed of the truck is often removed entirely and replaced with a tractor hitch for hauling large trailers or with cargo areas, much like a box truck. The 2021 model, which was involved in this particular crash, weighs between 9,239 and 11,592 pounds.
To make matters worse, large vehicles like the Ford F-750 are also higher off the ground. This means that the weight that they bring into a collision may strike above the other vehicle’s fenders, minimizing the effectiveness of many of the other vehicle’s safety features.
Car Accident Lawyers at the Smith Law Office Serve Victims in St. Joseph
If you have been hurt in a car accident, you deserve compensation. The personal injury attorneys at the Smith Law Office can help. Contact them online or call their law office at (816) 875-9373.