A large truck has blind spots big enough to hide an entire car, and a turning trailer sweeps through far more space than drivers expect. Crashes in those zones are common, and the truck driver’s favorite explanation, that they never saw the other vehicle, is usually the problem, not the excuse.
The no-zones
Trucks have large blind spots in front, behind, and on both sides, with the worst running down the right side and back at an angle. A professional driver is trained to know exactly where they are. When a truck changes lanes or merges into a space the driver did not confirm was clear, the result is often a sideswipe or a vehicle pushed off the road. That a car was in the blind spot is not a defense, because managing those zones is a core part of driving the truck safely.
I represent people hurt by commercial trucks, never the carriers or their insurers. As an ACS-CHAL forensic lawyer-scientist who spent years defending DUI cases, I know how the physical evidence of a crash is built and how the other side tries to pull it apart, and a blind-spot or wide-turn wreck lives or dies on that proof: the sight lines, the mirror settings, the speeds, and the data the truck itself records. A carrier and its lawyers start working the case the day of the wreck, so I move fast to lock down the electronic logs and the black box before they vanish. I came up in the courtroom as a public defender, tried numerous cases, and cross-examined witnesses constantly, and I am willing to put a case in front of a jury, which is often what moves a trucking insurer to pay fair value. I handle your case personally, from the first call through trial. Learn more about my background.
A professional’s duty, not a shared mistake
The defense in these cases almost always tries to make the blind spot the victim’s fault, as if a driver should simply have known to stay out of it. That gets the duty backward. A commercial truck driver is a trained professional operating a vehicle the law treats as requiring special skill and a special license, and part of that training is knowing exactly where the no-zones are and accounting for them before changing lanes, merging, or turning. The blind spots are the truck’s problem to manage, not the surrounding drivers’ problem to guess at. When a truck moves into a space its driver could not see, the question is why the driver failed to check, signal, and clear the space, not why the other vehicle was there the way a professional is required to. Framing it correctly, as a failure of the person with the training and the duty, is often the difference in these cases.
Wide turns and the right-turn squeeze
To make a right turn, a truck often swings wide to the left first, and the trailer then cuts across the inside of the turn. A vehicle or cyclist alongside can be trapped and crushed against the curb as the trailer comes around. These crashes turn on whether the driver signaled in time, positioned the truck correctly, and confirmed the path was clear before turning. When the driver did not, the fault is theirs.
Proving what the driver should have seen
The defense in these cases leans on the claim that the other vehicle was simply not visible. The evidence usually answers it: the truck’s dashcam and side cameras, the black box, the lane and turn geometry, and the driver’s own account measured against the physical marks. Because so much of it is on camera and on the truck’s computer, preserving the data before it is overwritten is what keeps the proof alive.
Proving the sightlines with the truck’s own systems
What a driver could and should have seen is not left to argument, because modern trucks carry the means to reconstruct it. Many are equipped with cameras and sensors, some forward-facing, some covering the sides and rear, and their footage and data can show what was visible and when. The truck’s mirror configuration, the cab’s height and sightlines, and a reconstruction of the two vehicles’ positions in the seconds before impact can establish where the victim was and whether a properly attentive driver would have seen them. The driver’s training records matter too, because they show what the driver was taught about the no-zones and turns. Pulling these together is technical work, the kind these cases demand, and it turns a he-said dispute about a blind spot into a provable account of what the driver should have seen and done. That evidence lives on the truck and in the company’s files, which is one more reason moving quickly to preserve it matters.
The deadline
For a crash on or after March 24, 2023, Florida gives you two years to sue under Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a). In a truck case the clock that matters most is shorter: the carrier only has to keep some logs and inspection records for a matter of months, so the real deadline for protecting the evidence is measured in weeks, not years.
Blind-spot and wide-turn crashes are built on a false premise, that the victim should have stayed out of the way, and I put the duty back where it belongs, on the trained professional driving the truck. I use the truck’s own cameras, sensors, and mirror layout, along with the driver’s training records, to show what a careful driver would have seen and done. I represent injured people, not trucking companies, and I do not let a driver’s failure to manage the space around a truck get turned into the victim’s fault.
Common Questions
What are a truck's blind spots?
Large trucks have wide blind spots, sometimes called no-zones, directly in front, directly behind, and along both sides, with the largest on the right. A truck driver who does not account for them, or who changes lanes without confirming they are clear, can run over a vehicle the driver claims not to have seen.
Whose fault is a blind-spot crash?
Usually the truck driver's. A professional driver is trained and required to know where the blind spots are and to check carefully before changing lanes or merging. Saying the other vehicle was in the blind spot is not a defense; managing those zones is part of the job, and failing to is negligence.
What is a wide-turn or right-turn squeeze crash?
A truck often swings left before turning right, and a vehicle alongside can be caught and crushed against the curb or another lane as the trailer sweeps through the turn. These crashes turn on whether the driver signaled, positioned the truck properly, and made sure the path was clear before committing to the turn.
The truck driver says I was in the blind spot. Does that defeat my claim?
Not by itself. It may raise a comparative-fault argument, which reduces but does not necessarily bar recovery, and only if you were more than half at fault. But a trained truck driver is responsible for managing blind spots, so the argument often cuts the other way once the facts are laid out.
How are these crashes proven?
Through the truck's dashcam and any side cameras, the black box, the driver's account against the physical evidence, and the geometry of the lanes and the turn. As always, the camera footage and data have to be preserved quickly before they are overwritten.
Related: Truck accidents overview, Evidence and the black box, Federal safety regulations, Who is liable, and About Rory Safir.
This page is general information about Florida and federal law governing truck crashes, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. These cases arise under Florida negligence law and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations governing the safe operation of commercial vehicles (49 C.F.R. Part 392); Fla. Stat. 768.81 and 95.11(5)(a) also apply. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
