Imagine a commercial truck slamming into your vehicle at an intersection. Your car is probably totaled and can have severe injuries that take months or years to heal. Who will pay? A truck accident attorney can help ensure the liable party is responsible for your losses.
Below, learn how a truck accident lawyer can assist with your case. For a free consultation and to learn more, speak to a truck accident attorney in your area today.
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What Is A Truck Accident Attorney?
A truck accident lawyer is experienced in tort law. A tort means a civil wrong or injury that can be compensated for with damages paid by the liable party. When someone causes a truck crash and injuries occur, the injured person can obtain compensation from the defendant.
Tort law aims to ensure the plaintiff is made whole again. So, a truck accident lawyer works with an injury victim to obtain compensation for any damages they have suffered. Damages that your truck accident lawyer might obtain for you in insurance negotiations or a trial include:
- Medical expenses, both in the past and future
- Lost earnings
- Lost earning capacity
- Car damage repairs or replacement
- Emotional distress
- Pain and suffering
- Wrongful death
Truck accident lawyers also often work on other personal injury cases, including car accidents, premises liability claims, medical malpractice, and workplace accidents.
How A Truck Accident Lawyer Can Help You
Any motor vehicle accident claim can be complicated, and truck crash cases are even more so. Several parties can be partially liable for the crash, including the driver, employer, maintenance company, cargo loading company, etc. There can also be several insurance companies with which to file the case. Truck accident attorneys handle these difficult cases from beginning to end. Here are some of the ways that a truck accident lawyer may assist:
Investigate The Truck Crash
When you come to a truck crash attorney with your case, they won’t immediately take it. They must investigate your accident and determine if another party’s liability caused the crash.
Most tractor-trailer accident attorneys work on a contingency basis, so they have to be confident that the case has a high chance of success. The attorney is only paid if the case leads to a settlement or favorable verdict.
Collect Accident Evidence
Your truck accident attorney will collect critical evidence to prove fault in the truck accident, possibly including these steps:
- Going to the crash scene and investigating how it happened
- Reviewing videos and photos from the crash scene
- Contacting eyewitnesses to obtain statements
- Going over surveillance camera or dash cam footage
- Reviewing the damaged vehicles
- Talking to the police
- Obtaining police reports
- Hiring an accident reconstruction expert to prove how it happened
- Reviewing your medical records and expenses
Your truck accident attorney will build a strong case based on the crash evidence and your total damages.
Send Demand Letters
After the investigation, the next step is to send a demand letter to the liable insurance company or companies. The demand letter will explain the facts of the accident, who caused it and is to blame, and your damages. Last, it will demand a settlement amount to end the case.
Negotiate For A Settlement
Your attorney is skilled in insurance settlement negotiations. The liable party’s insurance company may attempt to contact you after the accident to make a quick settlement before you talk to a lawyer. Never agree to a settlement without an attorney reviewing it! You should politely decline to speak to any trucking insurance company without your lawyer present.
Your attorney will negotiate the best settlement for your losses. They also have the skills and training to argue the case before a jury for a favorable verdict. The attorney will provide their best advice about whether to take the settlement or go to court. It’s up to you, however.
File A Lawsuit
Most truck accident claims end with a settlement. A trucking company may be reluctant to play ‘hardball’ with a severely injured person who can be sympathetic in court for the jury. However, your attorney will file a legal complaint and lawsuit if the insurance company doesn’t offer enough. Then, they will fight for a favorable verdict in a court trial.
What Causes Most Tractor-Trailer Accidents?
Americans rely on tractor-trailers for a large majority of our national commerce. If you buy groceries, books, electronics, and virtually any consumer item, there’s a good chance it was delivered by a commercial truck. Unfortunately, severe and fatal truck accidents always happen on American roads. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, reported 3,341 fatal truck accidents and 60,000 accidents with injuries last year.
There are several frequent causes of commercial truck accidents. Your truck accident attorney will work tirelessly to identify the cause, which can be:
Reckless Driving
Truckers have a higher obligation than passenger vehicle drivers to drive safely. They have a commercial driver’s license and must take care when driving. However, truckers are pressured to make money and arrive at the warehouse on time. They may speed, change lanes aggressively, and take other dangerous actions that cause accidents.
Tell the police if the trucker’s reckless driving contributed to your accident. Then, tell your attorney about the reckless behavior, too. They may ask eyewitnesses if they saw the trucker driving irresponsibly.
Truck Driver Fatigue
Humans generally need seven to nine hours of sleep daily to function normally. We are also designed by nature to sleep at night. When someone doesn’t get enough sleep or drives all night and sleeps much of the day, fatigue can become a problem.
Sleep studies show that fatigued driving leads to slower driving reaction times, reduced decision-making abilities, and lower attention. Some studies show that fatigued driving can be as hazardous as drunk driving. Truck accidents are common because truckers drive long hours and may drive part of or all night to reach their destinations faster.
A truck accident lawyer can review the trucker’s electronic driving log to determine if they drove more than they should. They also can examine the cab’s black box to check the driver’s time behind the wheel. A victim of fatigued driving can hold the driver and employer responsible.
Lack Of Vehicle Maintenance
The FMCSA requires truckers to conduct regular rig inspections and take trucks out of service when unsafe. The carrier is also required to perform regular maintenance.
In 2014, the FMCSA found that carriers with issues with truck maintenance have a 65 percent higher rate of accidents than other carriers.
Everyday maintenance issues with tractor-trailers involve brake part failure, tire failure, and problems with the link between the truck and trailer.
Brake Lag
Many car drivers don’t realize that truck brakes operate differently from passenger vehicles. Big rigs must rely on air brakes rather than hydraulics to quickly slow such large vehicles. Hydraulic brakes offer almost instant slowing power, but truck air brakes take longer.
Air brakes take one or two seconds for air pressure to build enough for the truck to slow down. A serious crash can happen if the trucker isn’t paying attention or miscalculates the distance.
Sadly, getting rear-ended by a big rig, even at a slower speed, can cause devastating or deadly injuries. It’s common for a rear-ended passenger vehicle to have a crushed rear end, severely injured or killed rear seat passengers, and even fuel tank fires that cause severe or fatal burns. Other common injuries in rear-end crashes from brake failures are severe head trauma and paralysis. If you’re severely burned, you may need months of care, including painful skin grafts, to recover as much as possible.
Tire Blowouts
Trucks have 18 wheels to bear that immense weight, and tire blowouts often cause crashes. Commercial trucks cannot use retreaded or used tires but sometimes use them illegally.
Truckers must check their tires regularly and replace anything damaged. Tire blowouts may often go unnoticed by the driver, but the sound is startling to other drivers, and tire debris may shower the road and cause an accident.
Driving Under The Influence
Truckers have a high-stress job. They must drive a large commercial vehicle for many hours straight, which requires close attention to detail and focus. Time away from loved ones adds to the stress, and many drivers don’t have access to a healthy diet. They also may have irregular sleep schedules.
All of these factors can cause truckers to abuse drugs or alcohol, or both. Trucking companies must check their drivers for alcohol and drugs when hired. There also may be periodic checks, but many truckers rely on drugs and alcohol to get through their days.
Many serious truck accidents happen because of drivers being drugged or intoxicated. A lot of accidents are because of prescription drugs, too. Talk to a truck accident attorney immediately after the accident if you suspect the driver was under the influence.
Negligent Hiring And Lack Of Training
There is a regular shortage of qualified truck drivers. This problem may lead trucking companies to cut corners during hiring and perform inadequate training. Your attorney will review the trucker’s hiring and training to determine if a lack of training or scrutiny of their record contributed to the accident.
What Types Of Truck Accidents Cause Serious Injuries?
Trucks can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds, so devastating injuries can result from almost any collision with a smaller vehicle. Common accidents that lead to severe truck crash injuries are:
- Head-on crashes: A head-on crash can cause terrible injuries to smaller vehicles. It’s estimated that 30 percent of passenger vehicle occupants killed in two-vehicle accidents with a commercial truck in 2020 were in head-on crashes. You could have lost a loved one in a head-on crash with a tractor-trailer. If so, you may be eligible through your truck accident attorney to file a wrongful death claim.
- Jackknife crashes: When a truck trailer comes out from behind the cab in an accident, it is called a jackknife accident. These crashes are often deadly because the trailer may be up to 50 feet long and obstruct several lanes of traffic.
- Underride crashes: This accident happens when a smaller vehicle slides under the side of the trailer because of a lack of side guards. This is a severe crash that can severely injure or even decapitate occupants in smaller vehicles.
- Blindspot crashes: A commercial truck’s blind spot may extend 20 feet ahead of the cab, 30 feet behind the trailer, and halfway down both sides. It’s easy for a trucker to hit another vehicle on the highway, even with large side mirrors minimizing the blind spots. Some fatal accidents happen at warehouses and loading docks when a truck backs over a worker.
- Truck rollovers: Any motorized vehicle may roll over, but trucks have a high center of gravity, and a rollover may occur more easily. The rollover can crush smaller vehicles and their occupants.
- Cargo spills: Truck cargo must be secured in the trailer. If it is not, the cargo may shift or fly out of the trailer, causing the driver to lose control.
- Tire blowouts: A tire blowout can lead to a severe accident when tire debris strikes other vehicles.
The principal role of your commercial truck accident attorney is to analyze the accident evidence to determine fault. They may rely on eyewitness testimony, tire marks, vehicle damages, police reports, truck black box data, surveillance or dash cam footage, and the photos and videos you take of the accident scene. With this vital evidence, they will try to prove that another party violated their duty of care and caused the crash.
Contact A Truck Accident Attorney Today
The last thing you should do after a severe truck crash with injuries is to negotiate with the insurance company yourself. Trucking insurance companies will take advantage of an injury victim not represented by a personal injury attorney. A truck accident attorney knows how to negotiate aggressively with insurance companies for the best settlement. Talk to a truck accident lawyer in your area today for a free consultation.