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Truck wrecks are more serious than passenger vehicle accidents due to the size and weight of big rigs. Accidents involving a semi are often catastrophic due to the fact that a fully loaded big rig can weigh anywhere up to 80,000 pounds. In contrast, a car weighs about 3,000 pounds.
A moving force the size of a big rig means a collision is more likely to end in a fatality or very serious injuries because the heavier the vehicle the longer it takes to stop.
The first thing you need to do is get medical assistance, immediately. Make sure to write down everything you are able to recall about the accident, including what was going on prior to it and just after it. It is also helpful if you have pictures taken with your cellphone or camera.
Make a note of the time of day of the collision, the location and exact place you were and what you were doing. What direction were you headed in? How fast were you traveling? What were the road conditions like? What were you doing at the time of the accident? Where you changing lanes, waiting for a light, stopped at a construction site, etc.? What was the trucker doing just prior to the accident?
In all likelihood, you can file a lawsuit for damages and injuries if you were involved in an accident with a refrigerated truck. Who is sued and how the process evolves is usually related to the circumstances of the case and who is deemed to be at-fault for the crash – one driver or both drivers. It is also important to know that being involved in a car accident is “not” the same thing as being involved in a truck accident.
It’s not just big rigs that are involved in accidents, although many think of big rigs when they hear there has been a crash between a truck and another vehicle. In reality, there are a large number of vehicles on the road today that fit the description of being called a truck. Generally speaking, truck accidents can, and do, involve a crash with a large commercial truck, such as:
According to the most recent statistics complied by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), large truck crashes killed 4,761 people in 2017. Only 18 percent of the total figure represented occupants in the truck, 72 percent of the fatalities were in other vehicles and 10 percent were not occupants in either vehicle and were pedestrians or motorcyclist or cyclists.
Unfortunately, Texas is noted for ranking Number One in the United States for having the most trucks involved in fatal wrecks. Although there are a high number of deaths attributable to truck collisions, there are also a high number of trucks that end up in accidents that only results in property damage – in fact, in 2017, there were 363,000 crashes that resulted in property damage.
It’s important to note that truck drivers are held to a higher standard when it comes to driving. There are not just federal laws in place to regulate the trucking industry. There are also state laws that must be met. Those laws, also called the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, cover a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to:
Texas state laws, which apply to commercial drivers, are similar in nature to the federal laws. If you want further information about Texas state laws, you can find it in Title 7 of the Texas Transportation Code.
Yes, it is likely that you will be able to claim personal injury damages. Under Texas law, you may be able to obtain damages that include:
The possible damages a plaintiff can recover after an accident with an 18-wheelers are typically substantial. The main reason for this relates to the nature of the personal injuries involved. Many survivors have devastating injuries and need long-term medical care and rehabilitation. Often, victims are left incapacitated for life and require around-the-clock care.
If you or a loved one were in an accident involving a truck, contact an experienced truck accident attorney at Schuelke Law.
Parties that may be liable in a trucking accident may include, but not be limited to:
In Texas, you have approximately two years to file a lawsuit before the statute of limitations runs out. However, there are exceptions to this rule that depend on the nature of and the circumstances of the case. In some cases, you may have to act in as little as 45 days following a wreck. To discuss the deadline for filing under the applicable code it is a good idea to connect with a competent personal injury attorney with experience in handling trucking accident cases.
In most instances, trucking accident cases tend to involve more than one party and may include the trucker, the trucking company, a third-party truck owner, the owner of the freight onboard the truck at the time of the accident, the mechanic working on the truck and a whole multitude of insurance companies and other attorneys. Jurisdiction in trucking accident cases may also be an issue.
The victims of serious truck accidents may be entitled to recover financial compensation for any medical expenses, including rehabilitation, pain management, therapy and other necessary expenses for the rest of their lives, if needed. They may also be able to receive compensation for past and future loss of income, past and future pain and mental anguish, and past and future physical impairment. It is important to talk to an attorney as soon as you can to start working on your case.
In order to win your claim, you need to prove the truck driver was negligent and that the driver’s negligence was the direct (or proximate) cause of your injuries. In trucking injury accidents, proving negligence usually involves proving the driver violated state and/or federal regulations. Courts have indicated that violations of existing rules are unequivocal proof of negligence.
The most pressing reason that you would need to hire a trucking accident attorney is that the trucking companies typically have lawyers at the scene of the accident before any of the vehicles are taken away. That means evidence can go missing, witnesses are having their statements taken, the lawyers are meeting with the police and are already starting to develop a defense position for the driver’s actions.
If you do not have an attorney of record and wait too long to hire one, evidence might be lost. While your attorney is still able to access some of the information after the accident, they may not have the chance to see the actual scene, or pictures and find themselves possibly dealing with weeks old eyewitness information. None of those situations is advantageous to you.
The other factors that are present in the aftermath of a trucking accident are typically multiple plaintiffs, such as the truck owner, truck operator, the trailer owner, the person who leases the trailer and more. There are also state and federal rules and regulations to be sorted through to determine which apply in the circumstances. For instance, the truck may be owned by someone in Florida, but the accident happened in Washington and the trailer owner may live in Montana.
Trucking accidents are complex and without a good attorney the plaintiff may be facing a long road to receiving compensation on their own. Insurance companies usually try to dismiss or diminish claims. A trucking accident attorney can handle the insurance companies for you. Insurance companies do not like going to court and tend to settle higher rather than lose a case.
There are several types of negligence. Comparative negligence is a rule of law used in accident cases to determine who is responsible for the accident, and to figure out damages based on the negligence of the defendant and plaintiff.
Several years ago, Texas was a contributory negligence state. Contributory negligence meant that an injured person who was found to have any negligence of their own that contributed to the incident was barred from making a claim, that is, they could not win in court against a negligent defendant. Interestingly, it was found over time to produce unfair results, leading several states to adopt a comparative negligence test which determines percentages of negligence by a plaintiff and defendant and applies the percentage to damage recovery.
In Texas, the jury is generally asked three questions for the most basic claims. First, they are asked which parties’ negligence contributed to the incident. Second, if more than one party’s negligence is found to have contributed to the incident, then the jury is asked to apportion the responsibility between parties. For this, the jury must give a percentage of responsibility for each party, with the total adding up to 100%. Third, the jury is then asked to decide what amount of money is needed to compensate the plaintiff for his or her harms and losses.
The court then uses the answers to enter a final judgment. Let’s assume a simple case where the jury finds both the plaintiff and the defendant were negligent, that the defendant was 75% responsible and the plaintiff was 25% responsible, and that the amount necessary to compensate the plaintiff for his losses was $10,000.00.
Here, the defendant is only responsible for his portion of the losses so the defendant would be liable for 75% of $10,000.00, which is $7,500.00. It is important to note that if the plaintiff is more than 51% responsible for the losses, then the plaintiff is barred from making any recovery at all.
There are other types of negligence as well.
Negligence itself is defined as a failure to exercise the care toward others that a reasonable person would do, or taking action that a reasonable person would not. Negligence is inadvertent and can result in a variety of accidents resulting in property damage and/or injuries.
To prove negligence, a plaintiff must prove: that the party had a duty to the injured party, the defendant’s action or inaction was negligent, and that damages were caused by the negligence. Also considered is whether the damages were reasonably foreseeable.
If an injury is caused by an accident, but no one knows how the accident happened, negligence may be found according to the doctrine of “res ipsa loquitor” (the thing speaks for itself). Each state has a different method of handling negligence. Negligence is one of the biggest causes of litigation in the nation.
Negligence per se refers to when the defendant is negligent for violating a specific law. For example, a driver may be found to be negligent per se for violating rules about texting and driving, or a dog owner in a dog bite claim may be negligent per se for violating laws that require dog owners to keep their dogs restrained.
Gross negligence means a reckless indifference or disregard for the lives and safety of others and is so bad it is close to being committed with malice aforethought. If gross negligence is found to be present in a personal injury case, it can often result in the award of punitive damages in addition to special and general damages.
While the option to deal with the trucking company’s insurance lawyer is open to you, here is why you do need the help of a competent trucking accident attorney. In the first place insurance companies tell accident victims they take responsibility for the accident. However, despite saying that, their actual goal is to offer as little as they can on every claim. If you have significant injuries and require long-term care, accepting a payment from the trucking company will leave you short of funds to manage your care.
The main goal of an insurance company is to dismiss, diminish or deny your claim for any reason. If an accident victim accepts a lowball payment, they cannot go back and ask for more. Insurance companies do not suggest you hire your own attorney because accident victims with legal representation are able to recover far more compensation than those without an attorney. Insurance companies suggest you handle it on your own to save them money.