Any time a passenger car is involved in an accident with a large commercial truck there are likely to be serious or catastrophic injuries and fatalities. While the average passenger car weighs less than 4000 pounds, a loaded semi is twenty times that. The basic laws of physics and the disparity between the car and the 18-wheeler dictates there will be very serious consequences. Large truck crashes account for over five thousand fatalities in the United States each year and between a hundred and two hundred thousand grave injuries. The load the truck is carrying can also exacerbate the seriousness of the injuries should flammable or hazardous materials be involved.
Burns and respiratory issues can occur in addition to the other serious injuries when toxic chemical products are being transported. Crushed bones, fractures, internal organ damage, amputations, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and paralysis are all common injuries following a large truck accident. The victims of these types of serious injuries will likely face weeks, months or years of medical treatments, surgeries and rehabilitative therapy as well as chronic and severe pain. Medical expenses can reach astronomical levels and even those with insurance may find their limits have been reached leaving them responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars should they not receive compensation from the defendant or defendants.
Proving Negligence
The primary legal theory of liability in commercial trucking accidents is known as negligence meaning the defendant in the case failed to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances resulting in an accident and subsequent injuries to the plaintiff. The victim in a trucking accident must show that the defendant was charged with exercising a reasonable degree of car to avoid injury, that they breached that duty and that their failure to exercise reasonable care was the direct cause of the victim’s injuries. Trucking accidents are particularly complex because there are a variety of potential defendants. In some cases defendants will file cross claims against one another in an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for the entire accident.
Multiple Defendants
For instance, the driver of the truck may be at fault in that he was driving recklessly, was distracted while driving or was driving in an exhausted state. The trucking company who employs the driver could be held liable if they put an undertrained or inexperienced driver on the road or allowed the driver to exceed the federally regulated number of hours behind the wheel. If an employment relationship can be established between the truck driver and the trucking company, then the company can be held legally responsible because they exercised some degree of control over the driver.
The manufacturer of the truck could be at fault if a defective part such as brakes or tires was responsible for the accident or the person or company who was responsible for ensuring the truck was properly maintained could be at fault if they were negligent in their maintenance duties. The company responsible for loading the cargo may be held responsible if poorly secured cargo caused the accident. Establishing the liability of a third-party can become complicated when the truck driver happens to be an independent contractor of a much larger company. In this case the issue will come down to how much supervision the company actually exercises over the driver.
How Your Personal Injury Attorney Can Help
All of these entities will likely carry separate insurance policies and your personal injury attorney will file against all those who were in any way responsible for your injuries. An experienced personal injury attorney will carefully consider all aspects of the harm and loss you’ve suffered as a direct result of the accident then work hard on your behalf to receive a fair compensation for your life-altering injuries.