Loaded long haul trucks can weigh ten times more than an average passenger car. As a result, that weight differential results in trucking accidents being catastrophic for the vehicles and people involved. You might think that if your vehicle is struck by a large truck, the trucking company will pay for your injuries and damage to your vehicle. But it is not that simple, and the trucking company usually tries to claim that it and the driver are not at fault. I wrote the following blog post to help people understand how courts determine who is at fault after a trucking accident.
If you or a loved one was injured or killed as a result of a trucking accident, you will need to have experienced trucking accident counsel help you attain your fair share of compensation for your injury, recovery, and loss of work. Barrett Law has the experience to help you—contact us now at (601) 790-1505.
How Courts Determine Fault After a Trucking Accident
Under Mississippi law, being injured in a trucking accident is not sufficient to attain compensation for those injuries. Instead, you must prove that the party that injured you was “negligent,” which means that they had a duty to act reasonably to prevent harming you and that they failed in that duty. Accordingly, if you are driving down a highway and a herd of wild horses runs into the road, causing a truck to slam on its breaks and swerve into your lane, injuring you, you may not have a solid case. That is because the truck driver acted reasonably under extreme circumstances. However, if one cow walks into the road and an intoxicated truck driver swerves wildly well in advance of the cow, striking and injuring you, you have may have a strong case. That is because the second truck driver acted unreasonably by being intoxicated and you were injured as a result.
Those are somewhat far-fetched examples that I have used to illustrate a point, but these are much more common ways that truckers fail to act reasonably towards other drivers, such as: Not getting sufficient sleep; Being under the influence of drugs or alcohol; Speeding; Hauling an unbalanced load; and Failing to maintain the truck or secure the truck’s cargo. To prove that a trucking company failed to reasonably meet a duty to protect you and other drivers from harm, you will need to collect evidence of one of these failures.
An experienced trucking attorney can gather relevant evidence, such a driver’s sleep and driving log. Police reports usually indicate whether a driver with a commercial driver’s license or CDL was under the influence of any intoxicants at the time of the crash, and a truck’s “black box” indicates real drive time when driver logs might be faked. Finally, a trucking accident attorney knows how to subpoena maintenance and driving records from trucking companies.
What Should You Do If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured in an Accident?
If you or a loved one was injured in a trucking accident, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact a Mississippi attorney experienced in taking on trucking companies. You need to focus on healing from your injuries and getting back to work. Let experienced counsel take care of preserving medical records, attaining expert opinions regarding the cause of the accident, and dealing with the trucking company’s attorneys. These are complex tasks that only a trucking accident attorney can handle for you.
Call Barrett Law now, an experienced Mississippi personal injury law firm, to represent you if you have suffered an injury as the result of a trucking accident. Contact us now at (601) 790-1505.
