Every day, we can look at the nearest highway and see large trucks passing by, carrying the supplies we need to our local stores. While these trucks are necessary for delivering groceries and other essentials, they can be dangerous if you are in an accident with one.
Unfortunately, people in passenger cars are at much higher risk of injury or death than someone riding in a truck cab when the two vehicles collide. If you’re in an accident involving a large truck, you may have severe injuries, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), internal injuries or bleeding, broken bones, or back, neck, and spine injuries.
How Can a Kennesaw Truck Accident Attorney Help?
Sorting out your medical bills, lost income, and other damages following a large truck accident can feel like a full-time job. You might expect the insurance company to help – especially since most truck drivers are required to carry at least $750,000 in liability insurance.
Unfortunately, insurance adjusters who handle truck claims are trained to save the insurance company money. As soon as they receive your claim, they will consider several ways to reduce the company’s losses:
- Blaming you for the accident. While you’re in the hospital trying to recover, the insurance company will look for any excuse to claim you were responsible for the collision. Even if the truck driver admitted fault or was cited for a traffic violation, they can still say you were partly responsible. This is important because Georgia uses modified comparative negligence statutes, and both drivers in an accident may be partially at fault. If you are at least 50 percent responsible, you can’t collect damages, but if you are less than 50 percent at fault, you will lose that percentage from your damages. Either way, the insurance company can save money if they make a case that you had even some culpability in the accident.
- Undervaluing your claim. If the adjuster can’t find a way to blame you, they might pivot to another tactic – making you an offer. At first, this seems like a good thing, but be very careful with the first offer you receive from an insurance company. Frequently, the first offer doesn’t cover all your damages because the insurance adjuster understands that most people are unaware of all their damages. It’s difficult to calculate future medical costs or know what the long-term effects of your accident may be, but a truck accident attorney can ensure that all your damages are correctly calculated. We encourage you to speak with a lawyer before accepting any offer from an insurance company.
How Do You Determine Fault in a Trucking Accident?
If possible, try to preserve evidence in your accident, as this can help us determine all liable parties (there may be more than one). Taking the following steps after a truck accident can make it easier to identify the party or parties at fault:
- Try to move your car out of the road to prevent further accidents or damage. If you can’t move the car, turn on your hazard lights. Call 911 to report the accident immediately.
- Check yourself for injuries and request an ambulance if needed. Even if you don’t think anything is wrong, it’s a good idea to let the paramedics look you over. Sometimes, the adrenaline rush from an accident can temporarily override pain and other symptoms of a serious injury.
- If you are not badly hurt and are able to get out of your car safely, take pictures of the accident scene, including all angles of your car and the truck. Be sure to get closeups of any damage to your vehicle and take pictures of your injuries.
- Exchange contact and insurance information with the truck driver, but don’t continue the conversation any further. Anything you say might be misinterpreted and used against you by the insurance company at a later date.
- If you see any witnesses other than you and the driver, ask for their contact information as well.
- When the police arrive, you should respond to their questions honestly but keep your answers brief and to the point. Resist the urge to elaborate or volunteer information they didn’t ask for. Anything you say might end up in the police report, which the insurance adjuster will read.
- Speak with a lawyer as soon as possible so we can begin investigating the accident.
Who Is at Fault in a Truck Accident?
Your first thought may be that the truck driver was at fault, and often that’s true. However, there are other potentially liable parties that we will consider.
The Trucking Company
There are a number of ways a trucking company can be negligent. They might fail to perform regular maintenance on the truck or ignore warnings from the driver that it needs repairs.
Sometimes, the company also pushes drivers to meet unrealistic goals for speed and timing of deliveries, which can put the driver in a bad position. Federal regulations require that drivers only work so many hours depending on how many hours of rest time they’ve had.
For instance, drivers can drive for eleven hours after ten consecutive hours of rest. Truckers are also required to carefully track their work and rest periods to show compliance with these rules.
But if a driver feels pressured to make a delivery on time, they may find ways to mislead the electronic record system and drive more hours than they should.
In some cases, the trucking company is also negligent in their hiring practices or in performing regular drug screenings on current employees. Or, if they assigned a driver to a truck that required extra certifications, such as HAZMAT, and the driver didn’t have the correct qualifications, they could also be liable.
Third-Party Companies
Trucks are often loaded by a third-party company, such as a warehouse or manufacturer, and while this step seems far removed from an accident, it may be the cause of some crashes. A poorly-loaded trailer is at high risk of toppling or flipping, which presents a severe risk for anyone on the road nearby.
In many cases involving flipped trailers, we find that the cargo was loaded in a top-heavy pattern, heavy items weren’t properly secured, or the trailer was simply overloaded. As the truck moves, the entire trailer could sway from the unequal weight distribution, or unsecured items could move, creating an imbalance.
Both situations might lead to a serious accident, in which case, the company that loaded the freight might be liable.
Another situation of third-party liability may occur when a mechanic or service worker makes an error in fixing the truck. If the mistake causes the accident, the third-party company that serviced the truck may be liable.
The Truck or Component Manufacturer
In a few cases, the truck is produced with a defective part or a component is replaced with a part that turns out to be defective. In these situations, the mechanic or service worker usually has no reason to believe the part is defective, so they aren’t at fault, but the manufacturer could be responsible if the defect leads to an accident.
The Truck Driver
In many accidents, the truck driver made a mistake that led to the collision. Some common truck driving errors include:
- Failing to check blind spots. Trucks have large blind spots due to the size of the trailers. You may recall seeing a sign on a truck that says, “If you can’t see me or my mirrors, I can’t see you!” That’s true, and you should make every effort to avoid a trucker’s blind spots or spend as little time in them as possible. However, the truck driver also has a responsibility to check their blind spots before changing lanes or turning, and if they fail to do so, they could be at fault.
- Speeding. Going too fast is an even more serious problem in a truck because the trailer’s weight makes it much harder to stop the truck.
- Turning incorrectly. Turning in a semi-truck is a complicated endeavor. The driver has to get the entire trailer through the turn without hitting anything, and sometimes, they may swing left before turning right. If you see a truck turning right ahead of you, we recommend staying where you are until the truck has completed the turn – drivers who creep forward risk getting clipped by the trailer. However, many accidents occur because the truck driver didn’t check their blind spots before initiating a turn or clipped a vehicle when swinging wide.
- Driving while intoxicated. Fortunately, federal regulations requiring drug screenings for truck drivers keep these accidents to a minimum, but when they do happen, they can have severe consequences for the occupants of any passenger vehicles involved.
- Ignoring road conditions or warning signs about curves and slopes. Road signs warning of curves or that a bridge may ice first in cold weather are meant to warn everyone, but the results of ignoring these signs are often more serious when a semi-truck is involved.
Where Can You Get Help From a Kennesaw Truck Accident Law Firm?
If you or a loved one have been in a large truck accident, please contact the CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm for a free consultation about your case. We’ll review what happened, answer your questions, and discuss your options.
There is no obligation, and if we do take your case, you won’t owe us anything until we win or settle it.
The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm was established by attorney Ali Awad, who turned it into one of the fastest-growing law firms in the country. He and his associates have recovered millions of dollars for injured people and their families.
When Mr. Awad isn’t negotiating with insurance carriers or working on a case, you can find him posting about legal topics for more than a million followers on social media. To work with his team at The CEO Lawyer, call (470) 323-8779.
