If you\’re lucky then the only time you\’ve seen any type of truck accident is on some YouTube video compilation, but for thousands of others they\’ve had the all too personal experience of being involved with a truck accident of some kind. It\’s important to mention here that when we\’re referring to trucks this includes tractor-trailers, big rigs, cement trucks and of course the big 18-wheelers too.
Unlike other road traffic accidents it\’s pretty much impossible to have a simple fender bender with a truck due to the sheer length, height and mass of these vehicles – with most trucks weighing anywhere from 20 – 40 times as much as any regular car. The braking distance of a truck is also far, far longer than a normal car based on the amount of weight and momentum involved.
Trucks also sit very high on the road which means that in serious traffic accidents a car or motorbike will get trapped underneath the truck and not just at an angle to it. The size, weight and position of trucks means that a person in a car or on a motorbike usually suffers very serious injuries in a collision with any type of truck.
Recent FMCSA reports have shown:
* There are over 4,000 fatal accidents involving large trucks each year
* More than 90,000 people are injured in accidents with 18-wheelers
* Over 300 pedestrians are killed each year by 18-wheelers
* Each year there are more than 70,000 tow-away crashes involving large trucks
As you can see from these figures truck accidents are a lot more common than you may have thought, which means that there\’s an increased likelihood that you too could be the victim of just such an accident.
If you\’ve been involved in an accident with a truck it\’s critical that you get professional legal advice and representation as quickly as possible because the trucking company will do their very best to indicate that you were at fault for the accident, even if just partially at fault. Remember that the trucking industry is a multi-billion dollar business so they can afford to have teams of very highly paid attorneys try to brush the case under the rug as quickly as possible.
Basically the sooner they can get you to admit fault the better because during a truck accident investigation any plaintiff has the advantage of being to get copies of documents such as:
Drivers Log Book
All truck drivers must complete a log entry each day including their total distance traveled and how long they\’ve been driving in the last 24-hours. If there are errors or omissions in the log book this could indicate that the driver was literally asleep at the wheel when the accident happened.
Trip Report
The trip report has all of the details of that particular journey stored on it and this information can usually be extracted from the computer fitted to the truck itself. Again if there are any discrepancies here it could indicate fault on the driver\’s part.
Even though the driver himself may be at fault it\’s highly unlikely he or she will be able to pay for your medical bills through their own personal insurance, so you may need to bring a personal injury claim against the trucking company itself – their insurance policies would have provisions for exactly these types of claims. In fact the more negligence you can prove on the part of the driver themselves then the better your case against the company will be, based simply on the fact that the trucking/haulage company had good reason to not hire that driver in the first place.
If you decide to pursue a case against either the driver or the trucking company then make sure you have a fully qualified lawyer who has experience of trucking accidents representing you – missing out on a tiny detail like the trip report could cost you the entire case!