While it’s obvious that a collision with a large commercial truck has the potential to cause severe injuries and possibly injure and kill people in multiple vehicles, the biggest differences between trucking accident cases and car accident cases are not in the severity of the injuries. Trucking accidents are far more complex. They involve state and federal trucking regulations, and the underlying causes of trucking accidents are different. You will be up against the trucking company and its insurance company, and possibly other companies as well. You need the help of an injury attorney who understands trucking accidents.
Trucking Company Responsibility
A single trucking accident can have many underlying causes and most trucking accident causes point back to trucking company liability. Trucking companies have many duties, created to make our roads safer. They must follow strict regulations when hiring drivers and when choosing to put them behind the wheel. They must repair and maintain their trucks properly. And they are required to keep extensive records and documentation to prove that they are incompliance with the law.
Truck Accident Investigation
Trucking accident investigation means doing more than looking at the scene and the vehicles involved. It involves digging deep into the records and knowing how to interpret what you find there.
For instance, truckers must keep logs to show that they have not violated Hours of Service (HOS) regulations. Some trucking companies encourage or require their drivers to falsify their logs, in order to move more cargo faster and make more money. But, other documents, such as gas receipts and weight station records may paint a different picture, reveling that HOS violations did, in fact, occur.
In many cases, we see a combination of contributing factors. Sometimes, it’s a poorly maintained truck put in the hands of an inexperienced driver who wasn’t speeding but was driving an overloaded truck and too fast for the weather or traffic conditions. A perfect recipe for the truck to malfunction or for the driver to lose control when reacting traffic.
If you or someone you love has been seriously injured in a truck accident, call Adam Smith Law at 702-929-2289 or contact us online to schedule your free consultation and find out how we can help.
Adam Smith Law