Oct 10, 2021 | CHASENBOSCOLO
Accidents involving 18-wheeler trucks are not the same as passenger vehicle collisions. Potential settlement payouts are high, which means the stakes are high for everyone involved. The legal process is complex, and the parties who may be liable to pay you will do everything they can to avoid paying.
Having an experienced attorney on your team is important because they will forcefully advocate for you each step of the way. Your attorney will negotiate aggressively so you receive the full amount to which you may be entitled. This may include economic damages for medical bills, lost wages, and future earnings, as well as noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering, disfigurement, and emotional distress.
Parties Involved and Liability
Legal action for collisions involving 18-wheelers is much more challenging to pursue than the average passenger vehicle collision. Preservation of time-sensitive evidence is critical, including testing for drugs and alcohol, documentation of service hours, records of truck inspections, weight tickets, and dispatch instructions.
Collisions caused by 18-wheelers typically involve many potentially liable parties. These may include the truck driver, the truck owner, the driver’s employer, companies that perform maintenance, parts manufacturers, and freight owners.
The negligent parties will fight aggressively to reduce the amount they are required to pay. In many cases, they and their insurers are experienced in legal action surrounding 18-wheeler truck accidents. Most cases are resolved by settlements because the negligent parties do not want the case to go to trial. In a trial, they risk being liable for much greater monetary compensation than in a settlement.
Visibility
Truck drivers sit higher than drivers of passenger vehicles, which affects their ability to see the road and other vehicles. A truck driver’s vantage point is greatly impacted by the geometry of the truck, which includes large blind spots. When a truck driver changes lanes or makes a turn, they may be unaware of passenger vehicles in the truck’s blind spots. This may cause an accident or may even force another vehicle off the road.
Size, Force, and Stopping Distance
Trucks are significantly larger than passenger cars, which means that there is a greater area of the vehicle that may lead to a collision. In addition, the greater mass of the truck means that at traveling speeds, the truck generates a much more violent force than a passenger car. On top of this, the truck will need a longer distance to come to a stop than a passenger vehicle does.
All of these characteristics combined mean that trucks are more powerful, more dangerous, less predictable, and less easily controlled than passenger cars. The types of accidents that a truck may cause are also greater than accidents involving only passenger vehicles. Truck crashes may result from many different types of situations, including rollovers, jackknifing, sideswiping, and cargo spills.
Severity of Injuries
The massive difference in size and mass between a truck and a passenger car means that catastrophic injuries are much more likely in truck accidents. This is true at low speeds and even more so at operating speeds, such as those on highways. Due to the factors described above, injuries sustained in a crash with a truck can be far more violent than those with a passenger car. The resulting impacts are often devastating, permanently life-altering, and may even include death.
The severity of these types of injuries may cause far-reaching negative impacts to the life of the person injured, as well as their family. The victim may require ongoing medical treatment as a result of the crash, including physical therapy, surgeries, and medication. They may have been permanently disabled, which may affect their ability to hold a job or earn income. They may require long-term assistance from a caregiver, and their quality of life may have been severely impacted.
Contact Us Today
If you were the victim of an accident with a commercial truck that wasn’t your fault, you might be entitled to compensation. You need an experienced attorney and legal team who will hold each party accountable, help you with your claim, and get you the full amount of compensation to which you may be entitled.
Call us today at (301) 220-0050 to speak with a personal injury attorney from CHASENBOSCOLO. You may have medical bills piling up that you should not have to pay if this crash wasn’t your fault. We have helped many satisfied clients successfully navigate their cases to get them the compensation that was rightfully theirs. We are ready to go to work for you so that you can move on from this distressing experience and go forward with your life.
