Do You Know The Difference Between Truck And Semi-Truck Accidents?

Any auto accident will bring lots of trauma for you along with property damage and personal injury. You will likely want to file a personal injury case or claim. You should hire a personal injury lawyer to help you with this since personal injury law is very complex. Personal injury law, as your personal injury lawyer could tell you is especially complex when a semi-truck or large commercial vehicle is involved. You’ll need to read this article for information that will tell you what the differences between accidents involving regular vehicles and those involving semi-trucks and other large commercial vehicles are.

If you are involved in an accident with another large commercial vehicle, you and your car will likely sustain the brunt of the property damage and bodily injuries. The statistics, unfortunately, dictate this. You will assume that since you were involved in a personal injury accident with another motor vehicle, your case will be ‘like the others!’ However, your personal injury lawyer in Martinez will tell you that this is far from true.

Seven ways in which large commercial vehicle accidents are different

Your damages will be greater

Large commercial vehicles are huge. They can do a lot of damage to a regular vehicle during a collision for this reason. Chances are, your car will be severely damaged, if not totaled, in the accident. You and other passengers will also likely sustain substantial bodily injuries. You may also either be partially or totally and temporarily or permanently disabled because of the accident.

1. Additional parties are involved – since most large commercial vehicle accidents can be attributed to negligence, either on the part of the driver, or the manufacturer, more than one party is involved, and is therefore liable. Your personal injury lawyer will tell you that you may be able to sue one or more of the following parties after your accident with a big-rig:

• The driver
• The carrier companies
• The truck manufacturer
• The company that manufactured the truck’s cargo
• Other drivers
• Government entities
• The insurance companies of all of these parties.

Note that these lawsuits will be complex since many parties are involved. These lawsuits can often drag on for months, and sometimes even years.

They occur in different ways

Since large commercial vehicles are complex vehicles, their engines and batteries are more complex than those found in regular vehicles. These engines, batteries, and the vehicles themselves are more prone to malfunction and/or breakdown for this reason.

Unique or specific legal issues will be involved

Since the trucking industry is heavily regulated, it is subjected to certain rules that the passenger vehicle industry is not. For example, truck drivers must rest for a certain number of hours before they are allowed to drive again. However, not all truck drivers follow this rule. Being too tired while driving is a common problem for truckers and attributes to the bulk of accidents involving large trucks and other commercial vehicles. There are other issues that are responsible for accidents. These include:

● Driving while under the influence
● Distracted driving
● Improperly loaded/stored cargo
● Dangerous or illegal cargo
● Improper licenses
● Improper and/or inadequate training
● Negligent hiring
● Trucks not being maintained or inspected properly
● speeding/aggressive driving
● Reckless lane mergers and/or turn

These types of accidents tend to require more research and investigation.This is one of the main reasons why you need to hire a personal injury lawyer:

Settlements asked for are larger

This is why the insurance companies of large commercial vehicles are aggressive and proactive in terms of fighting these types of lawsuits. You need to hire a good personal injury lawyer since these insurance companies have lots of money and can ‘lawyer up really easily!’ This can easily lead you to lose the lawsuit if you try to represent yourself in court.

These accidents are more likely to involve wrongful death

Lawsuits that involve wrongful death is of a different nature. They are more complex for this reason. You will need a personal injury lawyer to argue your case for you either in or out of court. Commercial vehicles are very powerful, but you can be more powerful. It’s true that large commercial vehicles are very powerful. However, you can be even more powerful by hiring a good personal injury lawyer.