Truck Accidents: Understanding The Complexities And Seeking Justice

Accidents involving commercial trucks often have devastating consequences. The sheer size and weight of these vehicles can cause catastrophic injuries and fatalities. Whether it’s a semi-truck, an oversized load or a utility company vehicle, the impact on victims can be life-altering.

At Condeni Law, LLC, we understand the complexities surrounding truck accident cases. Attorney Joe Condeni has been advocating for injured individuals since 1982 and possesses the knowledge and experience to help you navigate the legal challenges and seek justice.

Common Causes Of Truck Accidents

Truck accidents can occur due to a variety of factors, including:

• Unsafe loads: Improperly secured cargo can shift or fall off the truck, creating hazards for other vehicles and potentially causing rollovers.
• Poor vehicle maintenance: Neglecting regular maintenance, particularly brakes and tires, can lead to mechanical failures and loss of control.
• Driver error: Improper lane changes, fatigue, speeding and unsafe turning maneuvers can all contribute to truck accidents.
• Violation of regulations: Failure to comply with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR), such as exceeding driving hour limits or neglecting vehicle inspections, can lead to accidents.
• Inadequate driver training: Insufficient training or failure to meet Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) requirements can contribute to driver error and accidents.

After a truck accident, prioritize your health by seeking immediate medical attention. Contact the police to report the accident and gather necessary information from those involved. They will thoroughly document the scene with photos and videos, preserving any available evidence. Finally, seek legal counsel from an experienced truck accident lawyer to protect your rights.

At Condeni Law, LLC, we will help you seek and recover compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, disability, pain and suffering, and punitive damages after a truck accident or any type of motor vehicle crash.

What To Do After A Truck Accident

Obtain the best medical care available to you. Your health and well-being are the most important assets you have. Inform medical providers of what happened in the crash and what problems you are having. In catastrophic injury cases, your family will need to contact an experienced trucking collision attorney as soon as possible.

An experienced trucking collision attorney will issue a preservation letter to the truck driver and trucking company demanding that relevant evidence in their possession be saved and protected. For example, we will seek to obtain the driver’s log, which is a record of the driver’s hours and other details relating to their work. Drivers are required to maintain a driver’s log, which police officers are authorized to take possession of at the scene of a serious truck accident.

Drivers’ logs are traditionally recorded on paper, although trucking companies are increasingly using electronic logs. Either paper or electronic logs may be altered to make it look like a driver involved in an accident was getting sufficient rest.

An experienced trucking accident attorney will look beyond the logs and examine other items such as:

• Tollbooth receipts
• Fuel-purchase receipts
• Miles traveled
• Electronically stored information

We will inspect the accident scene and the truck that caused the collision. We will hire accident reconstruction experts to clearly understand and present how the collision occurred. We will investigate the crash to determine what, if any, of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) were violated by the company or its driver. We will review all events leading up to and including the crash to determine if the driver followed the requirements learned to obtain their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL).

Types Of Compensation In Truck Accidents

Under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, trucking companies are required to maintain a minimum of $750,000 in liability coverage. Most companies carry far more coverage, and the proposed legislation seeks to increase the minimum coverage to over $4 million.

For catastrophic injuries typically resulting from truck accidents, an injured party can recover compensation for:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Pain and suffering that may be permanent
• Loss of life
• Punitive damages if the trucking company knowingly violated the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations

Punitive damages are a type of punishment intended to deter bad conduct of trucking companies and their drivers and to encourage them to operate within the law.

Representing Clients In A Truck Collision Claim And Lawsuit

Truck drivers and trucking companies are governed by various regulations, such as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and the requirements imposed on holders of a Commercial Driver’s License. In pursuing a trucking collision case, it’s important to get a firm understanding of how the collision occurred and to determine the application of specific trucking regulations.

At Condeni Law, LLC, we will go out to the scene of the accident, personally inspect it, and if necessary, bring trucking experts to inspect the accident scene and the vehicles and prepare an accident reconstruction report.

Our team can assist clients at the onset of a truck accident case by obtaining necessary evidence, obtaining witness statements, sending necessary letters to the truck driver, the trucking company and their insurance carriers, and directing them to preserve documents and records relating to the truck driver and the truck company. These first steps are vital to establishing liability and pursuing any truck collision settlement or lawsuit.

Without the experienced trucking attorney’s letter directing them to preserve all records, the trucking companies may legally destroy driver logs and maintenance records pertaining to the vehicle involved after six months. Other forms of physical evidence need to be secured and preserved. Witness statements need to be obtained. All evidence must be evaluated and effectively presented to an insurance carrier for settlement or to a jury to obtain a proper verdict.

Contact us today for a free consultation. Complete our online form or call (216) 998-4213 to get started.