Volume 3, Issue 2                     The Traut Firm eNewsletter              May 2008            www.trautfirm.com

Collisions With Big Trucks

We all know the feeling: that uncomfortable tightening of the chest we get when we look into our rearview mirror and see an 80,000 pound 18-wheeler truck barreling down on our back bumper. According to federal statistics, commercial trucks are involved in thousands of collisions each year. Some of the reasons are obvious:

• Trucks are bigger, heavier, and longer than cards;

• Trucks need more room to maneuver;

• Trucks take a lot more road to come to a stop.

Given their size and weight, common sense tells you that a collision between a big rig and a car, or even an SUV and a car, is likely to come out badly for the car. In fact, commercial truck crashes kill over 5,000 people a year and injure over 125,000 more, many of them seriously.

Reasons for Crashes:

As with other kinds of automobile collisions, there are various causes of big rig accidents. Many of these collisions are the result of the same things that cause run-of-the-mill car accidents: poorly maintained trucks, speeding, overly aggressive driving, failing to yield the right of way, or bad driving conditions caused by snow or rain. However, some of the collisions are related to other factors unique to commercial trucks.

For example, some collisions occur because a truck is overloaded and therefore cannot stop in time. Other collisions are caused by driver inexperience or tired truckers who have been on the road too long. Tired truck drivers are more likely to be on the road with the deregulation of the trucking industry, changes in the way goods are shipped, and recent changes in the rules governing how long a trucker may drive before he is required to stop for a rest. Interestingly, truckers may drive 11 hours per day and are permitted to drive 77 hours in a single 7-day period, almost twice as much as the standard 40-hour workweek.

People injured by the negligence of commercial truck drivers are entitled to compensation for their injuries. But be aware that suits involving truckers are often more difficult than other kinds of collision lawsuits for several reasons. First, it may be difficult to find the trucker after the collision. The nature of a trucker’s job means that he might be involved in a collision in a state far from where he lives and to which he will never return.

Trucking companies are also very skilled in defending themselves against negligence claims and they can be very aggressive in denying claims because every dollar they pay out in compensation to accident victims is a dollar that does not go into their pockets.

Further complicating matters is the fact that most commercial big rig accidents involve far more parties than the typical fender-bender. Parties can include the truck driver, the trucking company, the shipper, the insurance adjuster, and the insurer, and the legal relationships among all of these parties can be difficult to unravel.

Persons who have been involved in a collision with a trucker are entitled to recover compensation for items such as medical bills, time lost from work, pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, and loss of earning capacity. The complexity of these cases means that you should consult an experienced attorney and should not rely on the trucking company’s insurance adjuster to look out for your interests.

If you or someone you know has been involved in a big rig collision, call The Traut Firm at (714) 835-7000. We will be happy to discuss the matter with you and work to get you the compensation that you deserve.

The Traut Firm
"When You Mean Business"