California big rig and semi accident lawyers help victims who have been hurt in accidents involving large trucks to secure the compensation they need and deserve. Accidents with these huge vehicles are some of the most severe that can happen on the roads. By hiring a personal injury attorney, victims can maximize their settlement and pursue the compensation they deserve.
How serious are semi-truck accidents?
Semi-truck and big rig accidents are some of the most severe kinds of crashes that can happen on U.S. and California roadways.
Trucks and big rigs accounted for 4% of registered vehicles and 9% of vehicle miles traveled in 2017. They also represented 9% of the vehicles involved in fatal accidents, that year.1
However, when the accident involved a big rig and another vehicle, the fatality occurred in that other vehicle 97% of the time.2
There are 2 reasons why the people getting hit by a semi-truck are far more likely to suffer serious or fatal injuries than the trucker:
- trucks are far heavier than any other vehicle on the road, and
- trucks are higher off the ground than other vehicles.
Most passenger vehicles weigh around 3,000 pounds. Even pickup trucks only weigh up to around 8,000 pounds. Tractor-trailers, however, weigh around 35,000 pounds when they are empty. Federal law and federal regulations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) allow these huge motor vehicles to weigh up to 80,000 pounds with cargo. With this disproportionate weight comes disproportionate force.
Worse, all of that force collides with passenger vehicles above the safety features that are designed to absorb the impact. The fenders of large trucks and other commercial vehicles can be substantially higher than a car’s fenders, especially for smaller vehicles. This puts the impact above the car’s protections, where it can cause even more damage to the occupants.
What are some common truck accident injuries?
As a result, truck accident injuries are much more likely to be severe or fatal than those suffered in a normal car accident. Some of the most common trucking accident injuries include:
- broken bones,
- severe or life-threatening cuts and lacerations,
- whiplash,
- spinal cord injuries, and
- traumatic brain injuries.
Some of the most serious injuries can prove to be fatal. Many more require extensive medical care that can quickly cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Accidents involving large commercial trucks are life-altering and costly. Recovering maximum compensation is essential, both to help the victim recover and to hold the trucking industry accountable.
What are some common causes of truck accidents?
Truck accidents can be caused in a wide variety of ways. Numerous factors can be involved in a single semi-truck crash. Some of the most common causes, though, include:
- drunk or drugged driving,
- distracted driving,
- excessive speed,
- truck driver fatigue,
- the trucker failed to check the vehicle’s blind spots before changing lanes,
- a tire on the truck blew out and caused the driver to lose control, or
- cargo shifted in the truck bed or trailer.
If the trucker was responsible for the crash for any reason, the truck driver and his or her trucking company can be held liable for the crash.
Under California truck accident law, the trucker does not have to be completely responsible for the crash in order for the victim to recover compensation. California’s pure comparative fault rules allow accident victims to recover compensation in accordance to the percentage of fault of the other driver. This means that:
- if the trucker was 70% responsible for the accident, the victim can recover 70% of the compensation they deserve, and
- if the trucker was 10% responsible, but the victim was 90% at-fault, the victim can still recover 10% of the compensation they deserve.
What kinds of compensation can a victim recover in California?
That compensation is not limited to the victim’s medical bills. It covers all of the losses that are reasonably foreseeable from the tractor-trailer accident. This includes:
- medical expenses,
- lost wages,
- any reduction in the victim’s ability to earn a living in the future,
- pain and suffering for physical, mental, and emotional pain and anguish,
- loss of consortium for the victim’s loved ones, and
- property damage from the accident.
Because the injuries from a truck accident can be so severe, the compensation required to recover from them can quickly run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. A truck accident attorney can help victims recover what they deserve by filing a truck accident lawsuit.
When the trucker is an employee of a trucking company, liability for the crash will pass through the driver and to his or her employer. This is important because the company will likely have better insurance coverage and will more likely be able to cover a settlement than the driver of the commercial truck, personally.
How can a truck accident lawyer help file a personal injury claim?
A personal injury and truck accident lawyer can help commercial truck accident victims:
- maximize their settlement from the insurance company, and
- file a personal injury lawsuit, if the settlement is not enough.
The initial settlement offer that truck accident victims receive is often far below what they deserve. This is by design. Insurance companies maximize their own profits by reducing what they pay in claims made against their insurance policies.
When a victim hires a personal injury lawyer to represent them, the lawyer can estimate how much the victim is entitled to receive. This lets the victim see whether the offer is good or bad. When they deal with victims who have legal representation, insurance companies are far more likely to make a fair settlement offer.
If they still do not, though, a lawyer can file a personal injury case and demand adequate compensation in court. This requires an independent investigation of the accident scene and the other evidence by the attorney. The truck accident case can then be filed in court. If no adequate settlement offer is made, it also requires taking the case to trial, if necessary.
When the crash was a fatal one, an attorney from a local law firm can legally represent the victim’s family members by filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the truck company on the victim’s behalf.