Providing Truck Accident Victims With the Information They Need to Pursue Legal Action

Among motor vehicle accidents, truck accidents can often cause the most severe injuries and, in many cases, even death. Not only are tractor-trailers three times the size of most cars on the road, but most accidents involving heavy trucks happen on highways. After a truck accident, victims have to deal with more than just damage to their vehicles. Many people suffer serious injuries that can result in hospital stays and long-term rehabilitation, and all of this means mounting medical bills that can cause financial strain and stress. A personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver can help you recoup these losses and ensure you can focus on healing.

If you are injured in a truck accident, there are questions that have to be answered that are unique to truck accident injury lawsuits. At Full Court Justice, our truck accident lawyers have the experience and know-how to find answers to these complicated questions. If you were injured in a truck accident, call Full Court Justice today and have a free and confidential case evaluation by an experienced Philadelphia personal injury attorney.

Common Truck Accident Injuries

A truck crash can cause far more serious injuries than collisions between vehicles of the same size and weight. Truck accident victims often face extensive injuries, complex medical challenges, and extended recovery periods. Below are some of the serious injuries that can occur as a result of a truck accident and that we have seen at Full Court Justice. If you’ve been injured as a result of a negligent truck driver’s actions, contact our firm for help.

Spinal Cord Injuries

Damage to the spinal cord is one of the most severe injuries someone can sustain in an accident. Spinal cord injuries can include fractured vertebrae, herniated discs, and complete and partial severing of the cord itself. These injuries can have a significant impact on quality of life, ranging from debilitating back pain and decreased range of motion all the way to paralysis. Treatment is often ongoing over the course of years, which can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in necessary medical care and treatment. It’s not uncommon for victims to require multiple surgeries and extensive rehabilitation therapy.

Spinal cord injuries can be more likely in truck accidents because of the difference in vehicle size. Smaller passenger vehicles don’t generally have the strength and support to absorb the impact of a much larger commercial truck without extensive damage to the car and injuries to the victims. Truck accidents also commonly happen on highways like I-76 and I-95 in Philadelphia, which means speed can also be a factor.

Head Injuries

When a truck accident happens, a direct force is applied to the passenger vehicle. This force can cause the victim’s body to move forward suddenly, potentially striking the steering wheel, window, or another part of the car. It’s also possible for debris from the accident or even the truck itself to move through the vehicle with enough force that it leads to a direct impact to the head. In cases where the victim is ejected from the vehicle, traumatic brain injuries can also happen if their head strikes the pavement.

One of the devastating things about brain injuries is that it’s not always immediately clear that there’s a problem. Many people go home after an accident believing they are “fine,” only to find out hours or days later that they have a concussion. These injuries can also be severe, even if it doesn’t look like there is damage on the outside. Traumatic brain injuries can result in long-lasting and even permanent issues with memory, thinking, and cognitive ability. In some cases, they can even result in personality changes that can make daily life difficult to navigate, both for the victim and their loved ones.

The standard course of medical treatment for head injuries often involves hospitalization, rehabilitation therapy, and ongoing monitoring. In severe cases, the person may be unable to ever return to work, resulting in decreased earning potential and massive losses in income. A personal injury claim can help the victim receive fair compensation for their injuries and expenses, as well as the impact on their quality of life.

Burns

Truck accidents can lead to fires or explosions, either from fuel leaks from the impact or leaking cargo if the truck was carrying flammable chemicals. Second- and third-degree burns are not uncommon in these scenarios, which can result in the victim needing hospitalization, skin grafts, and even potentially reconstructive surgeries. Even after a burn is healed, it may leave significant, lasting scarring, which can affect the victim’s confidence, mental health, and quality of life. In addition to the physical pain and healing the victim must go through, they may also experience emotional trauma and suffering, and they deserve to be compensated for their experiences.

Internal Injuries

The violent impact of a truck accident can cause blunt-force trauma to the abdomen, which can result in damage to the internal organs, such as the liver and lungs, and internal bleeding. These injuries can be especially dangerous because they aren’t always immediately apparent. Bruising can take days to develop, and victims may mistakenly attribute problematic symptoms to just being sore from the accident. Once the injuries are apparent, they often require emergency surgery and significant recovery time. The cost of ongoing medical care and recovery can create significant financial stress, but a truck accident lawsuit can help victims recover compensation from the at-fault party.

How Do You Prove Who Is at Fault in a Truck Accident?

The place you want to investigate when trying to prove who was at fault in a truck accident is the scene. Often, personal injury attorneys do not get involved in a matter until after the accident, which is why you need to do what you can at the scene of the accident.

Truck accident cases can often be more complex than those involving regular passenger vehicles. There may be more evidence to collect and sift through, and it’s possible that multiple parties could share responsibility, making it more challenging to determine liability. The trucking company may also be at fault, or a third party may be responsible if there was a defect in a mechanical component or maintenance. Determining who is at fault and proving their liability is the foundation of a truck accident case.

Preserving and Collecting Evidence

If you are able to do so, take photographs of the vehicles involved in the accident, showing where they ended up on the road and where the points of impact were on the colliding vehicles. It’s also likely that the responding police officers would have done this as well, and those photos will be attached to the police report.

This immediate documentation of the scene can be critical because everything from debris patterns to the current weather conditions can help determine how the crash occurred and who was at fault. Depending on where the crash occurred, we may also be able to get evidence from another driver’s dash camera footage or security cameras on nearby properties.

Getting Police Reports and Witness Statements

Be sure to call the police to the scene of the accident and give them a statement as to how you observed the accident take place. Do not speak with the other driver, but listen to what he or she has to say. The responding officer will talk to both drivers involved and any witnesses who may have seen the accident and stopped to help. The police report can often contain key information, such as whether any citations were issued and the names of any witnesses. Our attorneys can follow up with these leads to determine if they have information that supports your case and are willing to testify.

Using Evidence in Truck Accident Cases

The truck accident attorneys at Full Court Justice also know that a truck accident differs from a car accident in that there may be a lot more evidence available when a truck or tractor-trailer is involved. Commercial trucking companies and truck drivers are subject to both federal and state regulations, which means there can be important documentation that can help your case. Driver logbooks, black boxes, maintenance records, and even GPS data can all provide critical evidence.

What Evidence Is Used in Truck Accident Cases?

Establishing a truck accident claim requires gathering a wide range of evidence, and this often involves information that isn’t typically available in other types of car crashes. Some of the evidence our attorneys may use to build your case includes:

Incident Reports

Often, truck drivers have to submit incident reports if they are involved in car accidents, and an experienced truck accident lawyer will notify the trucking company right away to preserve the report.

Maintenance Logs

Often, truck accidents are the result of mechanical failures in the truck. In Pennsylvania, the primary factors in heavy truck crashes for 2015 were related to tires and wheels, brakes, power train failure, and total steering system failures. While this may be a situation where bad luck played a part, state and federal laws require truck drivers and owners to constantly inspect their trucks and keep records of the inspections. These logs can go a long way in proving that the driver or owner of the truck should have known of the mechanical failure.

Cargo Logs

The cargo being shipped inside tractor-trailers has to be properly secured and must comply with federal and state weight standards. The laws also require that logs be kept detailing what is being carried by the trucks and how. If a truck accident injury can be traced back to unsecured cargo, then there may be more than one party liable. An experienced truck accident attorney can use the cargo logs to trace back and identify the responsible parties.

Driver Hourly Logs

Truck drivers’ hours on the road are regulated at both the state and federal levels. This is to prevent sleep deprivation on the road, leading to dozing off and inattentive driving that can have dire and often fatal consequences. While a truck driver breaking the hourly driving law is not in itself proof that he was driving carelessly, it is evidence that can be used to prove that the driver’s lack of sleep caused him to drive with less attention on the road than he needed to, causing the accident and the resulting injuries.

Highway Cameras

Many highways are equipped with surveillance technology that can capture the events leading up to your truck accident injury. At Full Court Justice, we will reach out to the respective authorities to make sure that, if there is footage of the accident, we do our best to preserve it and get a copy.

Witnesses

Often, good Samaritans stay behind at the scene of a truck accident to tell the police officer investigating the accident what they observed. These witnesses can make or break a truck accident case, and it is important to contact them early on in the process of the case to find out what their point of view of the accident was.

What Can You Recover If You Have Been Injured in a Truck Accident?

When someone is injured and brings a personal injury lawsuit, they are entitled to be compensated for what the law calls their “damages.” Damages basically mean compensation, in the form of money, that is awarded by a court to someone who has been injured through the wrongful conduct of another. Often, truck accident injuries are catastrophic, and the individuals and their families are never the same. Though damages vary from case to case, some examples of what you can recover if you were injured in a truck accident include:

Medical Bills

Often, with truck accidents, the injury is serious enough that the first-party benefits coverage is exhausted, leaving you with co-pays and deductibles from your health insurance. The personal injury lawyers at Full Court Justice will collect those bills to the penny and demand payment from the responsible party as part of your case. However, in many cases, the truck accident injuries will require ongoing medical care that lasts beyond the trial. Our truck accident attorneys will hire the best experts to evaluate the injuries and forecast the future medical costs so that they too can be demanded.

Wage Loss

If you have missed work due to your truck accident injury, you are entitled to recover that lost pay. In many cases, if you have used vacation time, but the amount of vacation time you get is limited, then you are still entitled to recover your wages for the vacation days you missed. Again, with the injuries often being severe, many people are forced to change jobs to something less physically strenuous or stop working altogether. An experienced truck accident lawyer will hire expert economists to review your work records and calculate what kind of money you stand to lose in the future because you cannot work like you could before the injury.

Pain and Suffering

This is the most commonly referred to non-economic damage. Depending on your tort choice and the severity of your injuries, you are entitled by law to be compensated with money for the pain and suffering you sustain. You are also entitled to be compensated for your loss of life’s pleasures, embarrassment and humiliation, and scarring and disfigurement. Because our truck accident attorneys work with our clients directly, we come to truly understand the effect the injuries have had on our clients and their families’ lives, and when it is time to demand compensation, we have a detailed understanding of the maximum amount of money you deserve.

If You Are Injured in a Truck Accident, Call a Truck Accident Lawyer

Truck accident cases are rarely straightforward, and trucking companies and their insurance providers have a vested interest in undermining your claim. Trying to navigate the aftermath of a truck accident without an attorney while also focusing on your own healing and recovery can be difficult. But our attorneys are here to help.

We understand the unique challenges that often arise with truck accidents. Our attorneys are focused on preserving, organizing, and analyzing key evidence that can support your claim, and we can handle all of the communication with insurance companies on your behalf so you can focus on your recovery.

Time is often critical in these cases because key evidence can be altered or lost. Reaching out for help as soon as possible means our team can start preserving that evidence and building your claim. We can also help you understand how key deadlines like the statute of limitations apply to your case and ensure you aren’t pressured by an insurance company’s attempt to settle quickly.

We have seen firsthand how devastating these accidents can be physically, emotionally, and financially. At Full Court Justice, our personal injury attorneys are available to confidentially review your case and help you understand your rights. Call today at(215) 770-0282 to schedule a free initial consultation with one of our Philadelphia truck accident attorneys.