Truck accident claims may require a more in-depth investigation than claims involving only passenger vehicles driven by private drivers for several reasons.
Truck accidents may cause more serious injuries. Big trucks may weigh up to 80,000 pounds when fully loaded. That excess weight can cause catastrophic damage to passenger vehicles and their occupants, especially in the case of smaller vehicles or those with poor support.
If you suffer serious injuries in a truck accident, you may deserve compensation for those injuries. While truck drivers must carry substantial insurance coverage that could help cover the cost of those bills, the insurance company might also fight hard to reduce the compensation it has to pay out as much as possible. You may need to provide clear evidence of the injuries you suffered and their overall impact on your life to establish how much compensation you really deserve for those injuries.
The trucking company may share liability for your accident. The truck driver, as the one making decisions on the road, can bear liability for any action that he or she takes while transporting a load. However, in many cases, the trucking company that employs the driver may share liability for an accident. Your attorney would need to look at the driver’s logbooks, the company’s policies, the company’s past accident history, and any information about the driver’s record to assess how much compensation you may deserve for your injuries.
Your attorney would look for:
Information that suggests that the company regularly pushes its drivers to break the law. For example, truck drivers can only spend 11 hours out of each 14-hour shift on the road before they have to take a break. Some companies, however, may push the driver to exceed those hours to meet tight deadlines. The company may also push drivers to speed or engage in other dangerous behaviors on the road, usually to decrease the time needed to make deliveries.
Information suggesting that the driver has a known history of driving while inebriated, but the company employed him or her anyway.
Any sign that the company failed to properly maintain its vehicles, which could cause a brake failure or engine trouble and contribute to an accident.
If your attorney can turn up information that indicates that the trucking company shares liability for the accident, it could, in some cases, increase the compensation you might receive for your injuries. However, it may take an in-depth look at that information to uncover the evidence you need, which may extend the time needed to investigate your claim.