It is always worth considering legal guidance when injured in a collision with another vehicle. While people sometimes opt to just put their faith in the insurers, it is important to remember that insurance companies exist to turn a profit. If you go it alone, you may lose out. This is just one reason why legal guidance is even more crucial if you have been injured in a collision with a truck. Let’s look at some others.
Your injuries will probably be serious
While you certainly can suffer horrendous injuries or be killed in a collision with a motorcycle, car or pick-up, being hit by a truck greatly raises the odds of that.
One reason is that the trailers a semi-truck pulls are often a similar height above the ground as the roof of a car. You can’t usually end up underneath a vehicle of similar size to yours, but many drivers have gone underneath a truck’s trailer, either from behind or the side. That could clearly be catastrophic.
The main thing, though, is the weight difference. Trucks collide with far more force than other vehicles.
Multiple parties may bear responsibility
Those injured by trucks often need to file a claim against more than one party. This is partly because the catastrophic injuries trucks can cause often require very large sums of compensation. Further, multiple parties may share fault.
A truck driver may bear responsibility for a crash. However, they may claim the only reason they lost control was that the cargo someone else loaded for them came loose. In that case, you might need to file a claim against the loading company also.
If a mechanical issue caused them to lose control, that might bring the mechanic or parts manufacturer into the picture. Then there is the trucking company that employed the driver. Maybe they did not carry out adequate background checks, failed to give proper training or pushed the driver to work when fatigued.
Navigating these claims well may be critical to your recovery. Having experienced legal guidance can make a big difference.