Over 11 million trucks are actively operating in the United States. Many of the trucks’ drivers are overworked and transporting dangerous materials. There were 475,000 accidents involving large trucks in 2016, and human error occurred in about 90 percent of the accidents. A quarter of drivers have fallen asleep while driving, according to a Harvard study. However, half of professional truck drivers have fallen asleep while driving.
Trucks weigh 20 to 30 times as much as an average car, so an overworked truck driver can instantly change your life, since all that weight means that accidents involving large trucks tend to cause severe damage to the vehicles the trucks strike.
It is critical that you retain the services of a lawyer if you or a loved one has been injured in a truck accident. Truck drivers are often covered by millions of dollars in insurance, and it’s common for multiple parties to be held liable in truck accidents. For these reasons, if you want your case handled as professionally as possible, it’s important to have an attorney by your side as soon as possible.
It can be difficult to identify all sources of insurance that can be financially recovered from in a truck accident, since trucks and trailers are often insured by different insurance companies, and either company or both companies can be found negligent and therefore liable for damages. A Sacramento truck accident attorney can identify all sources of insurance which can be recovered from in order to maximize your financial compensation in a truck accident case.
Call us today at (916) 443-5486 or text us from this page for a free consultation if you or a loved one was injured in a truck accident in Sacramento. We can get you to doctors who won’t charge you until your case is over if you can’t afford medical treatment, and, best of all, we don’t charge a fee unless and until we win your case.
What Should I Do After A Truck Accident In Sacramento?
If you have been emotionally or physically injured after being in a truck accident in Sacramento, you should immediately contact our experienced, expert Sacramento truck accident lawyers and follow the following advice:
- Seek medical attention immediately: Do this even if you don’t think you’re injured. It is common for those who are injured in accidents to not realize they are injured until hours, days or even weeks after an accident. Adrenaline and endorphins can mask pain after an accident. The thing is, insurance companies are typically the source of financial recovery in a truck accident case, and if you wait too long to seek treatment after an accident, insurance companies can claim your injuries might have been caused by something other than your accident and refuse to pay you for your injuries. It is thus vital for you to have your injuries documented as soon as possible after an accident so you can be compensated for any medical treatments made necessary by the injuries.
- Report the accident to the police as quickly as you can: The police may file charges against the truck driver if they committed a crime or were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident. Police reports can also be vital in convincing insurance companies to pay you every penny you deserve for your injuries.
- Get the contact information of witnesses: A personal injury case can be supported by any witnesses to the accident. Get their addresses, names, email addresses and phone numbers.
- Take photographs: A picture is worth a thousand words. Take pictures even if the police do, too. Photograph all vehicles involved from multiple angles. Photograph the road conditions and any traffic signs or signals nearby. Photograph broken lights, tire tracks, or any debris in the area. Photograph injuries. This can all be vital evidence in a truck accident case.
- Talk as little as possible: While it’s OK for you to make sure others involved in the accident are OK, talk as little as possible. Anything you say at the accident scene can and will be used against you during negotiations with an insurance company or in civil court. It is very easy to say something that implies you were at fault for an accident, even if you weren’t actually at fault for the accident.
- Call an experienced personal injury lawyer: Experienced personal injury attorneys like Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers can immediately begin investigating your truck accident to determine if someone else’s negligence was responsible for your injuries. You can be financially compensated for your injuries if someone else’s negligence caused your accident.
What Causes Truck Accidents?
When a large truck gets in an accident, there might be multiple factors contributing to the accident. Some of the most common causes of truck accidents in Sacramento include:
- Fatigued drivers: Drivers are mandated by federal and state law to rest periodically during long driving shifts. However, irresponsible trucking companies sometimes pressure their drivers to drive while they are fatigued in order to arrive at their destination earlier. Fatigued driving can lead to slow response times and bad decision making, and many truck accidents in Sacramento are caused by this.
- Speeding: Speed limits for truckers are often lower than speed limits for passenger vehicles. However, when truck drivers are in a hurry to get to their destination in time and exceed these speed limits, the results can be catastrophic.
- Failure of equipment: Commercial trucks these days are extremely complex machines and they have a lot of advanced equipment. There have been a lot of technological advances in the field of trucking, but equipment failures still cause a lot of truck crashes.
- Overloaded trucks: Federal and state regulations mandate that trucking companies keep load sizes under a certain limit. Trucks which are carrying too much weight can experience increased braking time and this can cause catastrophic accidents.
- Alcohol or drug use: Trucking companies and truckers follow strict drug and alcohol testing rules and these rules are mandated by federal law. Despite this, alcohol and drug abuse remains a major problem among truck drivers and often causes truck accidents in Sacramento.
- Driving aggressively: You have probably witnessed aggressive driving if you have ever been on a highway in Sacramento. The results can be devastating when commercial truck drivers drive aggressively or recklessly.
Most of the common truck accident causes can be controlled with the right safety measures, or are preventable. If you think that one of these common causes of truck accidents was a factor in your truck accident, contact a Sacramento truck accident lawyer immediately for a free consultation.
Truck Accident Injuries
Truck accident injuries and the consequences of them can linger for life, such as huge medical bills, chronic pain, reduction in earning potential, mental anguish and trauma, or permanent disability.
Common truck accidents which can be financially compensated for in a truck accident case include:
- Broken bones
- Chronic pain
- Traumatic brain injury
- Limb loss
- Paralysis
- Whiplash
- Lacerations
- Internal bleeding
- Spinal cord injury
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Emotional trauma
- Disfigurement
If you were, unfortunately, injured in a truck accident, it is vital for you to talk with one of our experienced, aggressive lawyers as quickly as you can. We have been successfully litigating truck accident cases since 1990 and know all of the ins and outs of truck accident law in California.
If you have been injured in a truck accident in Sacramento, we will fight for you to obtain every penny you are entitled to under California law.
We Know What To Do In A Truck Accident Case
It’s vital that you hire a Sacramento personal injury lawyer with a ton of experience handling truck accident cases. Our truck accident attorneys take many things into consideration when representing you in a truck accident case, including:
- Logbooks must be preserved and examined. Logbooks in truck accident cases often demonstrate that the trucking company or driver violated laws regarding commercial truck driving.
- Black box and GPS data is crucial. Black box data can show the driving inputs that the truck driver applied before the accident occurred.
- It’s vital that a thorough inspection of the accident site be done immediately. Our lawyers and investigators will personally examine the accident site, look for evidence like tire marks or debris, and take measurements. We often hire roadway design experts and/or accident reconstruction experts while investigating truck accident cases.
Establishing Fault In Truck Accident Cases
Accidents involving large trucks almost always end up with more than just the involved drivers being legally involved. Other parties often become involved in the case depending on the cause of the collision:
- The trucking company: The truck may be owned by a company or may have another owner. The driver’s insurance might be covered by a company, and that company’s legal team might handle collision details.
- The manufacturer of the truck: If a mechanical failure was involved in the accident, the manufacturer of the truck may be held liable in a truck accident case. One common cause of truck accidents is air brake malfunctions.
- The shipping company: If a deadline is missed, the company which paid the trucker to be on the road might pursue legal action.
- The loading company: If an accident was caused by loose cargo which fell out of the truck, any company which loaded the truck might be held liable for your injuries.
- Pedestrians and other drivers: Other people might have been hurt in the truck accident, like other drivers, their passengers, or pedestrians.
Every party involved in these situations will be backed by their own insurance company, and these insurance companies are interested in protecting their own profit margins and paying as small of a settlement as possible.
These parties will also have their own lawyers. The benefit of adequate legal representation is clear with so many factors at play. Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers will communicate with all of these companies for you, take control of every aspect of your case so you can focus on recovering from your injuries, and fight for you so you can recover all of the money you deserve. We’ll directly deal with other parties’ insurance companies for you and hold them accountable so you can receive every penny you’re legally entitled to for your injuries.
Truck Accident Compensation
Truck accident victims often ask us how much their injury claim is worth. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. The answer will be different for every client. However, the types of damages which clients can be compensated for are about the same in every case, including non-economic damages, punitive damages and economic damages. A judgment award or settlement might reimburse you for multiple losses according to your truck accident injury case’s facts. Types of damages you could be compensated for in a truck accident case include:
- Pain and suffering
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Vehicle damages
- Out-of-pocket costs
- Past and future losses
- Punitive damages
- Permanent disabilities
Do I Need A Sacramento Truck Accident Lawyer?
You need a truck accident lawyer if you’ve been injured in a truck accident and wish to receive all of the money you are legally entitled to under California law. Insurance companies won’t offer you what you deserve if you don’t have a lawyer. They’ll instead offer you a low ball offer and dare you to sue them over it, knowing you can’t beat them in court without a lawyer.
The mere act of hiring a truck accident attorney, however, often convinces insurance companies to pay you what you deserve for your injuries. Most of our cases are settled out of court because insurance companies know about our reputation of excellence and success and choose to settle out of court with us rather than incur significant legal costs in a court trial they know they’ll lose.
It’s also vital to have lawyers to deal with insurance companies for you because insurance adjusters are trained to trick you into admitting fault for an accident so they don’t have to pay you for your injuries. It’s very easy to say something on the phone with an insurance company that implies your own fault for an accident, or implies that your injuries aren’t as bad as you claim. Insurance companies can use these statements against you as justification to pay you less or nothing at all. We know all of the insurance companies’ tricks and won’t fall for them.
Call us today at (916) 443-5486 or text us from this page for a free consultation if you or a loved one was hurt in a Sacramento truck accident. Our only fee is a percentage of the financial compensation we recover for you, and we don’t charge a fee unless and until we obtain financial compensation for you, so you will never owe us anything out of pocket.
