The injuries you suffer in a truck accident could alter the course of your life for years to come. In serious cases, your accident could impact your quality of life forever. Financial compensation could be available for truck accident victims whose injuries were the result of negligence.
Securing a monetary award following your accident could help you, but it is also frequently easier said than done. Trucking companies and their insurance carriers often fight back against personal injury claims and lawsuits. Discuss your options with a Massachusetts truck accident lawyer today.
Damages in a Massachusetts Truck Accident Lawsuit You Could Recover
Before you accept a settlement agreement in your truck accident case, be aware of all the damages you could be entitled to. This understanding could help you reach a fair settlement with the insurance companies. These damages could include:
Lost Wages
You could replace your lost wages through a successful truck accident injury claim or lawsuit. Your compensation could cover past and future wages you miss out on due to your injury.
Medical Bills
Medical expenses could also make up a substantial portion of your personal injury settlement. Your compensation could pay for treatment like surgeries, physical therapy, and hospitalization.
Property Damage
You might also be entitled to compensation based on the damage your motor vehicle sustained. When passenger cars collide with commercial vehicles, the damage is often catastrophic. You could be entitled to damages that allow you to repair or replace your vehicle.
Our Team Will Find Out Who Is Responsible for Your Truck Accident
The cause of a truck accident will not always be obvious. In some cases, one party might be noticeably at fault, but a thorough investigation could be necessary in others. Your truck accident attorney could identify more than one defendant in a potential truck accident injury lawsuit.
Determining the at-fault party is important if you intend to seek monetary compensation for your injuries. Establishing that another party acted negligently in causing your accident is necessary. Without establishing negligence, your case will be unsuccessful. Some of the parties that could be at fault for a truck accident include:
Truck Operators
Most people point the finger at the truck driver following an accident with a commercial vehicle—and for good reason. Truck accidents have many causes, but human error is frequently a factor.
Some acts of negligence in these accidents are no different than any other vehicle collision. Truck drivers often cause collisions by:
- Driving distracted
- Driving too fast for conditions
- Failing to yield the right-of-way
- Turning without signaling
- Violating federal regulations, i.e., overloading their truck or ignoring rest requirements and becoming fatigued
Trucking Companies
The trucking company could be liable for your damages for multiple reasons. The company could be at fault based entirely on their employee’s negligence. Under the doctrine of vicarious liability, an employer is responsible when their employee negligently causes an accident while acting within the scope of their employment.
For example, a driver that is involved in an accident while driving a company truck to make a delivery could make their employer accountable.
There are other times when the trucking company could be at fault. Specifically, the company or one of its agents could act negligently and cause an accident. This could occur when the company is careless in its hiring practices. It could also result from the trucking company failing to property load the vehicle or ensure a truck is in safe, working order.
The Government
Road conditions can also play a big part in causing a truck accident. If the road is not properly designed or maintained, otherwise avoidable accidents could happen. When road conditions play a part in a crash, the government entity responsible for maintaining that roadway could be at fault. There are strict rules when it comes to pursuing an injury lawsuit with the government, making it important to seek legal counsel immediately.
Truck Manufacturers
The makers of commercial vehicles or their parts could also be to blame for a truck crash. When defects cause these collisions, holding the truck manufacturer accountable could be possible under something known as the strict liability standard. Under this standard, you could recover damages even without establishing the truck manufacturer was negligent.
Common Types of Truck Accidents in Massachusetts
Some accidents are more severe than others, and oftentimes this has to do with the cause and kind of accident. This information may be helpful for your attorneys to determine the cause of the collision and the responsible party. It may also help accident reconstructionists to analyze your collision.
Here are some common kinds of truck accidents:
- Rollovers. If the tractor-trailer rolls, they become a much larger obstacle to avoid on the road. While truck drivers are often safer from injury in these kinds of collisions, passenger vehicles may be severely damaged, their riders suffering catastrophic injuries.
- Jackknife accidents. When the trailer becomes out of sync with the cab, the two pieces of the truck may bend to form a 90-degree angle. Needless to say, this becomes impossible to control and can result in severe collisions.
- Wide turn accidents. These commercial trucks do not have the sharp turning radius that most passenger vehicles do. This means they may take a wider turn and collide with vehicles in nearby lanes.
- Blind spot accidents. Because of the length of their cargo container, they have long blindspots. This may lead them to change lanes or make a wide turn into another vehicle. These often result in underride accidents.
- Underride accidents. When a smaller car gets lodged under the trailer of a big rig, passengers may suffer severe injuries as they are subject to the weight and motion of the larger truck.
- Tire blowouts. Blowouts are fairly common on tractor-trailers, but the tires may become shredded obstacles for other cars to run over or avoid; they may also cause the driver of the truck to lose control. Negligent truck drivers may ignore the signs of a worn tire and cause a blowout.
- Runaway trailer accidents. With the added weight of the trailer and its cargo, the truck may find itself unable to brake on steep inclines or declines. This results in a runaway truck that may collide with anything in its path. Runaway trucks may be the cause of inexperience or inadequate truck maintenance resulting in brake failure.
- Head-on collisions. Vehicles that stray out of their lanes or run traffic lights may collide head-on with other vehicles.
- Rear-end crashes. When another vehicle collides with the back of a tractor-trailer, they may also get lodged underneath the trailer. If not, they are still susceptible to devastating injuries.
You Could Afford a Truck Accident Lawyer from Our Firm Serving Massachusetts
Having an attorney by your side during the course of your truck accident injury case is invaluable. If you are concerned about the financial cost of hiring a truck accident lawyer, you could pursue your case without any upfront costs. This opportunity is possible thanks to something known as a contingency-fee agreement.
Most personal injury attorneys—including our firm—operate on a contingency basis. While other types of lawyers often charge by the hour, our firm does not. Instead, we obtain our fee by retaining a portion of any compensation we recover for you. This percentage is agreed upon upfront.
Hiring our attorneys on a contingency basis allows you to pursue your truck accident claim or lawsuit without carrying the risk. You do not owe us anything until we secure fair compensation for you.
Your Truck Accident Could Result in Monetary Compensation
You should never put your truck accident injury case at risk by attempting to handle it on your own. You have the right to act as your own attorney, but that does not mean doing so would be in your best interest. Your attorney could assist you with building a strong case for negligence while avoiding legal pitfalls.
The team at GED Lawyers has a track record of successfully pursuing truck accident injury lawsuits. If you are ready to speak about how our truck accident lawyers could help, our Massachusetts firm is ready to help. Reach out right away for a free consultation. You likely have a limited time to file a lawsuit under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 260 § 2A, so act promptly.
