Large commercial vehicles pose a danger to others on the highway, and their safe operation requires a driver with specialized training who pays meticulous attention to the rules of the road. If you were recently involved in a commercial vehicle accident and suffered a serious injury it's your right to legal representation, you should call attorney Aaron Herbert who will fight for your compensation.
But in business, time equals money, and commercial vehicle drivers are often made to adhere to tight schedules and drive long hours.
If you or a loved one has become the victim of a commercial vehicle collision, speak with our commercial vehicle accident attorneys immediately to get the legal help you need to recover from the serious damages.
To get started, contact us today.
What to Do After an Accident with a Commercial Vehicle
If you are involved in an accident with a commercial vehicle, you may be so seriously injured that you are unable to do anything but wait for an ambulance.
But if you are physically able to do so, it is helpful to know what to do in the minutes, hours, and days immediately following the accident:
- Check others involved to determine if first aid or an ambulance is required.
- Call the police and have an officer dispatched to the accident scene. Tell the dispatcher if an ambulance is required.
- Provide the police with a basic description of the accident and make a note of the officer’s name and the report number, so you can later obtain a copy.
- Get the name of the commercial vehicle driver, owner, insurer, and any witnesses, along with the plate number, driver’s license number, and other identifying features of the vehicle.
- If you can, take photos of the scene, including all vehicles and body damage. Include street signs or geographic markers to identify the location. If you are too badly injured to take pictures, ask someone else to do it.
- Get medical attention as soon as you can. If you asked the 911 operator to call an ambulance when you requested law enforcement, you will be taken to the nearest hospital emergency room. If not, have someone drive you to the ER, Urgent Care, or your regular physician. Make sure the doctor knows you were in a traffic accident.
- Contact a Board Certified Personal Injury Lawyer. Never try to negotiate a settlement directly with the commercial vehicle company or their insurance carrier. These are complicated legal matters that should only be handled by an experienced and highly qualified attorney.
- Don’t discuss the accident or the extent of your injuries with the commercial vehicle company or their insurance company’s representative. Don’t allow the insurance company to record a statement, and don’t sign any papers. Refer the adjuster to your lawyer. Keep in mind that the insurance adjuster’s goal is to avoid paying damages, or at least to keep your recovery to a bare minimum.
If you’ve been injured by a commercial vehicle, it may not be immediately apparent who the liable party is.
A Texas Board Certified Personal Injury Attorney will be able to call upon experts such as accident reconstruction specialists, automotive and civil engineers, and traffic safety experts to assist in the investigation of the accident, identify liable parties, and provide evidence in support of your case.
What Is the First Step in Filing a Commercial Vehicle Accident Claim?
The first step in filing a commercial vehicle crash claim is gathering evidence of your accident and injuries.
The more information you can collect about your commercial vehicle accident, the easier it will be for your attorney to make sense of your case and build a strong legal strategy to fight for compensation.
Collecting information from the scene such as the name of the commercial vehicle company and photographs of property damages can help your claim later. If you need assistance gathering evidence and information, a commercial vehicle accident lawyer can help.
Gathering information is also necessary before you file an insurance claim.
The insurance company you call will ask questions about your accident, such as where you were when it happened, the date and time, a description of the vehicles involved, and the names of all drivers.
Also, collect information such as the commercial vehicle driver’s Department of Transportation and permit numbers.
Giving as much information as possible to the insurance company could help you resolve your claim quickly and efficiently.
Once you have collected the most important information about your accident, the next step toward filing a claim is contacting Aaron A. Herbert, P.C.
Our commercial vehicle accident lawyers can help you with all the subsequent steps involved in bringing a claim if we believe you have a case.
This can include preserving evidence, retrieving the commercial vehicle's black box, speaking with witnesses, hiring experts, filing your claim, and negotiating with insurance claims adjusters in the pursuit of maximum recovery.
Is There a Time Limit for a Commercial Vehicle Accident Claim in Texas?
Texas has strict and specific time limits for filing personal injury and auto accident claims. This time limit is two years from the date of the accident in most cases.
If you wish to bring a commercial vehicle accident claim in Texas, you or your lawyer must file the claim paperwork within two years of the date of the accident.
If you did not discover your injuries until a date after your accident, the clock will not begin until the date of discovery.
The deadline for filing a wrongful death claim is two years from the date of your loved one’s passing.
If you are filing an insurance claim, your deadline is typically much shorter. Most insurance companies require claimants to report auto accidents as soon as possible – within 24 to 72 hours.
Waiting too long to notify your auto insurance company or the commercial vehicle driver’s insurer of your damages could give the provider grounds to deny your claim.
If you have any questions about your particular deadline for filing after a harmful commercial vehicle wreck in Texas, speak to our commercial vehicle accident attorneys.
Do I Need to File a Police Report?
Yes, you should file a police report after a commercial vehicle accident in Texas. Almost all commercial vehicle accidents fulfill Texas’s requirements for reporting a car accident to the police: more than $1,000 in property damages, personal injuries, or deaths.
Most commercial vehicle accidents are serious enough to warrant a phone call to the police from the scene. After you call the police and wait for them to arrive, tell your story to the reporting law enforcement officer.
Telling your side of what happened could help you hold the commercial vehicle company liable later.
The responding police officer will most likely fill out and file Crash Report 3 (CR-3), an official police report summarizing your accident and giving the officer’s opinion on fault. If the officer fills out a police report, get the number of the report for future use.
If the officer tells you to fill out Crash Report 2 (CR-2) instead, of the Blue Form, you will need to download this form, fill it out yourself and send it to the Texas Department of Transportation (DOT).
You will only need to submit a Blue Form if the police officer does not send a CR-3 to the DOT.
What Damages Can You Potentially Recover After a Commercial Vehicle Accident?
Your commercial vehicle accident lawyers will assist you in making a claim to recover compensation for both your economic damages and your noneconomic damages, also called “general damages,” that relate to your quality of life.
Economic damages, which can be quantified by producing bills, receipts, and employment records, may include:
- Cost of current and future medical expenses,
- Cost of transportation to medical appointments,
- Cost of personal and household assistance with tasks you are unable to do because of the injury,
- Lost earnings and future earning potential,
- Cost of rehabilitation,
- Cost of psychological counseling,
- Cost of medical and assistive devices,
- Cost of refitting home and vehicle to accommodate your disability, and
- Any other out-of-pocket expenses necessitated by the accident.
Potential noneconomic damages your attorney may demand include:
- Pain and suffering,
- Emotional anguish,
- Disfigurement,
- Disability,
- Loss of enjoyment of life, and
- Loss of consortium.
Who Is Liable in a Commercial Vehicle Accident?
The number one cause of commercial vehicle accidents is driver negligence, which is often due to driver distraction or impairment, but which sometimes occurs as a result of the commercial vehicle company failing to properly train its commercial vehicle drivers or pushing drivers to drive faster or work longer hours than the law allows in order meeting a deadline.
Commercial vehicle owners may also be responsible for a vehicle being overloaded or improperly loaded, with cargo inadequately secured.
Owners or maintenance companies who fail to inspect, maintain, and repair their commercial vehicles may be held liable for your damages, as may a manufacturer of a commercial vehicle or one of its parts that contained a defect that caused the crash.
If the accident was caused by an unsafe road condition, the government agency or contractor that caused the problem could be found liable.
Most Common Types of Commercial Vehicle Wrecks
These are some types of accidents that commonly occur involving large commercial vehicles:
- Crashes with cars, motorcycles, or other vehicles while turning or changing lanes.
- Jackknife accidents are usually caused by a semi-truck driver abruptly applying the axle brake. The trailer keeps going forward, causing the rig to buckle at a sharp angle with the cab.
- Rollovers can occur when a commercial vehicle driver runs the wheels off the pavement or up against a curb, causing the truck to flip onto its side. A jackknifed truck is also likely to roll over.
- Tires blowing out or de-treading, causing the driver to lose control of the commercial vehicle and leaving debris on the pavement, which may cause an additional accident. The usual cause of blowouts is the failure to maintain and inspect the tires properly.
- Oil spills, cause the pavement to become slippery and dangerous, as well as pollute the environment and create a danger of fire.
- Hazmat releases: the spilling of toxic gases or chemicals which may cause illness or respiratory problems when breathed in, or may catch on fire causing burn injuries and/or harm to the environment.
- Underride accidents are often caused by sudden braking of the commercial vehicle when a car is behind it, causing a car accident as the car goes under the commercial vehicle, which often takes the entire top off of the car. Underrides are often fatal to the car’s driver and passengers and can be prevented by equipping the truck with an underride guard.
Types of Commercial Vehicles that Cause Accidents
Semi Trucks
Semi-trucks, also known as tractor-trailers, big rigs, or 18-wheelers, consist of a cab that pulls a trailer, which carries the truck’s cargo.
Weighing as much as 80,000 pounds when fully loaded, trucks are awkward to handle, slow to stop, difficult to turn, prone to jackknifing and rolling over, and have large blind spots.
Their weight can do catastrophic damage to an ordinary passenger vehicle and its passengers—not to mention motorcycle riders, pedestrians, and bicyclists—if an accident occurs.
These are the types of trucks most likely to be engaged in interstate commerce and thus subject to federal regulations.
The federal government and the State of Texas regulate the trucking business with an eye to protecting the lives and health of the rest of us when we must share the road with these giants, including:
- Limiting the number of hours a trucker can legally remain on the road without a rest break or a night’s sleep
- Establishing schedules for maintenance and inspection, setting requirements for driver training
- Limiting the weight of a truck’s load
- Mandating that trucking companies carry a large amount of liability insurance
Tanker Trucks
Similar to semi-trucks, tankers consist of two parts—a cab and a tank holding liquid cargo—and consequently have the same accident risk factors as a regular semi, but with some additional dangers.
Tankers must be loaded properly to avoid the liquid sloshing inside the tank, which causes the weight to shift, creating instability, which could cause the driver to lose control or the truck to roll over.
Tanker trucks often carry hazardous and sometimes flammable liquids, so an accident could cause a hazmat spill or a fire, which could cause people over a wide area to become ill, in addition to any damage it might do by colliding with or rolling over onto another vehicle.
Transporting hazardous materials requires that the driver have additional training and pass an examination to obtain a Hazmat Endorsement.
Courier or Delivery Trucks
Courier services, such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, and others, deliver packages to homes and businesses. Their fleets often include semi-trucks moving across state lines as well as large and small local area delivery vans.
They are generally subject to government regulations.
Trucks making local deliveries make frequent stops and turns, often in areas frequented by smaller vehicles and pedestrians, who are placed in danger due to the truck's large blind spots, large size, and lack of easy maneuverability.
Sanitation Trucks
Sanitation trucks (garbage trucks) also operate in residential areas. Not only are they large, heavy vehicles that back up and turn around often, but they are usually equipped with noisy and dangerous robotics, requiring the close attention of the operator, who may be less likely to see a pedestrian or child in the vicinity and may cause a serious accident.
Dump Trucks and Cement Mixers
These large powerful trucks are typically used in construction. They are heavy and unwieldy, with large blind spots. Used to deposit materials at a worksite, they back up frequently and drop their load behind them.
They can back up and strike a person in the back of the truck, or cause an injury to a bystander in the dumping process.
Flatbed Trucks
Flatbed trucks carry their cargo on a flat, open platform behind the cab. They are often used for transporting materials and heavy equipment to a construction site.
Aside from the typical dangers of all large trucks, flatbeds pose an additional danger if the cargo is not fastened down properly, allowing it to fall from the truck onto another vehicle, pedestrian, or worker.
What Causes Commercial Vehicle Accidents?
These are some common causes of commercial vehicle accidents that can often be attributed to the negligence of a driver, owner, or some other party:
- Commercial vehicle drivers lacking proper qualifications, experience, and training,
- Driving at excessive speed to meet unreasonable delivery schedules,
- Driving when impaired by alcohol, or by illegal, prescription, or over-the-counter drugs,
- Driving while drowsy or fatigued,
- Becoming distracted while driving,
- Unbalanced loading of cargo,
- Loading cargo over the legal weight limit,
- Improper securing of cargo,
- Failing to properly secure the trailer,
- Failing to maintain a legally mandated inspection schedule,
- Failing to perform routine maintenance tasks,
- Changing lanes or turning without checking blind spots,
- Under-filling tanks carrying liquids,
- Equipment failure,
- Failing to equip a commercial vehicle with an under-ride guard, and
- Unsafe road conditions due to poor road maintenance or hazards left by workers in the roadway.
Types of Injuries Common in Commercial Vehicle Accident Lawsuits
Truck crashes often result in catastrophic injuries and death. Some of the more common injuries suffered by commercial vehicle accident victims include:
- Traumatic brain injuries,
- Spinal cord injuries,
- Paraplegia and quadriplegia (tetraplegia),
- Internal bleeding,
- Organ damage,
- Serious fractures,
- Burn Injuries,
- Amputation injuries,
- Neck and back injuries,
- Herniated discs,
- Facial injuries,
- Scarring and disfiguration,
- Chronic pain, or
- Psychological trauma.
Why Hire a Commercial Vehicle Accident Lawyer?
Because commercial vehicle accidents are often difficult and complex relative to other highway accidents, they should be handled only by an experienced commercial vehicle accident attorney.
In addition to the factors that come into play in any motor vehicle accident—driver impairment, speed, and so forth—there are particular matters specific to commercial vehicles, including:
- Whether the driver received the legally required specialized training,
- Whether the loading or securing of the cargo was involved and if so, who was responsible for loading,
- Relationships between owners, maintenance technicians, shippers, commercial vehicle drivers, lessees, and other parties involved with the commercial vehicle and its load that must be sorted out,
- The regulation of commercial vehicles by state and federal government agencies, and
- The potentially catastrophic nature of injuries is due to the disparity in size and weight between a commercial vehicle and a passenger vehicle.
Will I Need an Attorney for My commercial vehicle Accident Case?
When you have been seriously injured in an accident or have lost a family member in a fatal crash involving a large commercial vehicle, bringing a Board Certified Personal Injury Attorney on board at the earliest stage can make an enormous difference in the outcome of your case.
Commercial vehicle companies often have mitigation teams in place, ready to respond at a moment’s notice to protect the company’s financial interests by looking for any reason to avoid taking responsibility for an accident, which may mean obscuring evidence or attempting to place the blame on the injured party, so it is important to get your attorney’s investigative started working for you while the evidence is still available.
Having a team of experts protecting your rights from the very beginning will make it more likely that you will receive full and adequate compensation for all of your economic and noneconomic damages.
Especially in catastrophic injury cases, your future life and that of your family will depend on your being able to receive enough money to pick up the pieces of your life and move forward with the least amount of hardship.
Contact our commercial vehicle Accident Attorneys for a Free Consultation
For the expert legal counsel that can make this happen, call Aaron A. Herbert, P.C. to arrange a free consultation. Aaron is a Board Certified Trial Attorney who has experience representing victims of commercial vehicle accident injury lawsuits.
Insurance companies know he is willing to take a case to court if an appropriate settlement offer is not forthcoming and are therefore often more willing to offer a fair settlement outside of court.
Aaron is a member of the prestigious Million Dollar Advocates Forum and has the highest possible AVVO rating—10 /10.
We are a client-focused, results-oriented law firm, where your interests always come first. Protect your legal right to monetary compensation by contacting us today.