Articles Posted in Trucking Accidents

If you have made a personal injury claim after being injured in a trucking accident, several things may happen. Your attorney may negotiate with insurance providers and possibly liable parties. In some cases, your case may need to work its way through the court system before a settlement is reached. This process can take months or even years, depending on your case, the evidence gathered and presented, and the parties involved. While your case is working its way through the court system, you will need to:

1) Communicate with your attorney. Hopefully, you will hire a qualified Florida personal injury attorney soon after your trucking accident to safeguard your rights. If you have done this, you will need to communicate effectively and openly with your attorney so that your attorney can help you pursue your case. Respond to your attorney’s requests for information as fully and promptly as you can to prevent delays in your case.

2) Focus on recovery. While you may be concerned about your personal injury case, you need to focus on recovering from your injury. Whether you have sustained a burn injury, brain injury, or other serious injury as a result of a trucking accident, seek the best care possible. Follow all doctor’s instructions and directions fully so that you can recover fully.

If you have sustained a spinal cord injury, amputation, head injury, broken bone, burn injury, or another serious injury in a truck accident, you may feel very alone. Having a serious injury can feel very isolating. Worse, when you try to interact with insurance providers, the court system, trucking companies or the medical system (as you inevitably must after a serious truck accident), you may find yourself facing systems and companies with much larger resources than you. In some cases, you may feel like a mere number instead of a patient. In other cases – such as when you apply for an insurance claim – you may feel bullied by a larger company. Hiring a Florida personal injury attorney can help you and can level the playing field in trucking accident cases in a number of ways:

1) Attorneys can equalize the difference in resources between you and trucking companies. Trucking companies and insurance companies are generally huge companies with virtually unlimited resources. They can delay your case or claim until you are pressured to accept a lower settlement than you are entitled to. A Florida personal injury attorney working on a contingency basis uses his or her resources to equalize the playing field. With an attorney, you can afford to wait for a fair settlement.

2) Attorneys can investigate the accident. Most trucking companies and unions have excellent attorneys on retainer and these attorneys have investigators who can arrive on the accident scene immediately. Even if you hire an accident attorney yourself, your attorney will likely not have access to the accident scene until after most of the debris and evidence has been taken away. However, your attorney will have respected private investigators and accident reconstruction experts who can recreate the accident scene and uncover evidence.

After a trucking accident, there are many issues which can affect your insurance claim and any legal claim you may have. One of the best ways you can safeguard your rights and your ability to secure a fair claim is to hire a qualified Florida personal injury attorney to assist you. Your attorney can negotiate with insurers on your behalf and can investigate the accident on your behalf. There are many issues that your attorney may discuss with you or you may wish to discuss with your attorney:

1) Evidence. If you have any documentation or evidence related to the accident, you will want to share this information with your attorney. Your attorney will also likely launch an investigation into the accident to gather evidence that can reveal what has happened to cause the accident.

2) The resources of the trucking company involved in the accident. Your attorney will likely examine the resources available to the truck company involved in your accident. If you have sustained a serious brain injury or burn injury in a truck accident, for example, your attorney may investigate the accident and also the trucking company involved. If the company is found to be negligent and has large resources, your attorney will be aggressive in ensuring that you get a fair settlement that helps to pay for all your medical bills and lost income.

If you have been in a trucking accident and have sustained a serious personal injury such as a spinal cord injury or a brain injury or have lost a loved one in the accident, you should contact a good Florida personal attorney as soon as it is at all viable to do so. Many attorneys will even visit your hospital room to discuss your accident with you.

Many patients avoid speaking to an attorney and often this reluctance is based on incomplete information. Many patients assume that they do not need an attorney because insurance providers will take care of the costs associated with an accident. Some think that they do not require an attorney because they have no intention of suing. However, it is important to remember that an attorney does far more than just represent you in court. After a trucking accident, a good Florida personal injury attorney is essential and can often help you with:

1) Investigating the accident. Most attorneys work with private investigators, accident reconstruction specialists, and other professionals to determine the exact cause of your truck accident. This is vital because it offers you closure and also ensures that you will not be unfairly blamed for an accident that was not your fault.

The Mid-America Trucking Show earlier this month features a number of sessions organized by The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, designed to explain the new compliance program, the Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 Initiative. Under the new initiative:

1) A driver’s driving record will now include collisions as well as any issues with roadside inspections. A record will go back three years and violations will be weighted on how recent they were and on their risk of leading to an accident. A driver’s driving record will be made available through the Pre-Employment Screening Program. Drivers will be able to improve their records with any clean inspections. If a driver is fired due to too many violations or if a driver leaves a carrier, the driver’s driving points will stay with the carrier. This means that carriers will be directly responsible for the driving records of their drivers and will not be able to simply get rid of bad drivers. Details of the point program and system are available through csa2010.fmcsa.gov.

2) The Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 Initiative will likely remove 200,000 truck drivers from roads or up to 320, 000. Most of these drivers will be removed because the new points system and the method of taking a closer look at driving records will reveal unsafe driving records and these drivers will be considered unemployable. The Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 Initiative will make criteria for hiring quite high for carriers and carriers will be more responsible for their driver’s records. As a result, drivers with poor records will likely not be hired. The CSA, however, notes that this will actually increase competition for good drivers, so that good truck drivers will likely be able to enjoy better benefits and pay as carriers become more committed to hiring a smaller pool of good drivers.

According to Jungheinrich, an international materials handling equipment supplier, many forklift truck accidents could be prevented with better reporting. Currently, most businesses have in place a reporting procedure for forklift truck accidents, but according to Jungheinrich and other industry experts, reporting a wider variety of accidents could help prevent more accidents. Specifically, reporting perceiving hazards as well as “near miss” incidents involving forklift trucks could prevent truck accidents before they occur by targeting potential hazards before they cause personal injuries and accidents.

Currently, many workplaces have extensive procedures in place for reporting workplace accidents, especially when those workplace accidents cause personal injury or fatality. Federal and state laws as well as union standards ensure careful reporting and investigation of all incidents leading to injury. Careful reporting is usually necessary for workers’ compensation claims as well.

However, most companies do not have policies in place for “near accidents” or incidents which almost caused an accident. Most companies do not keep track of these incidents or analyze or investigate with them. Most such incidents, because they do not result in personal injury, are not recorded or kept track of. Quite simply, in most workplaces, everyone considers themselves lucky that no accident has occurred and work continues on as before.

While more common causes of trucking accidents, such as rollovers or car accident collisions, cause many injuries and deaths each year, at least some of the 500,000 large truck accidents on our roads each year are caused by more esoteric reasons. Truck accidents caused by these rarer causes can also cause serious personal injuries and fatalities, so these dangers need to be considered as well:

1) Wind and road conditions. High winds, especially on bridges, can increase he likelihood of a truck accident or rollover. High winds can push on a truck with extreme force, especially if a truck is traveling very fast, and this force can cause a truck driver to lose control. When high winds are combined with poor road conditions, this combination can prove especially lethal.

2) Animals. Animals run into roadways all the time and when a truck swerves to avoid an animal, accidents often occur. A truck driver swerving to miss an animal can crash into other cars or rollover, causing serious injuries, including brain injuries. In some cases, even striking a larger animal can cause injuries to a truck driver. Since many truck drivers tend to drive at dusk and later in the evening to meet deadlines, they are especially subject to accidents involving animals, as these are the times when animals tend to be most active.

Many frightening and distressing events can cause trauma, emotional upset, and even Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Car accidents and truck accidents, by their very nature, can cause severe trauma that lasts for weeks or even months. Even after the physical personal injuries of a trucking accident have begun to feel, the emotional aftermath of the accident can remain.

Each patient reacts to the trauma of a truck accident differently. Some patients return to work and normal activities normally and with a little help from supportive friends quickly seem to recover. Other patients struggle more severely with the emotional effects of a truck accident. Although it can be difficult to pinpoint when trauma becomes a serious problem, there are some symptoms that should not be ignored after an accident:

1) Difficulty returning to work or home activities. A return to usual home and work responsibilities is usually a very healthy and positive sign. When it does not happen a few weeks or months after an accident, it may be time to seek professional counseling or help. Sometimes, this symptom is difficult to determine because a patient may devise many plausible-sounding reasons why he or she is not returning to normal activities.

Forklift truck accidents can occur in many work environments, including factories and construction work sites. These accidents can include rollovers and collisions which result in brain injuries, broken bones, amputations, spinal cord injuries, and even fatalities. Many forklift truck accidents are preventable. In many cases, forklift truck accidents are blamed on truck operators, and while training and expertise of operators can help reduce forklift truck accidents, these accidents are in fact caused by a variety of factors. Therefore, there are a variety of solutions must be implemented in most workplaces to prevent forklift truck accidents:

1) Careful servicing and maintenance. Employers need to ensure that all forklift trucks are maintained and serviced to manufacturers specifications. This can be a challenge if a workplace has multiple models and several older models of trucks, but careful maintenance can help prevent many forklift truck accidents.

2) Imposing speed limits. Many forklift truck accidents are caused by excessive speeds. Forklift trucks are designed to stop slowly. Most models require about 1.3 feet to stop for every mile per hour they travel. The faster a forklift truck is traveling, the longer it will take to stop and the harder it will be for the operator to stop in time to prevent a collision. It is a good idea to post speed limits of 8 miles per hour in the work place and limits of 3 miles per hour in areas with pedestrians. Posting and enforcing such speed limits can significantly reduce forklift truck accidents in the workplace.

Truck accidents have a high fatality rate as well as a high rate of serious personal injury. The size and force of most commercial trucks make them no match for passenger vehicle. If you are in a passenger vehicle, there are only a few limited things you can do to help prevent head injuries, burn injuries, and other life-threatening injuries:

1) Prepare ahead of time. Your ability to survive a trucking accidents depends in part on how well prepared you are before the accident occurs. Staying alert while driving, for example, can give you a few extra precious seconds to brace for impact and prepare for a collision. Keeping focused on your driving and avoiding distraction can also help you prevent a trucking accident, of course. In addition, making sure that your car is well-maintained can ensure that your car responds well in an emergency situation. Taking defensive driving courses or refresher courses can further prepare you for road emergencies.

2) Do all you can to prevent the accident. Avoid over steering, but look for ways to minimize or prevent an accident. If you have room, try swerving quickly but firmly away from the possible collision. Think quickly and try to stay calm.