Accidents involving large trucks can happen in an instant.  These trucks often weigh up to twenty times what your car weighs, causing massive damage during an accident.  If you were left with substantial injuries and expenses you need covered, our lawyers can help.

Whether you were hit by an 18-wheeler, a dump truck, a delivery truck, or any other commercial vehicle, our lawyers can help you hold the driver and their employer responsible.  Many of these cases are filed against transportation companies and other trucking companies that have impressive legal teams and insurance companies on their side, meaning you need a lawyer on your side who can stand up to them.

For a free review of your case, call the truck accident attorneys at The Carrion Law Firm right away at (718) 841-0083.

Dangers of Large Commercial Trucks

Accidents involving a large commercial truck are automatically at risk of being more serious.  Even some of the biggest SUVs – for example, a Hummer – weigh a maximum of around 9,000 lbs, but a sedan – like a Toyota Corolla – ways around 3,000 lbs.  Big rig trucks hauling products interstate can legally weigh up to 80,000 lbs.  That’s the weight of over eight Hummers or over 26 sedans.  When these trucks are driving at highway speeds, the damage they can cause to other cars and drivers is immense.

On top of this, drivers are often behind the wheel for long hours.  While they need to have special certifications to drive commercial trucks – especially larger trucks that require specialized licenses – these drivers are human like anyone else.  They can succumb to health conditions like sleep apnea or simply become bored or tired after a long day on the road, potentially slowing their reaction times, weakening their judgment, and causing accidents when these drivers are too tired to keep driving but continue anyway.

Even aside from these dangers, trucks are simply huge.  Driving next to them can be intimidating, especially if you understand how hard it is for truck drivers to see around their own vehicles.  The blind spots on these trucks are often big enough to fit two to three cars in them, and it is no surprise that many crashes are caused by truckers who fail to check their blind spots.

All of this is aside from the fact that 18-wheelers often carry dangerous cargo like gasoline and chemicals, that their drivers often speed to make delivery times, and the companies that own the trucks often make hasty or ineffective repairs to get more use out of their truckers – and drivers – to make more deliveries.

Types of Trucks for New York City Truck Accidents

New York is home to all kinds of businesses and thus all kinds of trucks.  There are different risks and dangers associated with different types of trucks, and our truck accident lawyers can help with your accident no matter which kind of truck was involved:

Tractor-Trailers and 18-Wheelers

Large 18-wheeler trucks, also known as semi-trailer trucks or tractor-trailers, have two parts: a cab/tractor and a trailer.  These cabs typically have three axles, and the trailers have another two axles, with the front of the trailer on a pivot point attached to the cab.  This allows the truck to bend as it turns, but it also creates a lot of risks when the trailer gets out of control.

Trailer sway and fishtailing – when the trailer tips or swishes back and forth behind the truck – can make these trucks unstable, especially in bad weather or crosswinds.  In many cases, these trucks can actually crash into themselves if the trailer sways so far that it folds against the cab in what is known as a “jackknife” accident.

These are some of the most common trucks we see out in the world, especially on highways, and they are some of the most dangerous.

Box Trucks

The kind of truck you can rent when you are moving is commonly known as a box truck or a delivery truck.  These trucks often come in various lengths, with most of them being one piece (they do not bend like tractor-trailers).  Many of these trucks are driven commercially as alternatives to tractor-trailers, given the fact that they are much easier to maneuver on city streets.

However, drivers often have less experience.  Many box trucks are driven by people doing deliveries and installations, e.g., with appliances.  This means these drivers are there for another job, not exclusively for driving, and they may not have the licenses and training of a commercial driver.  Many are also driven by people renting them from hardware stores or moving companies – people with little to no experience driving large trucks.

Dump Trucks and Garbage Trucks

Garbage trucks obviously provide a service we need, but that does not give them the right to stop and start in dangerous ways that block the flow of traffic and cause accidents.  Plus, these trucks are often on a schedule, and drivers may be pressured to ignore traffic signals in favor of speed, potentially risking pedestrian lives.

Dump trucks are often built similarly and have similar risks of cargo falling out the back or of low, hard-to-see parts at the rear of the truck that another driver might clip unsuspectingly.  In any case, dump trucks used for construction or demolition often make sudden stops and turns as well, potentially causing crashes.

Flatbed Trucks

Flatbed trucks have all the same dangers and risks of tractor-trailers, plus the precarious cargo on the flatbed.  Flatbed trucks often carry construction materials like pipes, spools, wood, and stone that are hard to load into a trailer.  However, they are also hard to tie down on a flatbed, and even with the best tarps and tie downs, many of these materials are prone to falling off the back, potentially causing a crash.

Tanker Trucks

These trucks, again, have a lot of the same safety concerns as semi trucks, given their size, shape, and pivot point.  However, they also often contain flammable and dangerous materials.  Although fires and explosions from these tankers are rare, there is also a risk of them leaking during a crash, exposing truck accident victims and drivers to hazardous materials.

Tow Trucks

Tow trucks are supposed to arrive after the crash, not cause it.  Many tow trucks are very large, with flatbeds that protrude out or hooks and arms that dangle backward.  These things sticking out can be risky, but what is often more dangerous is the fact that these trucks often stop wherever they can to do their job, even if it impedes the flow of traffic and causes a crash.

Cement Trucks and Construction Vehicles

Like dump trucks, other construction vehicles often drive where they please, knowing that they have a job to do.  However, trucks stopped blocking streets can be a serious danger around blind corners, and sudden stops and turns can put other drivers at risk.  Additionally, many dump trucks contain materials that, like with flatbed trucks, could fall off and cause accidents.

How Trucking Companies Are Held Responsible for Truck Accidents in New York City

Our truck accident attorneys have many tools and strategies at our disposal to hold trucking companies accountable for these accidents.  You may think that just because the driver was the one who hit you, you have to take your case against them.  This is true in some cases, like when the trucker is self-employed, but even then, there is usually insurance to cover their crashes.

In many cases, we can instead take the case against the trucking company in three ways:

Vicarious Liability and Respondeat Superior

In the typical injury case, you file your claim against the individual person who hurt you for direct liability.  In a truck accident, this would normally mean the driver.  However, a special legal rule known as “respondeat superior” allows you to instead hold an employer at fault when their employee commits an act of negligence within the scope of their work.  This allows us to hold trucking companies and other employers of commercial drivers “vicariously liable” for their driver’s mistakes in the same way that you would normally sue a company for one of its employees’ mistakes.

Since individual drivers usually do not have the funds to pay for serious damages and injuries, this allows us to reach past the trucker to the trucking company.  However, trucking companies often have bigger legal teams we will have to fight.

Negligent Hiring and Retention Claims

Truckers can also be held liable for their own mistakes and issues, some of the most common of which are staffing problems.  If an adult loaded a gun and gave it to a child, we would usually blame the adult for any injuries that result.  The same sort of principle applies when trucking companies put dangerous drivers behind the wheel.  This usually stems from improperly investigating drivers or keeping them on staff after serious issues.

If a driver’s background check and driving record search –mandatory parts of the hiring process – turned up problems that should have disqualified them from driving commercially, the trucking company is responsible for what happens if they hire them anyway.  The same is true if they knew about mistakes, crashes, drunk driving, or other issues on the job and failed to fire their driver.  Any further issues like that are on the company.

Truck Maintenance and Upkeep Issues

Transportation companies, trucking companies, and other businesses with trucks are typically the ones to own the truck rather than the driver.  In some cases, owner-operators do own their own trucks, but they usually work as independent contractors, not as part of a larger company.  When companies own the vehicles their drivers use, they are responsible for maintaining the vehicles and properly servicing them according to state and federal regulations.  Dangerous trucks are usually the owners’ responsibility, thus usually the trucking company’s responsibility.

How Trucking Regulations Help Victims with Truck Accident Claims in New York City

There are state and federal regulations in place governing all sorts of trucking industry and commercial driving issues.  These regulations force truckers and trucking companies to abide by certain rules or else face fines or lose their ability to operate.  Having these rules in place helps other drivers and truck accident victims in three major ways:

Protecting Drivers

These rules are in place to protect everyone on the road.  Regulations requiring certain licensing for certain trucks or requiring commercial driver’s license holders to face safety and health checks makes everyone safer.  One important rule is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) hours of service rules, which require drivers to take breaks and stop driving after a certain number of hours on duty.  These rules aim to stop tired driving and overworked drivers from hurting others.

Providing Proof of Liability

In general, negligence claims are what our truck accident attorneys file for injured truck accident victims.  These claims allege not that the driver hurt you on purpose but rather that they caused the accident by breaching a duty that they owed you and that that breach caused your damages.  The “duty” in question is often a specific law or rule, in which case a violation of it counts as “per se negligence.”

Trucking regulations, especially the ones put in place to keep people safe, can often satisfy the duty element.  That means that breaking hours of service rules, driving with a disqualifying health condition, or hiring drivers who are not properly licensed can all qualify as negligence.  If these issues caused your crash, it becomes easier to hold the trucking company accountable.

Creating Industry Standards

Even in cases where you cannot show a specific regulatory violation, these rules help foster safety in the trucking industry and push trucking companies to do better to keep others safe on the road.  If something is not required by regulation, but it is industry standard and common practice to behave a certain way or use certain safety tools, a trucking company’s failure to follow that reasonable practice can also constitute a breach of duty.

Getting Damages for Injured Commercial Truck Accident Victims in New York City

Our lawyers have one primary goal in your case: to get you the compensation you deserve for your injuries.  We usually have two avenues to pursue in your case to get you damages: insurance claims and lawsuits.  In most cases, we will end up using a combination of claims and policies, plus a potential suit in a court of law, to get your damages compensated.

Your No-Fault Insurance

New York is a no-fault state for car insurance, so we always have to look at your policy and see what coverages you have available to you.  Generally, drivers in New York City have at least $50,000 of coverage for their own medical care and some of their own lost wages.  However, these damages have caps and only cover part of your damages, plus they pay no money for pain and suffering or other non-economic damages.

No-fault insurance rules also have one major roadblock in some cases: there is a ban on lawsuits and insurance claims against the at-fault parties for drivers who suffer anything less than “serious injuries.”  This threshold is met if you suffer a broken bone, serious scarring, a permanent injury, or a disability lasting at least 90 out of the next 180 days or if you are suing for a loved one’s death or the loss of a fetus.

These rules apply to all drivers with New York auto insurance, but the restrictions also apply to cyclists and pedestrians who might not even have insurance.  If you were hit by a truck, the trucker’s no-fault insurance should cover somewhat like it would if you had been a passenger in their truck.

Your insurance might also have additional coverages you can turn to first, but we can seek reimbursement later from the at-fault parties.  Just make sure to work with a lawyer so that you do not accept anything that qualifies as a “settlement” and ends your case or gives up future rights to a lawsuit.

The Trucker’s Insurance

Truck drivers must carry commercial driver’s insurance.  This means that even if they are self-employed and have no trucking company above them, then we can still file a claim against their commercial insurance.

Commercial driver policies often cover far more in property damage and injuries than regular auto insurance, given the fact that these truckers are hauling property that could be damaged and have a much higher chance of causing another driver severe injuries.

The Trucking Company’s Insurance

The trucking company will also have liability insurance that can cover the harm their driver causes or that their own mistakes cause.  This potentially opens additional funds to cover your crash, even if the driver’s insurance is too low.  In some cases, this insurance might be the primary insurance, too.

Lawsuits

If you want to get your damages compensated in full, you often need to file a lawsuit.  While you can claim pain and suffering and other non-economic damages from the trucker or trucking company in an insurance claim, insurance claims against at-fault parties are always difficult.  These insurance companies have little reason to admit fault and pay out full damages, and they will often make low-ball offers in the hope that the victim just accepts the money and stops asking for more.

Our lawyers fight to get you full compensation, which often means we have to go to court to get you everything you need.  Even if the case does settle before trial, the pressure that a looming lawsuit puts on trucking companies will show them that we mean business and that we are not going to settle for anything less than maximum compensation.

However, the decision of whether to settle or go to court is always your decision, not ours; if you want to settle early, you can.  However, our lawyers will be there to advise you of the risks of accepting a low settlement versus going to trial, and we can help you understand the possible outcomes of both options.

Common Causes of Truck Accidents in New York City

Truck drivers in New York often cause accidents for a number of reasons, but the following are some of the most common:

Tired Driving

Truckers often take their jobs seriously and avoid drinking and driving or using illegal drugs on the road, but trucking companies and drivers alike might aim to maximize their time on the road to maximize profits.  This often puts the driver on the line, forcing them to drive tired.

Tired driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving, and drivers who pass out behind the wheel leave their trucks on the loose.  Drivers who are close to falling asleep also have reduced reaction times and worse decision-making capabilities, putting themselves and everyone on the road with them at risk.

Improper Lookout/Blind Spots

Truck drivers have to deal with much larger blind spots than the average driver, and when they fail to properly check their blind spots, they can cause crashes.  Driving next to a truck is scary because most drivers encounter some type of dangerous move from a trucker at some point, where the trucker tries to move into your space without seeing you.  While your horn or quick braking might save you in many cases, truckers often cause crashes this way.

Equipment Issues

Tire blowouts, lighting issues, brake failure, and other problems with a truck’s equipment or maintenance are common causes of truck accidents as well.  Many drivers have seen shedding truck tires on the side of the road, but some have actively been hit by these dangerous tires.  If a truck sheds tires or suffers a blowout – usually due to improper maintenance or upkeep – the truck can become unstable and crash into other drivers (if the tire does not hit them first).

Other equipment issues make trucks harder to stop, harder to control in bad weather, and harder to see at night, potentially causing crashes.

Call The Truck and Commercial Vehicle Accident Lawyers in New York City Who Will Fight for You

If you were hurt in an accident with a large truck, tractor-trailer, semi truck, or other commercial vehicle, call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083 for a free case review today.