Steel trucks are powerful and heavy vehicles that can cause devastating injuries and damage in any collisions due to the cargo they transport as well as their size and weight. Steel trucks can severely injure other road users, such as car drivers and passengers, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and others.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) states that driver errors often cause truck crashes. Causes can include:
- A driver falling asleep at the wheel
- Driving distractedly
- Speeding or driving too fast for road conditions
- Following cars too closely
- Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol
Vehicle defects can occasionally also cause or contribute to a crash. Reasons can include the failure of brakes, a tire blowout, and others.
If you or a loved one experienced a crash with a steel truck in Clearwater and suffered injuries and losses, a Clearwater truck accident lawyer can help you file a lawsuit. Call the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine now to determine whether you have a claim.
Damages You Could Recover
While it is impossible to know the exact amount or types of compensation you could receive without assessing your individual damages, you could potentially receive the following types of compensation and others:
Financial Losses
If your car was totaled or needs significant repair due to an accident with a steel truck, you could receive a new car or reimbursement for the costs of any repairs. You could also receive compensation for any other property damaged or destroyed in the accident.
Medical Costs
After a devastating accident with a steel truck, you may be left with medical costs. If you take legal action, you could potentially recover all your medical costs now and in the future. You could also receive awards for medical equipment and accessories, counseling for emotional distress, and costs for rehabilitative services such as physical therapy.
Income Losses
If you cannot work because of serious injuries in a steel truck accident, you might be entitled to lost income. Depending on your injuries and whether you have to stay off work for a while during recovery, you could receive your past, present, and future lost income.
Physical and Emotional Suffering
If you or your loved one suffered from serious and debilitating injuries, you most likely had to endure physical pain. You may also suffer from emotional distress due to having experienced a traumatic accident. You could receive compensation for non-economic damages, such as physical and emotional pain.
Loss of Life Quality
Unfortunately, getting into an accident with a steel truck can change your life. You may not be able to do the activities and hobbies you used to enjoy before an accident. If this has happened to you, you could be entitled to awards for loss of life quality.
Permanent Disability
If you have had significant and permanent injuries, you could potentially receive compensation for disability. You may also be able to recover other damages in a personal injury lawsuit, such as awards for a lost limb or a lost sense.
Knowing your damages and what your case is worth can be pivotal for any settlement negotiations. Our Clearwater steel truck accident lawyer can help to assess your damages and calculate what your case may be worth. Contact the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine today for a free and confidential consultation to find out about your legal options.
Injuries Are You Likely to Sustain in a Steel Truck Accident
The Florida Department of Highway Safety found that there were 23 incapacitating injuries sustained in truck accidents in 2020. Such injuries are quite common in steel truck accidents due to the size and weight of the vehicle.
The cost of treatment for severe or catastrophic injuries is quite high as you may need to get admitted. The nature of the accident may also result in significant psychological trauma necessitating therapy afterward. Your insurer should meet the cost of your injuries, but they may be unable to cover the full cost if it exceeds your policy limit.
Some of the injuries you may sustain after a steel truck accident are:
- Neck and head injuries, such as concussion or whiplash
- Back injuries
- Loss of limbs
- Soft tissue injuries
- Organ damage and internal bleeding
The severity of the injuries you have sustained will be the primary determinant of the amount of damages you can recover. Ensure that you have kept all medical records and bills you have had to settle out-of-pocket.
The injuries sustained after a truck accident may physically inhibit you from actively pursuing your claim. But you should not have to worry about the claims process. Our Clearwater personal injury lawyer will help you secure the best settlement amount possible.
The cost of treating your injuries may financially inhibit you or your family. This is why you need to ensure that you have the best approach to recovering damages, which is working with our steel truck accident lawyer.
Liability in Steel Truck Accidents
To recover compensation, it is crucial that you can determine who is liable for your accident and prove the at-fault party or parties’ negligence in your claim. Accidents with steel trucks can be complicated and may potentially have several at-fault parties. While accidents can be caused by drivers, a company and other parties could also potentially be responsible.
Causes for accidents with trucks that are not the driver’s fault can be:
- Lack of truck maintenance and repair
- Wrongly loaded cargo
- Negligent hiring
- Poor training of drivers
- Manufacturing defects
Establishing negligence in a steel truck accident can be tough for a truck accident lawyer, let alone for an injury victim. Several parties could be wholly or partly responsible for your accident.
Trucking companies have to observe state and federal laws that require them to hire prudently and responsibly, checking drivers’ records and background before hiring them. Questionable companies may try to cut costs by skipping these hiring practices.
These companies may also try to pressure drivers to skip rest periods or neglect important maintenance and vehicle repairs. A third-party contractor, such as a company repairing and servicing the vehicles, could also be responsible. In some instances, even a vehicle manufacturer could be held to account if a manufacturing defect played a part in causing your accident.
Cost of Hiring a Lawyer
The cost of hiring a lawyer is often the main reason why injured parties pursue claims without legal representation. But the issue of cost should not worry you when working with our Clearwater steel truck accident lawyers.
Our firm follows a contingency fee policy. Thus, you can hire our lawyer at no upfront cost. We only get paid if you get paid because we believe that we are pursuing the claim together. Having our lawyer by your side means that you can concentrate on recovering from the psychological and physical trauma caused by the accident.
We Can Help
Determining liability in a truck accident is complicated and can require a lengthy investigation into a trucking company’s records and operational practices. Trucking companies will most likely try to fight any claims tooth and nail and may have an entire team of lawyers for this purpose.
Our Clearwater steel truck accident lawyer can help you with your claim in a number of ways, including but not limited to:
Assessing and Building Your Case
Your lawyer can assess your claim thoroughly and identify all negligent parties. We can aggressively pursue your best interests and negotiate with insurance companies and at-fault parties, aiming for a fair settlement that covers all your damages now and in the future.
Collecting Crucial Evidence
Determining what caused the truck accident is crucial to proving negligence of the liable party. We can collect and analyze crucial evidence to prove your claim. This can include investigating any technical data, such as a truck’s black box, and reconstructing the accident with professionals and expert witnesses. We can also collect and present the relevant evidence proving your damages and injuries.
Once you get in touch with our truck accident lawyer, they can investigate the accident scene. With the numerous surveillance cameras in use these days monitoring stores, homes, and roads, our lawyer may be able to obtain video footage of the accident. A video could show how the accident happened and which party may have been at fault. Our personal injury lawyer will also follow up on the police report documenting the accident.
Our lawyer will talk to any witnesses to the accident. Witness statements can help collaborate your version of events or give new facts concerning what happened.
Representing You Professionally
We can fight for your rights to justice and compensation while representing you at trial.
Get Started Today on Your Steel Truck Accident Case
The sooner you act, the sooner you can seek compensation that can aid your recovery. Do not wait, and contact the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine for help with your case now.
We Can Help.
