You have rights if a commercial vehicle hits your car. Most injured parties or families pursuing compensation start by filing claims against the at-fault party’s insurance company. The other option is filing a civil lawsuit against the at-fault party and/or their insurer, depending on the circumstances of the case. However, most commercial vehicle accidents are settled outside court. Both legal actions are meant to recover compensation for monetary and intangible losses from a commercial vehicle accident. Speak to a personal injury lawyer to determine which action to file to secure a settlement for your damages. Schedule a free consultation.
Commercial Vehicle Accident Statutes and Statistics
When a commercial vehicle hits your car, it poses the risk of causing severe injuries and damages, primarily due to the dramatic difference in size. The law ensures you have a legal right to file an insurance claim or sue for these damages within your state’s statute. Most states impose a two-to-three-year timeframe. However, state statutes range between one and six years. California allows two years from the date of injury to file. A local vehicle accident attorney can help you understand and ensure you meet local statutes and other filing deadlines attached to your injury claim or lawsuit.
In recent years, large truck crash statistics have demonstrated that most fatal collisions involving trucks occur on rural roads (54 percent) and Interstate highways (26 percent), with 12 percent falling into both categories. Most injury crashes (87 percent) and fatal collisions (83 percent) occur Monday through Friday. Finally, the majority of injuries and fatalities in commercial vehicle accidents involve the occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists. If you lost a loved one in a commercial vehicle accident, consult an attorney about filing a wrongful death claim for your financial losses and pain and suffering.
Who Is Liable if a Commercial Vehicle Hits Your Car?
While your first inclination may be to sue the driver, understanding liability in commercial vehicle accidents is often complex. Several scenarios exist where other parties are partially or entirely liable for your injuries and damages. Typical examples of liability in commercial vehicle accidents are as follows:
- Driver: Driver error is a leading cause of commercial vehicle accidents. Commercial vehicle drivers are liable when distracted on cell phones, driving impaired, speeding, or following too closely.
- Other Motorists: When another driver causes a commercial vehicle driver to react and cause an accident, the other motorist may be liable. For example, suppose an oblivious driver swerves into the lane, causing the commercial vehicle driver to swerve to avoid impact and swipe your car. In that case, the other motorist’s insurance company may be liable.
- Commercial Vehicle Company: Vicarious liability holds employers responsible for injuries and damages in accident claims when employees act within their employment scope. Usually, this translates to trucking companies being liable for a commercial vehicle accident.
- Inspection and Repairs: Commercial vehicle inspectors who fail to discover apparent mechanical failures or mechanics fail to perform adequate repairs may be liable for injuries and damages.
- Cargo Loader and Company: Improper cargo loading is a significant factor in commercial vehicle accidents, especially rollover accidents. In the event of improper cargo loading or securing, the cargo loaders and cargo company may be liable.
- Vehicle and Parts Manufacturers: When defective parts or vehicles cause a commercial vehicle accident, the commercial vehicle parts manufacturers can be liable for the collision—for example, faulty brake or steering systems.
- Government Entities: Sometimes, dangerous road conditions, such as large potholes, inadequate lighting, and missing road signage, cause commercial vehicle accidents. Government entities responsible for maintaining safe and functioning roads are liable in those cases. These cases can be incredibly challenging and require the help of an experienced attorney.
Multiple liability is commonplace if a commercial vehicle hits your car. Due to the drastic size difference between commercial and standard vehicles, these collisions tend to cause more severe injuries and extensive damages. To ensure your costs and intangible losses are compensated for, lawyers will investigate all possible parties of liability and file all relevant claims or lawsuits.
Proving Liability if a Commercial Vehicle Hits Your Car
Once your attorney identifies all liable parties in your commercial vehicle collision claim, they bear the burden of proof for insurance companies—or judges and juries for civil lawsuits. To prove liability, they must demonstrate the four elements of negligence used in tort law: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages. In a commercial vehicle collision, that looks like the following:
- Duty of Care: The defendant had a duty of care to ensure the safety of other motorists using the road with their commercial vehicles. That duty may be the driver’s duty to focus on the road, operate within their regulated hours of service (HOS), and avoid drinking alcohol or consuming substances that impair. It’s also the commercial driver’s employer’s duty to ensure adequate hiring procedures and operations. It may also entail the duty of care for government entities to maintain safe highways. The duty of care depends on the circumstances of your case.
- Breach of Duty: Your attorney must show a clear breach of the defendant’s duty. For example, the driver was driving while intoxicated or impaired. Their company may have failed to conduct adequate drug and alcohol testing or ignored the history of driving while under the influence (DUI) violations on a driver’s driving record. Or that a hazardous road condition that local government agencies had ample time to fix caused the commercial vehicle to hit your car.
- Causation: You must show the connection between the cause and your injuries. Your lawyer will present the evidence of your case to prove causation, including detailed medical records, witness testimony, photographs of the scene and your injuries, video of the collision, accident reports, expert witness opinions, and expert analysis from an accident reconstruction specialist, demonstrating how the defendant’s conduct directly led to the accident and your injuries.
- Damages: Finally, your attorney must prove actual damage or loss. You can provide evidence to prove damages after a commercial vehicle hits your car, such as lost income documentation, medical records and bills, vehicle repair invoices, and receipts for out-of-pocket costs. Your lawyer will gather testimonies from witnesses and expert witnesses.
Experienced commercial vehicle accident attorneys confidently navigate proving the four elements of negligence with liable insurers so you don’t have to. Schedule a free case evaluation to outline the specifics of your case and receive free legal counsel, including possible strategies and outcomes for securing a substantial settlement for your claim.
How an Attorney Protects Your Rights if a Commercial Vehicle Hits Your Car
Consulting a lawyer is in your best interest due to the complexities of multiple liability, severe injuries, and substantial damages involved in commercial vehicle collisions. They will exercise your legal rights if a commercial vehicle hits your car by protecting you against insurance company tactics determined to deny or undervalue claims. A car accident attorney helps with complex liability, understanding federal regulations, and complex evidence and investigation. They will maximize compensation with a comprehensive valuation of your claim and no-nonsense negotiations.
Insurance Company Tactics
Not long after a commercial vehicle hits your car, an insurance claims representative or adjuster will call, acting sincerely concerned for your well-being. They will ask how you are feeling and if you suffered an injury. Most of the time, they will request a recorded statement. However, the purpose of the recorded statement is to get you to admit or say anything they can use to downplay injuries and deny partial or complete liability for your damages. You’re not obligated to provide a statement.
Speak to an attorney if you provided the insurance company with a recorded statement. They can help develop a strategy to combat whatever was said. For example, if you stated that you “felt fine” the day of the collision but have severe neck and back pain now, an attorney may use medical records to establish the illegitimacy of that statement, demonstrating many injuries take days for symptoms to present.
Attorneys work with your doctors to ensure proper documentation of injuries that have delayed symptoms, such as concussions and whiplash. They will also secure the expert witness testimony of healthcare professionals confirming your injuries, including those with delayed symptoms and the need to compensate for them.
Complex Liability
It’s commonplace for commercial vehicle accidents to involve complex cases of multiple liability. When there are multiple liable parties, they will point fingers at each other to negate fault and responsibility. While the finger-pointing can result in a slower claims process, an experienced lawyer will remain confident in their demand for a reasonable settlement involving all liable parties.
Federal Regulations
Commercial vehicle drivers must comply with strict Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations, including licensing and hours of service. Truck accident lawyers are familiar with these regulations and know how to investigate and find violations that contribute to collisions. These breaches generally hold commercial vehicle drivers and trucking companies liable for injuries and damages.
Complex Evidence and Investigation
Commercial vehicle accidents usually involve complex evidence and lengthier investigations than other motor vehicle collisions. Your lawyer will protect your legal rights by collecting and preserving critical evidence before it is lost or destroyed. Standard evidence if a commercial vehicle hits your car includes the following:
- Reports and Records: Your attorney will secure the police accident report, including witness statements that help secure testimony for your case. Additionally, they may collect the driver’s cell phone records at the time of the collision to verify they were on it and distracted. Detailed medical records documenting diagnosis, symptoms, pain, treatment, responses to treatment, and other indicators of injury are gathered for future presentation to insurance companies— or judges and juries when cases warrant filing a lawsuit.
- Photographic and Video Evidence: Pictures of the accident scene, documenting vehicle damages and position, road conditions, skid marks, and other viable evidence are valuable visual evidence. Your attorney will search for and collect video evidence of the commercial vehicle hitting your car from traffic cameras, dashcams, and security cameras from commercial or residential buildings.
- Commercial Vehicle-Related Evidence: Commercial vehicles have a magnitude of other evidence, such as event data recorders, black boxes, truck or other vehicle inspection and maintenance records, cargo or freight manifests, the GPS recordings, driver logs, hours of service logs, employment records, the company’s drug test policy, and driver’s toxicology report.
Depending on the circumstances of your collision, there may be additional evidence for your personal injury attorney to gather—for example, road conditions and weather reports. After collecting the evidence of your case, they will analyze it with experts to determine liability and prove the four elements of negligence.
Maximizing Compensation
A lawyer will maximize your compensation by comprehensively valuing your damages. This consists of calculating your economic damages and determining the value of your non-economic or intangible losses. Standard damages after a commercial vehicle hits your car include the following:
- Healthcare costs
- Income losses
- Property and vehicle damages
- Household services
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium (companionship, physical affection)
- A decreased quality of life
- Disability and disfigurement
- Damages associated with wrongful death (funeral, loss of financial support)
You should provide copies of all evidence you have demonstrating monetary losses. You must keep a post-accident journal documenting pain and suffering to prove non-economic damages. Your journal should be dated, consistent, and contain entries highlighting the time, duration, frequency, and level of your physical pain. Injured parties with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, or post-accident depression should detail these symptoms and hindrances in their journal. Your attorney may seek compensation for emotional distress and psychological trauma like PTSD when they accompany physical injuries and actual damages.
No-Nonsense Negotiations
An experienced commercial vehicle accident attorney is skilled at negotiating reasonable settlements. While insurance companies lowball claimants without legal representation, knowing they usually fail to negotiate and accept their first bid, attorneys do not play that. Negotiations involve a bit of back-and-forth before all parties agree on a reasonable settlement. You want an attorney with a good case record of negotiating higher settlements.
Consult a Commercial Vehicle Accident Lawyer
Injured parties and families pursuing compensation after a commercial vehicle collision should consult a personal injury lawyer immediately to protect their legal rights. Schedule a free case evaluation to review your commercial vehicle accident claim or lawsuit’s details, strategies, and possible outcomes. You’ll want to discover a plan for recovering compensation for your losses and damages.