What You Need to Know About Commercial Truck Accidents

When you have an accident that involves a commercial truck, you will have different considerations than you would if it was another car. Injury claims against truck drivers and the businesses that hire them come with a lot of opportunities but they also come with a lot of pitfalls. Here is what makes these types of accidents different when it comes to your personal injury claim.

Drivers of Commercial Trucks Aren't the Only People Involved

If you seek damages, you may have to bring your suit against the truck driver, the company that person drives for, and even a larger parent company if it exists. A third party involved with loading the truck or maintaining it can also have involvement.

Your case isn't against an individual. You and your lawyer can seek to find liability from various parties. However, when seeking damages in this way, you can find yourself caught up in confusing and drawn out litigation.

Suing businesses and third parties requires high attention to detail and an understanding of how these things work. For this reason, you should always speak with a lawyer about your options before making a move.

Drivers of Commercial Trucks May Have Multiple Insurance Companies

In a traditional personal injury case, it's sometimes possible to negotiate with the other person's insurance company and reach a settlement that way. When the other person is a commercial truck driver, you may have to navigate through several insurance companies to reach a settlement.

With more insurance companies to deal with, you have a greater chance of winning compensation for your medical costs or lost wages. Seeking multiple avenues of compensation can also become a necessity if one insurance company can't cover the amount you need.

Commercial truck drivers may have their own insurance to cover liability and eventualities. The commercial operation the person drives for may also have liability coverage or other types of coverage that comes with maintaining a fleet of vehicles and using them for commercial purposes.

How all this works will depend on several factors, as the driver can also represent an owner-operator, and their commercial operation can consist of the single truck and its insurance. Nevertheless, if someone drives a commercial truck or owns a commercial trucking business, they must have certain forms of insurance coverage.

In addition, the business may have assets that can become important if the driver's coverage has limits that fail to meet the needs of your damages. Where one type of insurance fails, another may fill in the gaps.

Drivers of Commercial Trucks Have More Potential Points of Negligence

Personal injury cases must show that negligence played a role in an accident. When you're in an accident with another car, negligence is sometimes easier to prove. However, a commercial truck driver can have many ways to be negligent negligence that normal drivers don't.

By law, a commercial truck driver will need proper licensing, adequate training, limits to how much driving they can do, and various other things. These rules exist at both the federal and state level. If a commercial truck driver violates any of those regulations, they can cause an accident or greatly contribute to one.

Finding these points of negligence isn't easy, as drivers will not want to reveal them, and their companies will not want any of the information to come to light. It can only help your case if a commercial truck driver violates any federal or state laws leading up to your accident.

At Wolfe, Jones, Wolfe, Hancock, Daniel & South, L.L.C., we have the experience necessary to help you give your case its best chance. Whether you were in an accident with a commercial truck or any other motorist, contact us immediately.