Truck accidents are often catastrophic, leaving individuals physically injured with expensive medical bills. You could be entitled to compensation for your injuries. Call immediately or complete our online contact form for a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our experienced and talented truck accident lawyers. However, due to the multiple parties involved in a truck’s operation – from truck drivers to trucking companies and employers to truck manufacturers – your recovery could be contingent not only on how you file your claim but on the liable parties it is filed against.
Whether an inexperienced truck driver sideswiped your car, an 18-wheeler spun out due to a blown tire and rear-ended you or unsecured cargo fell off a lumber company’s truck and hit your vehicle, our St. Louis attorneys can help pursue compensation from the liable parties. Call or contact us online to schedule a free and confidential case review.
To establish liability in a St. Louis truck accident, you need to prove that someone else was at fault for the accident. Many factors determine who is at fault following a truck accident. Oftentimes people consider the truck driver is completely, or even mostly, responsible, but that is simply not always the case. Examples of liable parties include:
If you sustained injuries in a collision with a commercial truck, a court will only hold the truck driver liable if you can prove negligence, including:
Even if the driver was clearly responsible for your St. Louis truck accident, the following third parties could also be liable.
Under vicarious liability, employers are liable for their employees’ actions while at work. This includes driver negligence. An employer, however, may bear direct liability for your truck accident if they encouraged their truck driver to violate FMCSA safety regulations or neglected to perform necessary vehicle maintenance. Vicarious liability also covers the truck’s registered owner, if different from the truck driver’s employer. Trucking companies are often negligent for improper training or for lax hiring practices that result in dangerous, inexperienced drivers on the St. Louis roadways.
In some cases, truck drivers operate as independent contractors and not employees. In these instances, a trucking company can still be held liable for giving the truck driver back-to-back assignments that resulted in driver fatigue, for example. Cargo loaders can be liable for failing to load the truck properly, causing an accident. These cargo mishaps often result in dangerous:
Large trucks, whether they are 18-wheelers, big rigs or tractor trailers traveling around St. Louis and throughout Missouri and Illinois, require expensive braking systems, multiple axles, blind-spot safety monitors and over a dozen wheels to operate effectively and efficiently. These parts must function as marketed for their specific purposes, like braking systems safely stopping 80,000-pound trucks, and consistently require weekly, if not daily, maintenance. Truck drivers must perform their own tire and other basic safety checks during most trips. Passengers injured by tire blowouts or brake failures might sue drivers and employers for failing to perform these routine safety checks, truck owners for failing to perform standard maintenance, and even truck manufacturers and dealers in product liability claims for selling dangerous parts.
Inexperienced drivers often panic when they witness large trucks trying to merge onto highways. They may suddenly change lanes, enter the truck’s blind spots or attempt to go around the truck in an erratic maneuver. This behavior often leads to chain-reaction crashes involving large trucks and other vehicles. You might hold third-party drivers jointly liable for causing such accidents in St. Louis.
Your truck accident attorney has the experience necessary to hold liable parties responsible for their actions that resulted in your injuries. Call us as soon as possible or complete our online contact form.
In truck accidents, the injuries are usually most severe for those not in the truck. It is a common case of physics – when 80,000 pounds hits 4,000 pounds, the smaller vehicle will lose. Some of the common injuries sustained in a St. Louis truck accident include:
Damages from St. Louis truck accidents can be devastating and can include economic damages, non-economic damages or possibly punitive damages. Some examples are:
The amount of compensation you can recover from liable parties involved in your truck accident varies. It depends on general and specific damages. As always, feel free to contact an attorney with any questions.
To effectively present and prove your case, particularly one with multiple liable parties involved, your truck accident lawyer’s first task is to develop a detailed understanding of the situation. Our lawyer will investigate your claims and meticulously collect all evidence and documentation surrounding the accident and your resulting damages. We then use that evidence to determine the liable parties and prove how their actions have negatively affected your life and well-being.
Our experienced lawyers are masters at building a truck accident case. Whether we are able to settle the case quickly out of court or have to go through a contentious trial process, your St. Louis-based truck accident lawyers may use the following valuable sources of evidence to prove that the defendant is indeed responsible for harming you.
Do not let large, commercial trucking corporations, their insurers or their attorneys take advantage of you after a trucking accident with multiple liable parties. The knowledgeable personal injury attorneys at McCready Law are here to look out for you, your future and your recovery. We focus our attention on getting you the maximum compensation available by law.
Call now or contact us online for a free case review.
