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Almost 4,000 people lost their lives in truck accidents in the United States in 2012. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also indicated another 104,000 motorists were hurt because of involvement in a crash with a truck. Many victims of truck accidents experience costly medical bills and some have their careers derailed due to their injuries. Family members face both emotional and financial devastation following fatal truck accidents.

Victims of truck collisions and surviving family members need to know who can be held accountable for their losses.

Who Can Be Held Responsible for Truck Accidents?

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 70 percent of people killed in truck accidents are in other passenger cars, rather than in the truck.  These victims will need to determine if any of the truck driver’s actions were the cause of the truck crash. If a trucker was unreasonably careless, violated state laws, or violated any Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs), this could result in a truck driver being held liable for collision losses.  Victims can pursue a case against the truck driver and recover compensation through a negotiated settlement or a jury’s verdict in a personal injury or wrongful death civil suit.

Filing a claim against the trucker may not be the only choice for victims, and it’s rarely the best choice.  Trucking companies have much more money and much broader insurance coverage than individual truck drivers. As a result, victims may wish to hold the trucking company liable for accident damages.

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 2620 San Bernardo Ave
Laredo, TX 78040
Phone: 866-465-9093
Local: 956-718-2300

When truck accidents in Buffalo occur, it is very often not the person who is in the truck who gets hurt in the incident. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) indicated the victim who is killed in a deadly truck accident case is outside the truck and in a different passenger vehicle 70 percent of the time.

Whenever a victim is injured or killed in a collision involving the truck, the victim needs to know his rights. There are federal rules, called Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) which can have a profound impact on how a collision victim’s case goes against a trucker or trucking company.

How Federal Rules Affect Buffalo Truck Accident Cases

In a typical Buffalo car accident, the victim of the crash has the opportunity to sue a driver who caused the accident provided the victim’s injuries are more serious than would be covered by NY’s no fault insurance. Victims have to prove the other motorist was negligent, which is usually done by showing the driver was unreasonably careless.

Victims who sue will recover compensation paid by the insurer of the careless driver. Drivers have to buy $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident in liability coverage. As a result, insurers pay out a maximum of $25,000 to each injured person and a maximum of $50,000 total to all victims of a particular accident if the driver who caused the crash only had minimum coverage. Victims need to take insurance policy limits into account when deciding whether to settle because insurers don’t pay more than policy limits.

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James Morris Law Offices
350 Main Street, Suite 2405
Buffalo, New York 14202

Toll Free: 800-477-9044

In Phoenix, motorists in passenger cars face a significant risk of getting hurt if they become involved in a collision with a truck driver. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates that 70 percent of people who die in large truck crashes are occupants of cars other than the truck. Truck drivers have a responsibility to try to protect passengers from being killed in truck collisions by operating their vehicles safely.

Trucks can get into all of the same types of collisions as any passenger car on the road. There are, however, three kinds of accidents that are either much more likely to happen in a truck or that can exclusively happen in a truck. Drivers need to be especially aware of these three kinds of crashes and must take extra precautions to prevent them because they can be among the deadliest of all truck accidents in Arizona.

Preventing Three High-Risk Types of Truck Accidents

One of the high risk types of truck accidents that truck drivers need to try to prevent is rollover accidents. Any car can rollover, but trucks are much more likely to roll over than typical passenger vehicles or even than SUVs. Trucks have a greater likelihood of rolling over because the vehicles can be top-heavy and because trucks have a high center of gravity. In many cases, trucks also aren’t loaded properly and have unbalanced loads, which makes them even more likely to rollover.

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Israel & Gerity, PLLC

202 E. Earll Drive,
Suite 440
Phoenix, AZ 85012

Toll Free: 888-900-3667

The prevention of deadly truck accidents is an important goal. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates 333,000 large trucks were involved in collisions in 2012. The collisions killed 3,921 people and injured 104,000 people.  In 70 percent of deadly truck accidents, someone other than the trucker is the one who dies according to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

There are lots of different kinds of truck crashes in North Carolina which can be deadly. One of the deadliest types of truck accidents, however, involves a collision in which a car goes under a truck. This can happen if the car hits the truck from the truck’s rear and goes underneath the back of the truck. Cars can also get forced under the side of a truck in accidents.

Special bars called underride guards should prevent cars from being able to get under trucks, but the rules for the bars aren’t good enough to ensure the bars actually work. As a result, while most trucks have underride guards, the guards aren’t doing enough. Now, NHTSA is finally taking some action to try to change this.

NHTSA Moves Forward With Underride Truck Accident Prevention Efforts

In December 2015, NHTSA published a new Notice of Proposed Rule Making. NHTSA is trying to change the requirements for rear impact guards and for rear impact protection as found in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs) Number 223 and 224. NHTSA’s changes would impose more robust requirements for rear impact guards on tractor trailers and on semi-trailers so underride safety prevention guards would have to improve.

NHTSA has taken a long time to move forward with the proposed new rule. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been sounding the alarm for about a decade about how inadequate existing underride guards have proved to be. NHTSA waited, though, and now there will still be an additional wait as the new proposed regulation moves through the regulatory rule-making process. As NHTSA has waited to take action, people have died.  Around 423 people in passenger vehicles lose their lives annually because of underride accidents. There are also in excess of 5,000 people injured yearly because of underride accidents.

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Hull & Chandler, Attorneys at Law
1001 Morehead Square Drive #450
Charlotte, NC 28203
View Map
Local
(704) 375-8488

In Pennsylvania, truck drivers may soon have more responsibilities for the removal of snow and ice from atop their big rigs.  Pennsylvania Senate Bill 94 would impose an affirmative responsibility on truckers with vehicles weighing 48,000 pounds or more. Truckers would have to take steps to remove accumulated snow and ice. If they failed to do so, police could pull them over and fine them between $25 and $75 per occurrence even if no snow or ice came lose while driving.  If snow or ice actually fell from a moving truck and hit another person or car and caused death or serious bodily injury, the driver would be fined between $200 and $1,000 for each offense.

Laws requiring the removal of snow and ice are necessary to prevent Pennsylvania truck accidents from occurring. Just recently, reports indicated the driver of an SUV was injured because ice fell off a truck and broke his windshield.  Some states already have such laws in place, and others are considering passing them. Penske warns long-haul truck drivers to be aware of the variances in state laws as they cross the country to make their deliveries.

Truck Drivers Need to Prevent Truck Accidents by Removing Snow and Ice

Trucking Info indicates some truckers are objecting to the proposed Pennsylvania law on removal of snow and ice.  Truckers are concerned at the lack of clarity regarding a requirement they take reasonable steps to try to remove snow and ice. Sometimes, snow and ice cannot be removed easily, which puts truckers in a  bad position. The tops of tractor trailers cannot be walked on because the tops of the vehicles are made of sensitive fiberglass. This also complicates the snow removal process because the top of the vehicle could be scratched or damaged.

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Metzger, WickershamWilkes-Barre Area
695 Kidder St., #12
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702
(570) 825-7500	

Federal regulations are not doing enough to prevent truck collisions in Pennsylvania. This is the claim made by many safety advocates, according to Consumer Affairs. One such safety advocacy group, AnnaLeaha and Mary for Truck Safety, was formed after two sisters were killed in a truck collision which could perhaps have been prevented if National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had heeded warnings about the inadequacy of underride prevention efforts. 

In the first nine months of 2015, there was almost a 10 percent rise in car accident fatalities compared with in 2014. As the number of deaths on U.S. roads rises, it has become more important than ever for federal regulators to do a better job imposing rules which are aimed at making trucks and other vehicles safer and imposing rules aimed at changing dangerous driving behaviors. With stricter regulations, particularly to prevent truck accidents, thousands of lives could be saved.

Regulators Must be More Efficient in Preventing Truck Accidents

The organization, AnnaLeaha and Mary for Truck Safety, was formed after a motor vehicle collision in which a truck driver allegedly had been on the road for too long. The driver’s tractor trailer hit the vehicle with the sisters and their car was forced underneath the truck.

Underride guards could have stopped this from happening.  For more than a decade, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety had been alerting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to the fact there were inadequate requirements in place to ensure the proper safety equipment was used to prevent cars from going under trucks. Cars can get under trucks in collisions from either the back or from the side.

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Law Offices of Marcus & Mack
334 Budfield St #132
Johnstown, PA 15904
Phone: 814-539-3213 

A grocery store shooting has resulted in a lawsuit initiated by the estate one of the victims killed in the shooting incident. The incident took place two years ago, and the family of the deceased and the grocery store have been involved in negotiations to try to resolve the case outside of court. No resolution was reached, and the estate of the victim is now the plaintiff in a wrongful death suit, with the goal of recovering compensation for the sons of the man who was killed.

Negligent Security Case Claims Grocery Store Failed in Its Responsibilities

According to the South Bend Tribune, the lawsuit brought against the grocery chain claims the grocery store had failed to take appropriate steps to prepare for a potential shooting and to respond appropriately in the event of an attack.

The shooting involved a 22-year-old who opened fire in the store. The attack went on for six minutes. The attacked had a .40 caliber handgun. He reportedly wandered the aisles of the grocery store for approximately 30 minutes before actually pulling the gun and beginning to shoot. He attracted the attention of an unarmed security guard as he was wandering the aisles, but the guard was not able to do anything. Evidence indicates the shooter had created a plan to kill himself but wanted to hurt others in the process.

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Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
235 Peachtree St. NE
Suite 400
Atlanta, GA 30303

Truck accidents are often more serious than collisions which involve only passenger vehicles. Victims are more likely to sustain grave injuries or be killed in truck accidents. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates around 70 percent of the victims who die in fatal truck accidents aren’t in the truck but are instead pedestrians, motorcyclists, bikers, or occupants of other cars on the road.  Victims who get hurt in truck accidents need to understand what their rights are and how truck accident cases differ from many other types of car accident injury claims.

Federal Rules Make Truck Accident Cases Different

One of the most fundamental things truck accident victims need to understand is how federal regulations, called Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) affect their truck accident claim.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations affect their claims, first and foremost, by guaranteeing there is much more insurance coverage available to pay for losses and damages than there would be in a typical car accident case involving two cars only. In Texas, drivers of passenger vehicles have to buy $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident in liability coverage. This means if a driver causes a collision and three people get hurt, each person could get up to $30,000 but the total amount which would be paid out to all three victims by the insurance would not exceed $60,000.

In truck accident cases, however, there is much more coverage available. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation no. 387.9 requires at least $750,000 in liability insurance coverage be carried for most typical commercial trucks. If there is a truck which transports hazardous materials, the minimum liability coverage limits could be $5 million.

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The Law Offices of Gene Hagood
1520 E. Highway 6
Alvin, TX 77511
(281) 331-5757
Click To View Map

When you think of winter truck accidents in Detroit, most people think of snow and ice on the roads which could cause a truck to spin out of control. While this is a concern, it is not the only concern. There is another place that snow and ice could form as well: the tops of tractor trailers.  If not properly cleared off, snow and ice on top of a tractor trailer could fly off as the trucker is driving. Recently, when a large chunk of ice and snow fell off a tractor trailer, it ended up hitting the windshield of an SUV, breaking the windshield, and causing the SUV driver to sustain an injury.

Prevention of crashes caused by snow and ice falling off trucks is important. Some states have already passed laws imposing an affirmative responsibility on truck drivers to clear off their trucks. Other states are considering the passage of such laws. Penske warns that truck drivers who travel throughout the country and who cross state lines must be aware of the different rules in the states they are crossing to so they will understand their obligations for the removal of snow and ice.

States Require Snow and Ice Removal to Reduce Truck Crash Risks

Trucking Info reported on some of the new efforts under way by states to make sure truckers are held accountable if they do not clear snow and ice off their vehicles. In one proposed law, there would be an affirmative responsibility to take reasonable steps for snow and ice removal imposed upon any trucks weighing 48,000 pounds or greater.  Truckers could be pulled over and given a citation and fine just for failure to remove snow, even if nothing went wrong. If snow and ice wasn’t removed and fell off the truck and caused property damage or an accident, the trucker would be fined up to $1,000.

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Fraser & Souweidane, P.C.
10 South Main Street, Suite 302
Mount Clemens, MI 48043
Phone: 866-465-9095

When Ohio truck accidents occur, victims must understand how rules called Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) affect their case.  FMCSRs make truck accident claims very different than typical car accident claims and victims need to know the implications for proving their case and recovering compensation.

How FMCSRs Can Affect Your Truck Accident Case

One of the most important ways federal rules affect truck accident cases is by setting minimum insurance requirements for trucking companies.  Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations require trucks have $750,000 minimum in liability coverage under most circumstances. FMCSR 387.9 also mandates higher levels of liability coverage under certain circumstances. For example, in a situation where a truck is transporting hazardous material, the minimum liability coverage could be as high as $5 million.

When there is more insurance coverage available, there is more money available to potentially pay out a truck accident settlement or to fully compensate a truck crash victim who has been hurt.  Victims need to be aware of these minimum liability coverages when negotiating a settlement so they will not settle for a lower amount of money than they actually deserve. The fact trucking companies are required to carry insurance policies with such high limits also makes it important for crash victims to determine if they can sue the trucking company as well as the truck driver. Usually, a truck accident victim can pursue a case against the trucker’s employer because the trucker acts as the company’s agent while on duty.

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Gervelis Law Firm
1650 W. Market Street - Suite 30
Akron, OH 44313
330.835.2943