Hartselle Truck Accident Lawyers
When you pass a large tractor-trailer on the highway, it’s normal to hold your breath and worry a little bit—but most of the time, nothing will happen. But when something does go wrong and you end up involved in a truck accident, your life could change forever. Truck accidents often cause serious or fatal injuries, massive property damage, and shut-down highways. If you are hit by a truck on Highway 31, I-65, Highway 36, or one of the other main highways around Hartselle, you need to talk to an attorney immediately.
At Hodges Trial Lawyers, we fight aggressively for our clients who have been hurt in truck accidents. If you’re worried about paying for your medical bills, replacing your lost wages, or covering damage to your vehicle, let us help. Call us at 256-539-3110 to set up an appointment.
What Causes Truck Accidents?
As is the case across all traffic accidents, most truck crashes are the result of human error. Truck drivers are held to a high standard of safe driving due to their CDL, but they are still bound to make bad judgment calls at times.
Some of the most common issues that lead to truck collisions include:
- Speeding
- Unsafe lane changes, which are fairly common because trucks have such large blind spots
- Unsafe turns
- Failing to yield right of way
- Driving while distracted, fatigued, or impaired
- Inexperienced drivers or drivers unfamiliar with a new area
Of course, other issues can also lead to truck collisions. For example, a truck component may malfunction, making it impossible for a driver to avoid a crash. Slick or poorly maintained roadways can also be a factor, particularly when you’re dealing with a truck that weighs several tons. A truck’s load may be oversized or poorly balanced, making it much harder for the driver to navigate safely.
Why Truck Accidents Are More Dangerous Than Other Collisions
By design, trucks are much more bulky, unwieldy, and difficult to navigate than passenger vehicles. They have to be that way in order to transport goods efficiently. Unfortunately, these traits also make them significantly more dangerous on the road. The structure of a tractor-trailer creates a huge blind spot to the left, right, front, and back of the vehicle. Few passenger vehicle drivers know this and inadvertently drive in a truck’s blind spot, making it much harder for the truck driver to keep the roads safe.
Tractor-trailers are dozens of times heavier than passenger vehicles when fully loaded. Consider this—at 60 miles per hour, it takes a standard car 4.5 seconds to stop, and during that period they travel 271 feet. Imagine how much more time a fully-loaded tractor-trailer needs to come to a complete stop.
Even in the best conditions, a tractor-trailer has minimal chance of avoiding an obstacle that could cause an accident. When you add in slick roads, inclement weather, or other non-ideal conditions, that stopping time is even longer.
The size of a tractor-trailer affects far more than just the two vehicles involved in the initial crash. A truck’s extra length can easily block multiple lanes of traffic when swung to the side. This creates the opportunity for multiple additional crashes and traffic backups.
Who’s Liable for My Injuries?
Liability is a major part of your truck accident claim in Hartselle. Depending on the details of your accident, multiple parties may have some liability:
- You
- The truck driver
- The trucking company owner or employer
- The owner of the load
- The company responsible for loading the cargo
- The manufacturer of the vehicle
- The manufacturer of any of the vehicle’s components
- The municipality responsible for maintaining the roads
However, proving liability in a truck accident claim can be a challenge. With so many parties involved in an accident, no one is quick to take responsibility and step up. Without someone to advocate for you and get to the bottom of what happened, you run the risk of ending up in an endless game of phone tag with a lot of people who do not want to help you.
How an Attorney Can Help—and Why You Should Choose Hodges Trial Lawyers
You’re home from Hartselle Health Park, resting after your accident and looking at days or weeks off of work. What comes next? You know you didn’t cause the accident, but you aren’t sure how to get the liable party to pay up. You also know that you likely have thousands of dollars in medical bills coming your way.
Even though you may not realize it, the other involved parties are already working on their investigations. They’re looking for ways to get their own costs covered and protect themselves from covering other costs—including your compensation.
You absolutely need a truck accident lawyer to navigate you through this complicated maze. There is at least one liable party in your claim, and perhaps more. Your lawyer can sort out the evidence and access evidence that isn’t publicly available, such as the truck driver’s driving record, the truck’s black box, and the truck’s driving logs.
From there, they will build a claim proving the other party’s liability and demonstrating how their negligence has harmed you. This puts you on the path to negotiating fair compensation.
Although most personal injury claims are settled out of court, there is always the possibility that yours will go to trial. If that happens, you’ll want an experienced trial lawyer. At Hodges Trial Lawyers, we are prepared for whichever path your personal injury claim may take. Whether it’s an uncomplicated claim with smooth negotiations or a court battle, you can feel confident knowing that we will do everything we can to help you.
Reach Out to Us Today
The sooner you contact us after your truck accident in Hartselle, the sooner we can start investigating your claim and working on your case. Set up a time to talk with us now. Just call us at 256-539-3110 or contact us online to get started.
