Trucking emerged to be an important component of the economy. It plays a crucial part in supply-chain systems and distribution of products and therefore in growth and development of a large number of industries. However, with trucks becoming a common sight on both rural highways and major roads of large towns and cities like Houston, truck accidents occur more frequently as well.
Recent studies and statistical data show that large trucks are more likely to cause accidents on roads than passenger vehicles and that they have a higher rate of involvement in crashes, many of which are with fatal outcome. Truck accidents in Texasand all across America, therefore, lead to high societal costs associated with injuries, fatalities, and damages to the property. Findings imply that a large number of truck accidents are caused primarily by truck drivers, and factors commonly identified for truck drivers responsible for crashes are fatigue, driver distraction, and substance use.
Many approaches concerned with trucks and safety on the roads are being developed, but, regardless of this, there is still a high risk of occurrence of such accidents. When they happen, parties involved in the accident should know what to do and how to behave in order to avoid penalties or obtain an appropriate compensation for physical, emotional and financial losses resulting from the accident, as well as compensation for any loss of earning capacity, and payment for their income lost through missed work. From these accidents, multiple legal issues can arise and trigger areas of practice such as criminal law, worker’s compensation, personal injury, and employment law. Particularly in Texas, they demand strong legal action as insurance companies will fight claims and try to keep all payments to a minimum, and this is where an experienced, dedicated and knowledgeable Houston truck accident attorney can help.
How Can an Experienced Houston Truck Accident Attorney Help?
In Texas, bringing a legal claim against the other parties involved in the accident, even if the injured party is partially responsible for the accident requires consulting with an attorney experienced in truck accident cases. Such attorney will be acquainted with particularities of negligence theory applied in Houston and he/she will easily determine how much the behavior of each party has contributed to the accident and who are all the responsible parties as they may not be just the drivers of the vehicles involved in the accident, but insurance companies, manufacturers of the vehicles, trucking companies, contractors, and insurance companies too. An experienced lawyer will locate all potentially liable defendants and help the injured party recover the maximal compensation.
Other Benefits of Hiring a Truck Accident experienced Attorney
A truck accident attorney will have a deep understanding of all complex laws and regulations of the trucking industry concerned with increasing the safety on the roads and he/she will determine what laws were broken and what caused the accident and in this way help in building a case on the behalf of the injured party. He/she will be acquainted with Houston requirements about the input of medical experts in the truck accident cases and whether and in what measure it is allowed, and then consult with them and ask them to testify to prove the extent of injuries and how they will impact the lives of the injured parties. The lawyer will also present the injured parties with all the options available and help them choose the best legal strategy so that they may either file suit in a court law or solve their case in other ways away from the court. The lawyer will explain the specificities of each option and help the injured party decide on the proper course of action that will provide it with the best outcome. Therefore if filling a lawsuit proves to be the best strategy, the attorney will decide on the appropriate time to sue the fault party, when to file suit and he/she will sort out all other legal matters concerned with the case.
References:
*Monash University, Acident Research Centre – Truck Involved Crash Study; Report on: Fatal and Injury Crashes of Cars into the Rear of Truks by George Rechnitzer and Foong Chee Wai
*Journal of Transportation Engineering – Large Truck–Involved Crashes: Exploratory Injury Severity Analysis by Mouyid Islam and Salvador Hernandez
*British Columbia – RoadSafety BC – Literature Review on Car-Truck Crash Causation
*The University of Adelaide, Centre for Automotive Safety Research – Heavy vehicle road safety: Research scan by SJ Raftery, JAL Grigo, JE Woolley
*FindLaw – What Is Truck Accident Law?, Should I Get a Truck Accident Lawyer?
