Big rig crashes are increasing in Kentucky and across the nation. A shortage of skilled and experienced veteran drivers, new and poorly trained drivers and distracted drivers are only part of the problem.

Since the pandemic, there are more trucks on Kentucky roadways than ever before. People are hooked on the convenience of online shopping, and scores of big rigs are on the move to meet the demand. Drivers travel long distances under tight, inflexible schedules, and they are under extreme pressure to make deliveries on time.

To get the job done and avoid paying a late-delivery penalty, drivers sometimes skip meals and don’t take required breaks. They sometimes skimp on sleep for days at a time and may even rely on drugs to keep them awake. Although these practices might help truckers to meet deadlines, they also increase the likelihood of a serious accident.

A car accident takes seconds to occur, but the financial impact can last much longer. From medical bills to lost wages, the cost of a car accident mounts quickly. Instead of focusing on recovering from the accident, you may worry about how you’ll pay the mounting bills. When you first contact a Kentucky car accident lawyer, your first question might be, “How long will it take to get my settlement?” Depending on the nature and severity of the accident, it can take as little as a few weeks or as long as 18 months to receive your settlement. Here is what you can expect when you pursue a car accident settlement.

What Happens When You’re in a Minor Accident

Minor accidents like fender benders can lead to neck and back injuries from whiplash. Even if your injuries aren’t severe or life-threatening, you may want to seek compensation to cover your medical bills. Kentucky’s laws limit an accident victim’s ability to seek compensation in these situations.

How to safely navigate intersections controlled by traffic lights is one of the first things we learn as new drivers. Green, yellow, and red—these colors are indispensable cues that tell us when to stop and when to proceed with caution.

But what happens when the device designed to keep us safe doesn’t work like it’s supposed to?

Can a car accident happen due to a malfunctioning traffic light? The answer is yes—crashes can and do happen as a result of a broken traffic signal.

Key Takeaways:

• Malfunctioning traffic lights can cause serious car accidents.
• Lexington depends heavily on traffic lights, and a storm in March showed us the dangers created by traffic signal outages.
• There are steps you should take if you see a broken traffic light.
• If you were injured in a crash caused by a malfunctioning signal, you may have the right to pursue compensation.

You’re hurt, and it wasn’t your fault. So who pays for your medical bills? Whether you were injured in a car accident or slipped and fell on another person’s property, Kentucky state law affords you the right to recover compensation for your damages from the at-fault party.

But what is a letter of protection, and how does it factor into your personal injury claim? If you need medical care following an accident or injury, a letter of protection can be one of the most powerful tools at your disposal.

Many of us who live in Lexington wouldn’t ever envision taking to the road without a valid driver’s license; however, a wide variety of circumstances, which we’ll detail below, may lead to a motorist not securing a proper permit to drive their automobile. This negligence can create quite a dilemma if you’re involved in a collision with one of these vehicle operators here in Kentucky. So, continue reading, where we’ll discuss what happens if you get into a car accident with an unlicensed driver.

Truck accidents are very different from typical car vs. car auto crashes. Why? Well, here are just a few reasons:

• Truck accidents are usually much more severe than car accidents, and more often fatal.
• Truckers are employees on the job, which impacts how a case is handled legally.
• Federal, state, and local laws that don’t apply to non-commercial drivers are critical in truck accident cases.
• There are usually multiple involved parties, which could include an employed truck driver, a subcontractor, a trucking company, a truck owner, a freight shipping company, and more.
• There are numerous insurance policies covering trucking operations, complicating how claims are filed.
• Truck companies pay powerful legal teams to protect them from liability, making obtaining compensation an uphill battle.

With all this in mind, it’s easy to see why truck accident investigations are complicated matters. Most people don’t have the knowledge or experience to conduct an in-depth investigation into a truck crash on their own—especially when recovering from serious injuries.

As a division of the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is “the lead federal government agency responsible for regulating and providing safety oversight of commercial motor vehicles.”

In this way, trucking companies are regulated by the federal government. However, state agencies also hold regulatory authority over motor carriers that travel through or operate within their borders.

If you were asked to spell out the differences between car and truck accidents, you’d likely start by describing the difference between the sizes of the vehicles involved. However, there are more differences than that. One of those differences centers around establishing liability in truck accident lawsuits when one of the parties suffers damages and needs to take legal action to recover compensation.

Determining liability in a truck accident case can be complex. The reason why this is the case has a lot to do with there being various state and federal regulations that apply specifically to commercial carriers. Another factor that complicates things is that there can be multiple potentially liable parties who can be sued for any missteps that occurred, resulting in the crash.

Was your car sideswiped by another vehicle? Sideswiping occurs when the side of one vehicle scrapes along the side of another. This type of collision happens between vehicles that are traveling in the same direction, although the struck vehicle may be either moving or stationary.

Not typically as deadly as other types of traffic crashes, a sideswipe accident can certainly still leave you with costly property damage and even severe, debilitating injuries. When you’ve been hurt by the actions of another motorist, being able to conclusively prove who is at fault for your sideswipe accident becomes a central part of your recovery journey.

We rely on the timely and reliable delivery services provided by the United States Postal Service (USPS). While this is an invaluable service that virtually every person in Kentucky has access to, we must remember that the mail trucks we rely on are driven by human beings—and human beings make mistakes.

So what happens if a mail truck gets into an accident? Unlike typical motor vehicle accidents, matters of liability are much more complex when a government entity or employee is involved.

Key Highlights

• The United States Postal Service (USPS) is liable for accidents involving their mail delivery trucks.
• Administrative claims are a necessary prerequisite to filing a lawsuit against USPS.
• Filing a lawsuit in federal court may require the guidance of an attorney with specialized expertise.