Truck accidents are known for causing severe injuries, damages, and even loss of life. When it comes time to seek compensation, you need to prove the elements of negligence. You want to show that the driver or other parties were liable for these damages.

But how do you prove negligence after a truck accident?

At Golden Law Office, we have helped our clients establish these key elements, helping to bring a successful conclusion to their cases. Here are a few ways to prove these claims.

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.

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.

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.

Most consumer products aren’t flown by plane or transported on a train to their final destination. Instead, they are picked up by tractor-trailers at ports and transported to distribution centers. Warehouse workers generally unload the trailers, sort the products, and divvy them between their stores. Distribution center employees then load those products in a trailer and summon a trucker to haul them away to their final destination.

Many of us have heard incidents of parked big rig accidents mentioned in local news reports. A small passenger vehicle traveling on the highway fails to see a tractor trailer parked on the shoulder of the road or exit ramp and strikes the much-larger truck—resulting in a serious crash and, many times, fatality. These accidents often occur at night, and frequently under conditions of inclement weather like rain, snow, or fog.

If you have been involved in a crash with a large commercial truck, you need a lawyer with extensive experience in truck accident law. You need to know that you are backed by someone with expertise, someone who can leverage their skill to protect you and your loved ones. That is what a good legal advocate should do for our friends and neighbors here in Richmond. The right lawyer will work closely with each individual client, gaining a deep understanding of each case so the responsible party can be held accountable and the road can be a safer place for everyone.

Operating a large commercial truck can be a dangerous occupation for drivers who often spend up to 11 consecutive hours on the road. However, the risk for passenger vehicle drivers who share the road with tractor-trailers weighing 20-30 times more than a car can be even more substantial. Commercial truck accidents, although more infrequent per mile than passenger vehicle wrecks, can be the most catastrophic. Research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows that most deaths in large truck crashes are passenger vehicle occupants. It is clear that large trucks do not operate in a bubble, and passenger cars can become entangled when things go wrong, whether or not they are at fault.

If you have been involved in a crash with a large commercial truck, you need to know that you are backed by a trusted law firm with experience in truck accident law. Our team at Golden Law Office works hard to make the road a safer place for everyone. We can use our valuable experience in truck accident law to determine the ways you have been affected by the accident, helping you receive the compensation you need to recover your losses. One of the first steps in the process is determining the liable party in a tractor-trailer accident.