Collisions between trucks and passenger vehicles could lead to devastating injuries to the occupants of the smaller vehicle. Your PIP coverage is unlikely to be sufficient to cover the expense of a severe injury, and if you opted out of PIP, you could be facing ruinous medical bills.
If you were in a wreck with a truck, seek help from an aggressive attorney at O’Connor, Acciani & Levy Who brings claims against commercial vehicles. They will contact the truck owner’s insurer and begin negotiations to arrive at a fair and reasonable Covington truck accident settlement that will provide you with appropriate compensation for the injuries you suffered.
Common Causes of Tractor-Trailer Crashes
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reports that truck drivers are responsible for the majority of truck crashes in the United States. While this does not mean that 18-wheeler drivers are always to blame for accidents, it does mean their errors contribute to most crashes involving large commercial vehicles.
Trucks are cumbersome vehicles that require significant time and distance to stop. Consequently, speeding often leads to truck crashes that cause injuries to others. Truckers might speed to meet a tight delivery schedule, can be distracted and not attentive to their speed, or impaired. Sometimes a trucker is driving within the speed limit, but at a speed that is too fast for their vehicle under current weather or road conditions.
Crashes might happen because a trucker is not sufficiently attentive to vehicles moving in and out of the truck’s blind spots. Load shift could cause a trailer to fishtail or jackknife, colliding with vehicles in adjacent lanes. Poor maintenance, vehicle defects, or carrying too heavy a load could lead to mechanical failures. Whatever the cause of the wreck, the company that owned the truck or employed the trucker is likely liable to anyone injured. An experienced attorney who practices in Covington from O’Connor, Acciani & Levy understands the many ways a tractor-trailer driver can breach their duty of care to other motorists and will use that knowledge to help you recover a fair and reasonable settlement.
Protecting Your Right to an Adequate Truck Collision Settlement in Covington, Kentucky
Whenever a Covington resident with PIP coverage gets into a wreck and suffers injuries, they first must file a claim with their insurer. If your medical expenses exceed $1000, or if you suffer permanent or disfiguring injuries, the law allows them to bring a lawsuit seeking damages. Because trucks cause such severe injuries, a lawsuit is a likely possibility in many truck crash cases.
It is important for you to get legal representation as soon as the collision happens, if possible. Insurers for the trucking company and other potentially responsible parties might contact you about a settlement soon after the wreck. Communicating with the insurer for another party without legal counsel is unwise and could compromise your rights as an accident victim. A more prudent course of action is to politely decline to speak to any insurance company representative and refer them to an attorney.
A well-versed advocate at O’Connor, Acciani & Levy can investigate a commercial vehicle crash to collect evidence demonstrating negligence, which then allows the attorney to make a strong case for a settlement.
Compensation Available in Truck Accident Settlements
A settlement after a truck wreck could include payment of all your medical expenses, including any medical care the injury could require in the future. It may also include lost wages and the value of the fringe benefits you lost or used up during your recuperation. If the injury will affect your ability to earn a living in the future, the settlement could provide compensation for diminished earning potential. Finally, if you were injured in a truck collision, you also could receive compensation for your suffering, inconvenience, and the ongoing impacts of the accident on your quality of life.
Comparative Negligence
When a Covington accident case goes to court, or a skilled attorney at O’Connor, Acciani & Levy negotiates a settlement following a truck crash, the injured person’s conduct has a bearing on the outcome. The Commonwealth follows the pure comparative negligence rule, codified at Kentucky Revised Statutes §411.182. In practice, pure comparative negligence means that a negligent party cannot collect all their damages, only the portion attributable to others’ conduct.
Pursue Your Truck Accident Claim with the Help of a Covington Attorney
Trucking companies often have teams of lawyers and experts defending them against claims by people they injured. You should have an experienced professional working for you.
A local accident attorney could provide valuable support and advice, and their knowledge could result in a settlement that more fairly compensates you than anything you could arrange on your own. Get in touch with O’Connor, Acciani & Levy to arrange for a dedicated Covington personal injury attorney to begin negotiating a Covington truck accident settlement for you.
