Fremont Truck Accident Lawyer

The aftermath of a truck accident can be very different from that of a collision between two commuter vehicles. While the average car weighs approximately 4,000 pounds, an 18-wheeler truck can be close to 12,000 pounds even without cargo. Therefore, the magnitude of the injuries and property damage you could suffer after such an accident can be severe, and your odds of walking away with minimal or no injuries may be slim.

After seeking and receiving appropriate medical care, call a Fremont truck accident lawyer as soon as possible after a crash involving a commercial truck. An experienced personal injury attorney could inform you of your rights under Ohio state law and provide you with the knowledge you need to file an effective personal injury claim.

What Makes Truck Wreck Lawsuits So Complicated?

Any time someone causes a car crash resulting in serious injury by acting negligently behind the wheel, the process of seeking civil restitution for that injury and all losses stemming from it can be complicated on both legal and personal levels. In particular, though, collisions involving semi-trucks and other types of commercial vehicles can be especially challenging, especially without the support of a seasoned Fremont truck accident attorney from Charles E. Boyk Law Offices.

To start with, a commercial truck that weighs tens of thousands of pounds can create a great deal more force in a collision than virtually any other type of street-legal vehicle. Unfortunately, this means that people inside smaller cars that get hit by negligent truckers are likely to suffer life-altering and even life-threatening injuries as a result of the wreck, even if the vehicles involved were traveling at a fairly low speed.

On top of that, the insurance policies held by trucking companies are very different from the standard auto insurance policies that you and most other regular drivers have, and the insurance companies that insure those companies often have years of experience fighting back specifically against claims like the one you will need to make. Overcoming this type of opposition can be hard enough if you are healthy and legally experienced, and it can be downright impossible if you lack professional legal guidance and are dealing with debilitating injuries.

As if all that were not enough, there is also the fact that truck accident claims very rarely have just one injured “plaintiff” filing suit against a single “defendant” who holds 100 percent of the blame for the incident. It is not uncommon for multiple people to be involved on both sides of a case like this, and making sure your best interests are respected is something a seasoned Fremont commercial truck accident lawyer can provide irreplaceable assistance with.

How Can Negligence Lead to a Truck Crash?

Because a truck driver’s duty of care requires them to both obey all applicable traffic laws and generally act like a responsible person behind the wheel, everything from an overtly illegal traffic violation to a momentary lapse in concentration could qualify as legal negligence if it is the main and direct cause of an otherwise avoidable accident. Additionally, Ohio civil courts do not take into account how subjectively “severe” a breach of duty is when assigning civil liability for an ensuing injury, so both illegal and simply careless acts can be equally valid and equally strong grounds for a lawsuit.

Some of the most common ways in which long-haul truckers are reckless and careless behind the wheel include:

Going over the speed limit
Improper use of brakes
Running stoplights or stop signs
Not yielding the right-of-way properly
Not checking “blind spots” before turning, changing lanes, or merging onto/off of a highway
Not adjusting driving behavior for bad weather or road conditions,
Failure to maintain their truck in safe working order
Driving while drunk or high
Driving while extremely fatigued
Driving while distracted, particularly by a cell phone or smart phone

While all these irresponsible actions could lead to a wreck while driving a regular commuter car just like they could lead to one while driving a semi-truck, someone operating the latter type of vehicle may be susceptible to a few unique—and uniquely dangerous—types of wrecks.

For example, tractor-trailers are much more susceptible to tipping and rolling over compared to your standard sedan or SUV, and trucks that lose traction with the road may wind up “jackknifing” at the point where the trailer is hitched to the cab, and potentially hitting multiple other vehicles before coming to a stop. Guidance from a semi-truck accident lawyer in Fremont is key to building the strongest possible claim based on the specific circumstances that led up to your accident.

Truck Driver’s Duty of Care

Ohio adheres to the rules and regulations for commercial drivers established by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Under these guidelines, a commercial driver is expected to possess a higher level of knowledge, experience, skills, and physical abilities than a non-commercial vehicle driver.

In addition, Ohio Revised Code §4506.03 provides conditions that a commercial driver must follow to operate a commercial vehicle.

Some of the regulations include:

An individual cannot drive a commercial motor vehicle without a valid commercial driver’s license with the proper endorsements
An individual cannot be issued a commercial driver’s license in the state of Ohio until valid licenses issued by another jurisdiction are surrendered
If an individual has been residing in the state of Ohio for more than 30 days, with a commercial driver’s license in another jurisdiction, they cannot legally operate a truck in the state of Ohio

A Fremont truck accident lawyer could discuss these regulations in greater detail. A consultation with an accomplished attorney could also help determine if the truck driver was in violation of the commercial driver’s license requirements in the state of Ohio while operating their truck.

Proving Negligence After a Truck Accident

Because truck drivers have specialized knowledge and experience as a commercial driver, they have a higher duty of care to other motorists. To successfully file a negligence claim against a truck driver, a plaintiff must prove the truck driver was negligently operating their truck by proving that they:

Had a duty of care to protect the plaintiff and other nearby drivers while operating their truck
Breached that duty of care
Directly caused injury to the plaintiff which resulted in compensable damages

In addition to the outcome of a negligence claim, a truck driver may also face steep fines and face disqualification to use their license if found liable for negligent behavior.

Holding Multiple People Liable for a Single Truck Accident

Most of the time, the person primarily at fault for a truck wreck is a negligent truck driver who caused the wreck to happen in the first place. As any experienced commercial truck crash lawyer in Fremont can tell you, though, individual truckers are rarely the only ones who hold civil liability for a truck accident’s negative effects, and legal counsel can play a key role in making sure that everyone who played a role in causing a commercial truck wreck is held legally liable for ensuing injuries and damages.

To start with, it is not just possible but often vital to name the trucking company that employs a reckless or careless truck driver as a co-defendant in a claim built around a crash that employee caused. This is usually possible thanks to the legal doctrine of respondeat superior, which allows companies to be held civilly liable for harm caused by someone working for them who was acting in furtherance of their business interests.

Alternatively, trucking companies can be directly at fault for causing truck crashes if they did something negligent to increase the risk of a wreck occurring. For example, it might be possible to hold a trucking company primarily at fault for a wreck if they knowingly hired a driver with a history of DUI convictions who then caused a truck accident because they were driving drunk. The same can be said for a company who forced their drivers to violate federal driving time regulations in an effort to save money on routes.

It is worth noting as well that third-party companies like repair shops, manufacturers, and suppliers can sometimes be liable for contributing to causing truck wrecks through negligent acts like failing to service a truck correctly, producing defective truck components, or not properly securing a truck’s cargo in its trailer prior to transit. It may even be the case that the person mainly to blame for a truck accident in Fremont is another driver on the road who, through their own reckless or careless driving, forced an otherwise responsible trucker into an unavoidable wreck.

Can You Be Held Liable for Your Own Truck Accident Injuries?

Perhaps most importantly of all, one of the people who can be found at fault for injuries stemming from a truck accident is you, the one who actually sustained those injuries. If you too did something reckless or careless behind the wheel immediately prior to a collision with a tractor-trailer, you may be assigned a percentage of “comparative fault” for your crash-related injuries and damages by a court or insurance company, depending on whether you are formally filing suit or just pursuing a private settlement.

Then, in accordance with O.R.C. §2315.33, you would be subject to having your final damage award reduced in proportion to the share of total fault you hold for your own injuries. For example, if you were found 25 percent at fault for an accident, you would only be able to recover for 75 percent of your total losses from that accident. Additionally, no person found to hold a majority—meaning 51 percent or more—of the total fault for an accident is legally prohibited from receiving any civil restitution for injuries stemming from that accident, even if someone else was also partially to blame for it. Working with a Fremont truck wreck attorney is vital to maximizing potential compensation and disputing allegations of shared fault.

Potential Compensation In A Truck Accident Case

Based on proof of negligence and evidence of injuries and property damage, Ohio laws allow a plaintiff to recover for economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include objectively evaluated losses like medical expenses, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, and property damage. Non-economic damages are intangible harms that may include emotional distress, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life.

Recovering for Short-Term and Long-Term Losses

It is worth emphasizing here that it is possible to incorporate both past and future damages—relative to when the legal process actually begins—into a civil lawsuit or settlement demand over a Fremont truck crash. For example, if you became permanently disabled because of a truck driver’s negligence, you could seek reimbursement through a civil claim for the costs of treatment you have already received and for the expected costs of future medical services such as physical therapy, prescription medications, equipment like wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs, and more.

Because truck accidents are so much more likely than most other types of traffic collisions to cause long-lasting and potentially life-altering injuries, accounting for future damages often plays a central role in legal proceedings. Support from a knowledgeable Fremont 18-wheeler crash attorney can be crucial to identifying and to assigning a fair financial value to these sorts of losses, not to mention proactively demanding every cent of compensation you deserve for them.

What to Do Immediately After a Truck Wreck

You are required by Ohio law to remain at the scene of a truck accident until you have moved your vehicle out of the flow of traffic if possible, summoned emergency services for anyone in need of them, exchanged contact and insurance information with all other involved parties, and waited for police to respond to the scene. The only exception is if you are in need of emergency medical attention, in which case you can and should prioritize your own wellbeing without worrying about any “hit and run” charge later on.

If you do not need emergency medical attention, you should still make it a priority to get checked out by a qualified healthcare professional as soon as possible after lawfully leaving the accident scene. Even if you feel fine, certain types of injuries that commonly stem from truck wrecks can take hours or even days to start showing obvious symptoms, and waiting until that point to get medical care may mean it is too late to avoid catastrophic and potentially deadly harm from occurring. A Fremont truck accident attorney can help incorporate the costs of this initial treatment into an ensuing lawsuit or settlement demand.

What Evidence Is Important to a Possible Truck Accident Case?

If you are able to do so, it can also be helpful to take some preliminary steps toward building a strong civil claim before you actually leave the scene of a collision involving a tractor-trailer. While you cannot and should not try to settle any legal issues or figure out exactly how your wreck happened at the scene, it can be helpful to do things like:

Take photos/videos of the crash scene, focusing on damage sustained by the vehicles involved and on nearby traffic patterns and/or obstacles that may have affected how the accident played out
Get contact information from witnesses who saw the crash happen
Write down details you remember about what you were doing as well as what you saw, heard, and felt in the buildup to the wreck
Make note of nearby surveillance and/or dashboard cameras which may have captured video footage of the wreck
Speak with responding police officers and ask where to get a copy of the accident report they will generate based on the incident

Once again, though, if you cannot do all of this at the scene because of a serious injury, focus only on your own physical wellbeing, and get help from a qualified Fremont lawyer later on in tracking down the information they will need to help you effectively pursue compensation for your truck wreck.

Filing Deadlines for Truck Accident Litigation

No matter how severe your injuries from a truck accident are, you have a limited amount of time under state law to actually file suit over that accident. Specifically, O.R.C. §2305.10 generally gives people a maximum of two years to formally begin the litigation process over a personal injury, starting from when their injury first occurred or, in some unique situations, when they first discovered they were hurt specifically through someone else’s negligence.

There are very few exceptions to this “statute of limitations,” and failing to start your claim within the applicable time limit will virtually always lead to your case being permanently thrown out of court the second it reaches a judge. This is just one more reason among many why contacting the skilled legal team at Charles E. Boyk should be your second top priority after a Fremont truck accident—behind getting necessary medical care, of course.

Potential Compensation in a Truck Accident Case

Contacting a Fremont Truck Accident Attorney

Injuries from a truck accident may take weeks and months—if not years—to resolve. Fortunately, a skilled Fremont truck accident lawyer could work to ensure you get the compensation you need to get you back on your feet.

The time immediately after an accident is when you should focus on healing and hand over those frustrating and endless phone calls with claims adjusters to a qualified attorney.

Call today to learn what a legal professional could do for you.