Tyler Truck Accident Lawyers
If you or someone you love has been injured in a truck accident, the lawyers at The Benton Law Firm are ready to help you. If a truck or other commercial vehicle crashes into your car, the devastation can be tremendous. A machine that’s built to haul tons of goods across the country can do some serious damage to your car and cause serious or even deadly injuries to everyone inside. Trucking companies are supposed to take safety measures to keep their drivers from making the road unsafe, but all too often, a fatigued, inattentive, or just plain unfortunate trucker will lose control of their vehicle and put everyone around them at risk of serious injury. Often, these accidents would have been entirely preventable if every party involved had done their job correctly.
At The Benton Law Firm, we believe that negligent truck drivers and trucking companies should be held accountable for the injuries they cause to others on the road. Our Tyler truck accident attorneys have years of experience fighting for victims of truck accidents and their families and helping them recover larger settlements or court verdicts in personal injury lawsuits. To learn more about how we can help you after a truck accident, call us today at (214) 777-7777.
Truck accident claims we handle
Commercial trucks are complex vehicles with a lot of moving parts. Even the simple fact of having a cab and trailer leaves them prone to so many more types of accidents than normal cars. Here are some of the common types of accidents involving trucks:
- Rear-end accidents: Commercial trucks, which often carry literal tons of goods, have a lot more momentum than normal cars, and therefore take much longer to stop or slow down. This can often cause trucks to rear-end cars in front of them.
- Rollover accidents: Trucks’ unwieldy shape and size also put them at a greater risk of rollover accidents. Since they are so large, trucks can hit multiple cars in the process of rolling over.
- Jackknife accidents: Sometimes truck drivers can lose control of their trailer, causing the trailer to swing out at a 90-degree angle with the cab. This ‘jackknife’ can be especially deadly if the trailer suddenly blocks off multiple lanes, giving cars no way out of hitting it.
- Underride accidents: Trucks with especially tall trailers come with an additional accident risk. If a small car hits the back of such a truck, it can go under the back of the trailer and scrape along the underside. This type of accident has the potential to be especially deadly.
- Mechanical failure: Trucks are constantly on the move across the country. With the kind of mileage they’re doing and the weight they’re hauling, trucks require a great deal of maintenance. When trucking companies decide to cut corners, sometimes parts of their fleet don’t get every repair and checkup they need, causing mechanical failures that can result in accidents.
In addition to these, trucks can be involved in the same sorts of accidents as regular cars. Truck drivers may be professionals, but sometimes they are just as prone as the rest of us to distractions and other risky driving behaviors. Whatever type of truck accident you have experienced, the Tyler truck accidents lawyers of The Benton Law Firm can help.
Determining liability after a truck accident
In terms of deciding who is liable, truck accidents can be more difficult than most car accidents. This is because truck drivers are employees of trucking companies, which complicates the question of who is actually liable for your injuries. Sometimes, the accident is entirely the driver’s fault. Other times, the company could be responsible for a mechanical failure, a failure to adequately train their employees, or other problems. Regardless, employers can generally be held liable for their employees’ actions on the job, so it is likely that any legal action you take will be against the company. Furthermore, it is the trucking company that holds the relevant insurance policy, and the driver is unlikely to have much money worth fighting for. Nonetheless, there may be some cases in which it makes sense to sue both the trucking company and the driver. An experienced Tyler truck accident lawyer from The Benton Law Firm can help you determine what makes sense for your particular case.
Recovering damages through a personal injury claim
Truck accidents can cause some of the most severe injuries of any vehicle collisions. These injuries can result in long hospital stays and months of excruciating recovery. Sadly, some victims will never recover. All of the costs associated with truck accident injuries can be a serious drain on your finances. However, if you fight and win a personal injury claim, you could recover damages to help with a number of these costs, including:
- Medical bills
- Car repairs or replacement
- Lost wages due to time off work
- Future lost income, if you are unable to go back to work
- Other miscellaneous, recovery-related expenses
- Wrongful death, if you are the spouse, parent, or child of a deceased victim
Whatever damages you might seek, it is important that you act quickly. The statute of limitations for any personal injury suit in Texas is two years, but you should not actually wait that long. Trucking companies have immense resources at their disposal, including well-funded legal teams. They could have even already sent private investigators to start looking into your accident and undermining your account of what happened. To have your best chance at winning, you should contact a Tyler truck accident lawyer as soon as possible.
Contact us
Recovering from a truck accident can be extremely difficult. You may have experienced severe injuries, perhaps so severe that you are unable to work and support your family. Whatever your situation, you don’t have to go it alone. The Benton Law Firm can help. Our experienced Tyler accident lawyers will help you build a strong case against the trucking company and/or driver and increase your chances of winning significant compensation, whether in or out of court. Best of all, you will only pay if we win. The trucking company could already be mobilizing its resources to fight you, so don’t hesitate. For more information on how we can help, call us now at (214) 777-7777.