18-wheelers/semi trucks can legally weigh up to 80,000 pounds. Their trailers are usually connected at a hinge point, allowing them to potentially sway or fishtail across the road. These trucks also commonly shed improperly treaded tires, leaving dangerous debris on the road. All this is to say that driving around a truck is often incredibly dangerous, but our lawyers are there to help in the event you were seriously injured in a truck crash.
Our attorneys take truckers and their employers to court, fighting to get our clients the compensation they need for medical bills, lost earnings, pain and suffering, and other damages related to their truck accident cases. If you were hurt in a crash, you should always work with an attorney, given the strength of the legal teams in these cases and their goal of shutting down any claims that come their way.
Call (914) 685-6950 today for a free case evaluation with The Martello Law Firm’s Westchester, NY truck accident attorneys.
Holding Truckers Liable for Truck Accidents in Lewisboro
If a truck driver was the one to cause the crash, our attorneys can hold them liable in many cases. While your initial case might be filed with your no-fault insurance, our lawyers can reach beyond this to file a claim with the at-fault driver’s commercial driver’s insurance or sue them in court to get coverage for “serious injuries.”
In some cases, some third driver might have caused the crash, and a trucker might have only contributed. In any case, we can parse out the facts and determine who to hold responsible.
When suing truck drivers, our claim might initially be filed against them, but their employer might get the blame in their place. However, if they work as contractors, owner-operators, or any other type of self-employed truck driver, our truck accident lawyers might have no one else to sue but them. In this case, we will seek to maximize the payments from their commercial driver’s insurance and get your case paid in full that way.
Suing Trucking Companies for Truck Accidents in Lewisboro, NY
When possible, we can bring cases against trucking companies to hold them liable. These cases often involve legal technicalities to get the case filed against the trucking company, but some do involve serious concerns for what the trucking company did directly to cause the crash.
Respondeat Superior
A principle called “respondeat superior” allows people who were hurt by a worker to sue the negligent worker’s employer. As long as the worker’s negligence occurred during the scope of their job, we can hold their employer responsible instead of the individual worker. This only applies to employees, however, which is why it does not work with independent contractors and other self-employed drivers.
When we use this rule, we can go after the trucking company, which often has more ability to pay than an individual worker. However, these companies also often have stronger legal teams.
Instead of using respondeat superior – or in addition to a claim structured this way – we can also seek to hold trucking companies liable for their own violations.
Negligent Hiring/Retention
People and companies can be held liable for accidents and injuries when they do something wrong to cause the accident. In the case of companies hiring drivers, they must act reasonably in their hiring. If a trucking company fails to properly screen drivers and hires drivers they knew or should have known had dangerous driving records or would likely cause crashes, we can hold them accountable for that.
The same is true – and often more clear from records – when the driver was retained as an employee in spite of dangerous driving while working for this same employer. If this is their third accident this quarter or they were already on probation or other disciplinary measures with their boss but still had a job, then we might be able to show that was unreasonable and that they should have been fired so the company could stop risking other drivers’ safety.
Regulatory Violations
Truckers and trucking companies are required to follow many state and federal regulations regarding their trucks, driver health and training, and operations. In the same way that causing a crash through a traffic violation might make a driver at fault, causing a crash through the trucking company’s regulatory violation might make them at fault.
Trucking companies often want to push drivers to drive longer hours, skip maintenance and expensive repairs when possible, and push more cargo out the door. This often leads to a series of potential equipment violations, such as tires that were improperly retreaded, given that replacing them would be more expensive. It often causes overloaded trucks or improper tie-downs, all of which can make the truck more dangerous and more prone to shifting, swaying, fishtailing, and even jackknifing (folding on itself in a crash).
Hours of Service regulations are one of the biggest rules, restricting how long a driver can be on the road, how long they can stay on duty, and how long they can drive before a break. These rules are in place to prevent a lot of the harm that comes from tired driving or long hours on the road. However, there have historically been trucking companies that make their drivers violate these hours and falsify logs, even going so far as to withhold paychecks until their drivers lie for them. This allows them to milk their drivers for more hours, all in violation of the law. If these kinds of regulatory violations caused the crash, we can work to hold the trucking company liable for every penny they owe you, plus punitive damages to punish them for doing something so seriously dangerous.
Trucking companies also have explicit trucking regulations regarding driver health and certifications. If they violate these and hire a driver who should not be driving commercially, then this might be grounds for a lawsuit, much like the negligent hiring discussed above.
Maintenance and Repair Issues
Aside from regulatory rules about truck safety and maintenance, the trucking company often owns the vehicles. Therefore, any problems with vehicle safety are usually their fault, not the truck driver’s.
Call Our Truck Accident Attorneys in Lewisboro, NY Today
Call The Martello Law Firm’s truck accident attorneys for a free case review by dialing (914) 685-6950.
