Accidents involving Amazon delivery trucks are ever more common as more and more delivery trucks hit the streets. These trucks are often driven by delivery drivers who spend long hours on the road, and they may become tired or distracted, especially if the pressures of their employer force them into dangerous situations.
For help with an Amazon delivery truck accident, you should consult with a lawyer right away. There are complex rules associated with commercial truck accident and delivery van accident cases, and our attorneys can help with these issues. Moreover, it is difficult to know how much your case is worth without getting an attorney to review your case.
For a free review of your accident case, call the Amazon delivery truck accident attorneys at The Martello Law Firm by dialing (914) 685-6950.
How to Sue an Amazon Delivery Truck Driver for an Accident in New Rochelle, NY
New York’s auto insurance system generally assumes that you will be covered by filing an insurance claim with your own insurance policy. This “no-fault” system makes it harder to file lawsuits – and accidents involving Amazon delivery truck drivers are often complex because of the multiple parties potentially involved with the case. Our Amazon delivery truck accident lawyers can help you navigate these issues and file your case, when available, in a court of law.
No-Fault Restrictions on Lawsuits
With no-fault insurance laws in NY, a lawsuit is not allowed unless you suffered “serious injuries.” Many injuries will qualify because this rule allows lawsuits for broken bones as well as any injury that can be considered “permanent” or any injury that will affect you for the next 90 out of 180 days after the crash. Scarring is not automatically qualified as serious even though it is permanent, but it should qualify if it is sufficiently “significant.”
If your injuries are not “serious,” then you are limited to only a percentage of lost wages and medical bills paid through your own insurance, up to policy limits. With serious injuries, you are entitled to sue the at-fault parties for your additional injuries.
Parties to Sue
Whenever you sue a commercial driver for injuries caused in an accident, you are likely entitled to sue their employer. A legal theory known as “respondeat superior” allows employers to be held accountable for their employees’ actions that happen during the course of their job duties. Since delivery drivers are hired specifically to operate vehicles and deliver packages, injuries that Amazon delivery drivers cause on the road can usually be redressed in a lawsuit against the driver’s employer.
What is important to understand is that not every Amazon delivery driver works directly for Amazon. While some drivers are direct employees of Amazon, many are part of a subsidiary company or they work for other delivery companies contracted by Amazon to fulfill deliveries. In any case, our Amazon delivery truck accident lawyers can help determine who the driver’s employer is and hold them accountable for the accident.
Sometimes, employers of delivery drivers can also be held directly accountable for issues they caused, such as negligent hiring or dangerous drivers or maintenance problems with their fleet vehicles.
Special Rules for Delivery Driver Crashes
When delivery drivers and other commercial drivers are involved in accidents, state and federal commercial driving regulations could help you prove fault. Our Amazon delivery truck accident lawyers can help you prove the driver or the delivery company was at fault by pointing to violations of trucking regulations for hours of service, driver qualifications, vehicle maintenance, and more.
Other accidents are simply caused by everyday traffic violations and dangerous driving decisions on the road, which can also help us prove fault.
Compensation for Amazon Delivery Truck Crashes in New Rochelle, NY
To get the compensation you need for your delivery truck accident, you have some various sources of compensation to look at. First, you should be entitled to damages from your no-fault insurance regardless of who caused the crash. However, these damages often do not pay enough to cover your full damages. Next, commercial drivers should always be required to carry insurance to cover the accidents they cause. The driver’s commercial driving policy as well as the delivery company’s insurance should be able to cover the remainder of your damages. However, insurance companies are not likely to accept your claim for damages and pay it without putting up a fight.
Our Amazon delivery truck accident lawyers can help you calculate damages and determine how much your case should be worth. Then, we can negotiate with the various insurance companies to try to get your damages paid without having to turn to the courts. If your injuries qualify as “serious injuries” and the insurance companies are not willing to pay full damages, then our attorneys can file your case in court.
Most injury cases ultimately settle without going to trial. Even if your case is filed in court, it still has plenty of time for negotiation and settlement before a trial is scheduled, let alone before the trial takes place.
If your case does go to trial, we can fight to make sure you have all of the evidence you need to prove your injury case. Our Amazon delivery accident lawyers can work through the courts to get Amazon and the delivery company to turn over evidence in their possession while we work to build a strong case. We can also work to calculate damages and hire experts as necessary to prove how much your injuries cost and how they affect you going forward.
Call Our New Rochelle Amazon Delivery Truck Accident Attorneys Today
Call (914) 685-6950 for a free case review with the Amazon delivery truck accident lawyers at The Martello Law Firm.
