San Ramon, California, has several roadways that carry significant truck traffic, including Interstate 680, Crow Canyon Road, Bollinger Canyon Road, and Iron Horse Trail. This includes trucks transiting Contra Costa County through San Ramon on I-680 and local truck traffic from businesses like the major United Parcel Service distribution center in central San Ramon. Unfortunately, where truck traffic mixes with passenger car traffic, truck accidents all too often are the result. And when these large, massive, challenging to maneuver vehicles cause a traffic crash, the results tend to be much more severe — both in terms of vehicle damage and injuries to individuals — than accidents solely between passenger cars. When these events happen, a San Ramon truck accident lawyer such as our law firm’s experienced personal injury attorneys can help personal injury victims receive appropriate compensation for their losses from negligent truck drivers, trucking companies, and insurance companies.

The numbers related to truck accidents highlight the risks facing drivers on our nation’s roadways from these large vehicles. According to the National Safety Council, a major non-profit safety advocacy organization:

• Nearly 5,000 large trucks were involved in traffic accidents nationwide in 2020, resulting in fatalities, roughly one-third of 2011.
• The vast majority (83%) of the fatalities in truck accidents were to people other than the truck drivers — both occupants of other vehicles and people not in a car. Some 70% of the non-fatal injuries were to people not in the trucks.
• Truck accidents with fatalities are divided roughly evenly between urban (45%) and rural (55%) areas, with approximately 27% occurring on interstate freeways — significant for the busy north-south route of I-680 through San Ramon.
• Roughly two-thirds of fatal truck accidents occur during the daytime (when traffic is typically heavier) and are more frequent in summer and fall than in winter and spring.

A fully loaded semi tractor-trailer truck weighs forty times as much as a typical passenger car. The amount of energy that a vehicle this massive can develop when moving at freeway speeds is enormous and can cause far more damage — and injuries — than a “typical” collision between ordinary cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration – the U.S. federal agency primarily responsible for trucking safety programs — noted in its most recent compiled statistics (for the year 2019) that an accident involving a large truck was roughly half again as likely to involve a fatality than an accident involving a passenger vehicle (1.49 fatal crashes per 100 million vehicle miles for large trucks versus 0.98 fatal crashes for passenger vehicles).

In addition to fatalities, the very significant energy involved in truck accident collisions is more likely to cause serious injuries to people in other vehicles, including:

• Arm and leg fractures
• Spinal fractures
• Spinal disc injuries
• Spinal cord injuries with paraplegia or quadriplegia
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Damage to internal organs

Recognizing the typically greater severity of damage and injury that can result from truck accidents, state and federal regulations place minimums on the amount of liability insurance coverage that truckers and trucking companies must carry. Some types of trucks will require a minimum of $500,000 in liability coverage, but the insurance coverage will typically be $1 million or more.

Insurance claims and lawsuits resulting from truck accidents are often more complex and challenging to resolve successfully than are claims and litigation from ordinary traffic accidents. Typically, truck accident cases involve more severe injuries and correspondingly greater dollar values for compensation, and insurers are much more likely to spend time and money arguing over large dollar figures than smaller ones. Additionally, these cases are usually more complicated due to:

• Investigating larger, more complex accidents involving multiple vehicles requires accident reconstructionists and other expert witnesses.
• Heavy paperwork loads during the discovery process. Truck accidents almost always require a thorough investigation of the relationship between the negligent driver and their negligent employer — how they were screened and hired, how they were trained, how they were monitored during employment, etc. — and this involves securing and reviewing large quantities of paperwork from the trucking company.
• More frequent employment of medical expert consultants. More severe injuries requiring more expensive treatment and greater long-term consequences will usually require expert witnesses such as specialist doctors, rehabilitation and occupational consultants, life care planners, economists, etc., to fully evaluate and explain the nature of the injured plaintiff’s damages.

An experienced personal injury attorney will have the necessary resources and experience to successfully handle truck accident claims for their clients.

View this video of a 2021 truck accident on I-680 that illustrates just how much damage and havoc can be caused by one of these incidents:

Commercial vehicles like trucks of all sizes are crucial to our economy – they ensure that goods of all sorts are delivered from producers and manufacturers to the distributors and retailers who sell them to us and that many of the items we purchase are then delivered to our individual homes and offices. Our economy would not be able to function without trucks. And yet, despite this necessity, trucks are much more likely to cause severe injuries and even deaths when they are involved in accidents due to the simple physics of their larger size, greater momentum, and more challenging handling characteristics. If you or a family member has been seriously injured in a truck accident, please contact our experienced San Ramon truck accident lawyers at (925) 428-5220 or (800) 404-5400 for free, friendly advice. You can also reach us through our online contact form.

We are proud to be members of the National Association of Distinguished Counsel and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

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Editor’s Note: This page has been updated for accuracy and relevancy [cha 7.7.22]

Image by 123fotosweb from Pixabay

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