You are traveling on East Street headed to the Yolo County Fairgrounds in Woodland when your SUV is t-boned by a tractor-trailer. Your vehicle is totaled, and you suffer catastrophic physical injuries. The police investigation discovered that the truck operator was texting on their cell phone and got distracted, causing the collision.

Unfortunately, this and many other truck accident scenarios are common, considering that nearly four thousand people died in accidents involving large commercial trucks in 2015, according to the Insurance Institute. 

If you or a loved one was involved in an accident with a large commercial truck, you probably have many questions that need to be answered. Below is some information that may be of assistance:

An attorney can examine your auto insurance policy to see if you can access any medical expense benefits immediately while your truck accident case is pending. If you do not have health insurance and need treatment, some medical specialists offer treatment on a lien basis. This means the medical professional will treat you at no cost upfront, but if we obtain a settlement or jury verdict, the doctor will get reimbursed for their services.

In a truck accident injury case, the injured party bears the burden of establishing that the at-fault party was liable for their harm and losses. Liability requires a showing of negligence. To establish negligence, your Woodland truck accident lawyer must be able to prove that the truck driver owed a duty of care to you and others to exercise reasonable care and that the truck driver breached that duty, causing your physical, mental, and emotional harm.

In some truck accidents, fault is not ultimately 100 percent on one side or the other. In other words, when there may be evidence of negligence on both sides, the injured party can still obtain a financial recovery. Juries are tasked with calculating the fault assigned to each party if this issue arises during your case.

You may be able to hold multiple parties accountable for their negligent actions. For example, some accidents are caused by poor commercial truck maintenance, and negligence caused the collision (and thereby your injuries). There are even state and federal regulations in place that require trucking companies to regularly inspect and maintain their big rigs. Regardless, many trucking companies throw caution to the wind and neglect to maintain their fleet of vehicles until a terrible accident occurs.

You may ask yourself, “Why would a large trucking company make such short-sighted decisions?” The decision to defer routine maintenance for as long as possible is often driven by maximizing profits. Repairing and maintaining large, big rigs is expensive. If you can push those costs off into the future, you generate more profit immediately. This poses a risk because poorly maintained large trucks resemble ticking time bombs, poised to unleash chaos on the roadways.

This is a critical question highlighting why you need to take action and contact a Woodland truck accident lawyer sooner rather than later. Since the burden is on the injured party to prove negligence, you need a lawyer who will get to work right away collecting relevant evidence to build your case. This means collecting maintenance records from the trucking company, taking depositions of witnesses and other parties, retrieving data from inside the big rig, such as logbooks and black box data, and personnel records concerning the truck operator. This information must be collected as soon as possible since many trucking companies will conveniently lose vital records or dispose of those records between your accident and when a lawsuit is filed.

The following video explains the types of damages that could be claimed in a trucking accident lawsuit.

An extensive settlement or verdict in a truck accident injury case is possible since the economic and non-economic damages are often extensive. As mentioned earlier, truck accident cases often involve catastrophic injuries to the smaller vehicle’s occupants. That means hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills, lost wages, and potentially life-altering ramifications from the collision. But to be clear, no one can guarantee an outcome in your case because every case is different, and the outcome depends on the facts specific to your case.

Unfortunately, injured parties do not have an infinite period to hold the negligent truck operator and/or employer accountable. The California legislature enacted a law limiting the time an injured victim can file a civil lawsuit. In the state of California, an injured party has two years in which to file a personal injury lawsuit.

Do not take on the trucking company by yourself. Level the proverbial playing field by retaining an experienced Woodland truck accident lawyer. If you have been hurt or someone you care about has been injured or killed in a trucking accident, call our legal team today for free and friendly advice at (530) 392-9400 or (800) 404-5400.

We have been practicing injury law since 1982. We’ve only handled personal injury and wrongful death cases throughout California since 1982.

See our past verdicts and settlements.

^{Editor’s Note: updated 11.8.23 Photo by Pixabay sb bw [cs 912]}