An accident involving a truck leaves a lasting impact on everyone involved. Catastrophic injuries and damages can alter lives forever. The extensive damage in these types of accidents results from the weight and size of the vehicles involved.
Semi-trucks without trailers or racks attached range from five to 12.5 tons.
Truck and engine types may account for the difference in these tonnages. If it has a trailer attached it adds another five tons. Finally, the load itself that truckers haul, such as cargo or consumer goods, livestock, etc., adds even more weight.
Load size can vary, so the U.S. Department of Transportation allows a maximum weight of 40 tons.
Big rigs, measured from the front grill to the brake lights of the trailer, typically range from 70 to 80 feet in length and stand around 13 feet, six inches tall. These massive trucks, due to their size and weight, can cause severe, life-threatening injuries or even fatalities in accidents, often leaving the driver or passengers of smaller vehicles vulnerable.
Unfortunately, even small mistakes can have devastating consequences in these collisions. If you or a loved one has been involved in such an accident, contacting an experienced truck accident attorney in Goldsboro can help ensure your rights are protected and that you receive the compensation you deserve.
14 Common Causes of Truck Accidents in North Carolina
Situational awareness while driving near or around large trucks can save lives, but drivers of smaller vehicles are only one part of the equation.
Quick reaction times, allowing space between vehicles, and avoiding blind spots are all possible solutions to hazardous situations on the road involving large trucks, but sometimes, the split-second reaction time is not enough to prevent an accident from happening.
- Distracted Driving: Being distracted ranges from using smartphones in the car or changing the music to children in the backseat screaming, to daydreaming for a split second. Any distraction during driving can be dangerous. Accidents happen in seconds. Truckers need total focus on the road, but distracted driving is not the only cause of truck accidents.
- Fatigue: Tired drivers are dangerous drivers. Many of the same symptoms as drunk driving occur when a tired driver gets behind the wheel. Lowered inhibition, slower reaction times, and impaired cognition all play a part in this accident-causing trait.
- Drunk driving: Drinking and driving impair both the mind and body.
- Speeding: Whether speeding down the road when no one seems to be there or driving too fast for road conditions or weather conditions, speeding causes catastrophic injuries and claims many lives.
- Vehicle Defects or Poor Vehicle Maintenance: Malfunctions in electrical wiring, steering function, brakes, and even blinkers and windshield wipers can contribute to accidents. Regular maintenance should be performed on vehicles for safety.
- Ignoring traffic signs: Ignoring the signs on the road can have detrimental effects. They often warn or signal drivers what is coming on the road. Windy road signs, reduced speed limits, road closure signs, and merge signs, when ignored, can have catastrophic effects.
- Improper lane changes or merging: When changing lanes, drivers should continue to drive at the speed of traffic. When it comes to merging in North Carolina, the law states, “The driver of a vehicle entering a defined merging area where two lanes of traffic of a highway merge into one shall operate the vehicle in a way that does not block the flow of traffic in either lane. Each driver entering the defined merging area shall adjust their vehicle's speed and lateral position to avoid a collision with another vehicle, having due regard for the speed of other vehicles and the condition of the highway. When vehicles in separate lanes approach a defined merging area at approximately the same time and there is not a reasonable distance between the vehicles to ensure a safe merger, the drivers of the vehicles shall alternate yielding the right-of-way, beginning with the right-most vehicle, until there is no longer a queue at the merging point.”
- Improper cargo loading: If cargo is loaded improperly based on weight and location within the trailer, trailers are more likely to roll over.
- Poor road conditions: Driving to meet the road conditions is essential. If the roadway is damaged this can cause an accident.
- Tailgating: Following another vehicle too closely is illegal in most states. If the driver in front brakes suddenly, the driver directly behind often cannot stop as quickly and risks hitting the driver directly in front of the vehicle.
- Reckless driving: Numerous offenses fall under reckless driving. Reckless driving offenses such as running a red light or stop sign; careless, improper, or aggressive lane changes; tailgating; failing to yield right of way when lawfully required; and illegal passing all contribute to accidents.
- Traffic congestion: More vehicles, more drivers, more accidents.
- Truck driver negligence: Truck drivers are professionals, and their trade necessitates training and driving with safety in mind, but truck drivers are humans, too, and negligence does occur.
- Wide right turn: Many drivers find themselves misjudging truck speed and size. This can cause problems when allowing for additional space for trucks to make wide turns. Commonly, vehicles turning in front of trucks in intersections cause accidents with large trucks.
Common Truck Accidents
Due to the size of the truck and its load, trucks can crash in specific ways that other vehicles typically don’t.
Jackknife Accidents
A jackknife accident happens when the truck’s trailer folds at an angle. This can often cause the vehicle to lose control and can happen if it brakes or abruptly turns.
Truck Rollovers or Laying a Truck Down
With higher clearances, the risk for rollover increases. A truck rollover accident, or an accident in which the vehicle overturns, happens due to failing to disperse loads properly or other loading errors, taking turns too sharply or quickly, or driving through weather conditions with loads that cause a higher risk of laying a truck down such as high winds with light loads.
Rollover accidents can annihilate other vehicles and injure people in seconds.
Underride Accidents
An underride accident refers to an incident in which a smaller vehicle ends up underneath a truck or trailer. These types of accidents can put drivers and passengers in life-threatening situations.
Accidents and Commercial Truck Drivers
Professional truck drivers hold Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs). They should receive training in safety methods, defensive driving, and commercial vehicle driving skills, but the nature of the logistics system can affect safety.
The lack of substantial safety training, errors in scheduling, and aggressive scheduling, along with modern expectations of quick delivery relate directly to mistakes on the road. Trucking industry compensation models can inherently push drivers to arrive quickly rather safely.
Common Severe Truck Accident Injuries
Severe injuries in truck accidents can include:
- Amputation: An accident can cause the loss of a limb, but survivors of truck accidents often find new ways to live with expensive prosthetics and other medical devices.
- Broken Bones: The human skeletal infrastructure may suffer fractures, clean breaks, and shattered bones in a truck accident.
- Bruises and Lacerations: Debris and glass on soft tissue can cause hematomas and cuts.
- Emotional Trauma: Traumatic events like truck accidents may cause PTSD, anxiety, and depression in survivors which can have other life-altering effects.
- Internal Organ Damage or Internal Bleeding: Damaged organs may lose functionality and this can cause other serious health hazards for survivors, including the possibility of organ failure. Additionally, internal bleeding, if not identified, can cause organ failure, shock, coma, or death due to a lack of blood flow and reduced cellular oxygenation.
- Spinal Cord Injuries: These injuries can cause paralysis and long-term recovery.
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI): Any brain damage can have lasting effects. From concussions to severe brain trauma, brain injuries take time to heal.
- Whiplash: A hyperextension and hyperflexion of your spinal cord can cause muscular strains and tension in the upper vertebrates. Whiplash takes time to heal properly.
Accident Survivors and Insurance Companies
Insurance company payouts leave many feeling underwhelmed. Insurance companies will try to negotiate small payouts or ignore survivors completely. Lawyers work with these companies regularly and understand insurance law, insurance terminology, and policy terms, to get you the maximum payout for your injuries and damages.
By hiring a lawyer, you eliminate much of the stress of dealing with the insurance company
If your accident left you with serious medical injuries and bills, lost income, and emotional distress, hire a lawyer who understands truck accident injuries and damages.
Personal injury lawyers often work on a contingency fee basis, meaning they don’t take any payment unless you get paid. A lawyer will get the maximum compensation you deserve for damages related to the truck accident.
Riddle & Brantley Accident Injury Lawyers negotiate effectively to recover maximum compensation from insurance companies. When an insurance company attempts to ignore or deny your damages, a lawyer can use evidence to get you the best possible outcome.
Evidence includes accident scene investigations and accident reports, survivor and witness statements, and medical records. The truck accident personal injury attorneys at Riddle & Brantley will take the case to court if an insurance company refuses to compensate clients fairly.
Essential Steps to Take After a Truck Accident in Goldsboro
Be assessed by a professional healthcare provider
Most importantly, see a professional healthcare provider to determine the extent of your injuries. Even if you feel fine, get checked.
Maintain records of medical care received
Keep all records of visits to the doctor or other healthcare providers, receipts for prescriptions, medical devices, and any other medical documentation associated with your accident.
Contact authorities to obtain a report of the accident
Get a copy of the report authorities filed after the accident for your records.
Gather evidence like records, reports, witness testimony, and contact information of passengers
Put together a file folder and include all documents regarding the accident. This file offers evidence.
Know the statute of limitations in North Carolina for personal injury claims
A statute of limitations or how long a plaintiff has to file a legal claim or lawsuit. In North Carolina, personal injury cases follow N.C. Stat. § 1-52(5). This law allows a person three years to file a lawsuit for injury to the person. This three-year rule usually applies to many personal injury lawsuits, including truck accidents.
Assess and appraise property through a third-party
Have a third-party vendor appraise your property to have multiple perspectives on the value of your property damage.
File a property damage claim with your insurance company
File a claim through your insurance provider’s app, website, or agent detailing when the accident took place and what property it damaged. Do not give details until speaking with a truck accident attorney.
Schedule a free consultation with a truck accident lawyer
Schedule a free consultation today with Riddle & Brantley Accident Injury Lawyers by calling (919) 778-9700.
Discuss and submit case details with truck accident injury lawyers
Tell your story. What happened? How did the accident happen? Be specific. What documentation have you gathered in your file? The law team will determine if they can help your case.
Retain a truck accident lawyer
A truck accident lawyer understands the specific laws that apply to truck accident cases and has experienced the challenges that occur in truck accident cases.
Understand compensation in North Carolina
There are many compensation types that a truck accident survivor may be entitled to. Talk to an attorney about whether you can recover compensation for medical expenses (past, present, and future), property damage, lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of earning capacity, disfigurement and scarring, emotional damages, and loss of consortium.
Get compensation
You can obtain optimum compensation results by working with Riddle & Brantley Accident Injury Lawyers.
Accident survivors are rarely compensated fairly without lawyers as insurance companies may fight the claim or attempt to pay out as little as possible.
Hire a lawyer with extensive knowledge of insurance policies and terms and personal injury law in North Carolina to get the best possible outcome for your truck accident case.
Contact Our Goldsboro Truck Accident Lawyers
Riddle & Brantley Accident Injury Lawyers understand how to help truck accident survivors. Our use of success-driven negotiation strategies and data-driven evidence helps clients recover maximum compensation.
A truck accident will alter the lives of those affected in many ways, and money cannot reverse time to avoid the accident completely, but financial compensation may help in other ways. It can help you begin the road to recovery and healing by easing the financial strains the accident has caused on your life.
For your free consultation with Riddle & Brantley Accident Injury Lawyers, call (919) 778-9700 or message Riddle & Brantley Accident Injury Lawyers today. Discuss your options with a Goldsboro personal injury attorney at Riddle & Brantley Accident Injury Lawyers to determine how they can help you with your truck accident case.