Truck Accident Settlements: Why They're Different from Car Accident Claims

CHICAGO, IL / ACCESSWIRE / January 7, 2025 / You might think that all vehicular accidents carry the same weight in terms of personal injury law cases. In reality, truck accidents often differ significantly from those involving only cars. When injured in a truck crash, you must hire legal representation that understands these key nuances. With the help of a Chicago truck accident attorney, you can navigate the challenges of your crash with ease.

Different Factors Often Cause Truck Accidents

While car accidents carry the potential to be serious, collisions between trucks and other vehicles, such as cars and motorcycles, often prove far more serious in nature because of several key factors including:

A Truck's Weight

The weight of a truck, which is usually many times that of the average vehicle, is a major concern. Heavy trucks often produce accidents resulting in more forceful impacts, creating greater damage and destruction to both person and property.

Hazardous Materials

Trucks also lug potentially dangerous products like chemicals or flammable materials capable of igniting fires. Additionally, they often carry heavy, bulky, large items increasing the risk of damage when involved in a wreck. If any of these goods are improperly managed, stored, or secured, a truck's chances of causing a more serious accident rise.

Failing to Meet Required Mandates

Moreover, trucks are required to meet strict safety standards relating to how much weight they are permitted to transport, the number of hours drivers can work, and the type of chemicals they can haul. Furthermore, operators must clearly demonstrate that they hold the proper training and licensure to drive a truck. Failure to comply with any of these mandates could increase your chances of winning a larger settlement.

Types of Injuries that Can Result

Truck accidents have been known to precipitate significant, potentially debilitating injuries such as those impacting the head, neck, and spine, severe bone fractures, soft tissue damage like ligament and tendon tears, internal organ damage, and traumatic brain injuries. Any of these issues carry the potential to be quite severe on their own. However, they may also bring forth complications that might be lingering or even life-threatening.

The Damages You May Recover

You and your legal team can determine the specific types of charges that you might be entitled to following a truck accident. Common examples include:

Lost Wages

Involvement in a truck accident could leave you too injured to work for extended periods. You may be awarded funds for the time you lost since the injury took place, as well as lost wages estimated over specific time frames - provided that your injuries are expected to take a long time to heal.

Property Damage

If your car collides with a truck, it will likely sustain significant damage. This defacement could cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to repair. Additionally, in some cases, the destruction is so severe that the car is totaled, necessitating that you invest in another vehicle.

Medical Expenses

Naturally, serious physical or internal injuries require medical treatment. You might be awarded compensation related to your accident's immediate aftermath, in addition to future ongoing bills related to your recovery.

Emotional Distress

Truck accidents can create emotional distress. Sometimes, this might interfere with your capacity to live a normal life. For example, the trauma caused by the incident might result in crippling fear related to driving, which makes said activity impossible to do and necessitates that you expend funds on alternate forms of transportation.

Pain and Suffering

Injuries or treatment following a truck mishap may result in lingering pain rendering the completion of professional or even routine, daily tasks challenging or impossible.

Proving Fault Requires an Experienced Lawyer

To win a notable settlement in Chicago, for example, an experienced personal injury attorney with a track record in truck accidents must clearly show that the collision was caused by the operator or a party related to the truck, that the actions of said party were negligent in some way, and that your injuries were caused by the accident and no other existing physical or medical problem.

Skilled truck accident lawyers know that one or more of several parties could bear responsibility for the incident, including not only the driver but also the trucking company, those given the job of securing its cargo, chemical companies, or the producers of other products contained within the truck.

Your lawyer will undertake this process by obtaining evidence like police and medical reports, as well as black boxes that track information about the truck when the accident took place, such as its speed and weight. In addition, settlements may be won or lost based on findings of crash reconstructions, where various engineers, law enforcement, and traffic professionals reconstruct the incident using the information they gather.

Select a Partner You Can Trust

If you have been injured in a truck accident, you want to make sure that you find a Chicago personal injury lawyer who will help you get back on your feet. The team at DJC Law understands the specific challenges truck accidents present and will work hard to help you earn the compensation you deserve. Above all, you need to complete your recovery and get back to the life you once had.

Company Name: DJC Law
Contact Name: Dan Christensen
Contact Email: info@teamjustice.com
City / State: Chicago, Illinois

SOURCE: DJC Law