The law allows those who have sustained debilitating, severe, and permanent injuries in semi truck accident to seek compensation from the responsible party to cover medical expenses, loss of income, and pain and suffering. Additionally, family members who have lost a loved one in a semi truck accident may be entitled to file a wrongful death lawsuit on his or her behalf and recover damages for funeral or burial expenses, lost wages, and loss of consortium. Although a monetary recovery cannot take away the pain and grief of losing a family member, it can help to ease the financial burden that is created by the incident.
Articles Posted in Truck Accidents
Depositions Critical in Tractor Trailer Accidents
When you have an accident with a tractor trailer, you are dealing with a different situation than when you have an accident with a non-professional driver. As a result, it’s important that you get an attorney involved right away and that depositions are taken as soon as possible from both the driver who was responsible for the accident and his or her safety director.
Over the road truckers have safety requirements, not only for how they drive, but for how their trucks are serviced. In the interest of getting in “one more load,” it is not uncommon for driver to skip a safety inspection or “minor” maintenance issue to get another load delivered. Since the maintenance on a big rig is critical to how it handles on the road, and since sleep deprivation is a major hazard affecting professional truck drivers, getting the facts of the case, under oath, from those involved is critical.
A deposition is a formal statement taken under oath. While it can feel like an informal process, it is anything but. The deposition provides the facts of the case from the responsible party’s point of view. The point is to get their side of the story for use by your attorney, either in court, or when proposing a settlement. It provides the “story” from each person’s perspective. Details are important, and your attorney may ask for your assistance in preparing questions related to the accident.
Tips to Avoid an Accident with Drunk Drivers
According to the 2011 Georgia Crash Analysis Statistics and Information Report (CASI), one quarter of all roadway fatalities in the state are alcohol related. The fight against drunk drivers does not rest solely in the hands of the authorities, though. Reporting a suspected impaired driver is considered an emergency and is classified as an appropriate use of 911 services.
In Georgia, the CASI reported that the most likely vehicle for an impaired driver to operate is a truck. Perhaps the most common behavioral red flag in identifying an impaired driver is raised when a vehicle weaves back and forth across the road way, but there are many other indicators that could signify an impaired driver.
Signs of Drunk Driving
Utility Trailers May Pose Hazard on Georgia Roads
The website, called Dangerous Trailers, allows you to search by state, where you will find documentation on 100 accidents in the state of Georgia that were caused by utility trailers. According to the website’s owner, there are close to 3,000 accidents that have been written about in Georgia newspapers that involved utility trailers .If you look nationwide, there are more than 500,000 people who have been injured by runaway trailers since 1988.
These trailers are used by commercial businesses of all sorts (from carpet layers to construction companies). They are used for recreational purposes to carry motorcycles or ATVs, and they are used often behind motorhomes and luxury buses to transport items like bicycles, gas grills, porch swings, or other “camping gear.”
Truck Drivers and Sleep Deprivation: a Ticking Time Bomb
When clients come to me because they have been injured in a truck accident, one of the first things we do in the investigation is look at the driver’s recent history, log books, and potential violations.
The economy has forced many hard working drivers to take on additional jobs, log incredibly long hours, and rely on energy drinks or artificial stimulants to keep them awake. This type of schedule will quickly lead to sleep deprivation, which is a top reason truck drivers fall asleep at the wheel.
Whether a driver was at his or her full capacity when an accident occurs has a lot to do with the outcome of the case. Car accidents and truck accidents do happen in Georgia for many reasons, from road conditions to faulty brakes to driver inattention.
Fatal Scooter Wreck in Forsyth County
An accident in Forsyth County left the operator of a scooter dead. The driver of the truck that struck the scooter, John Stephen Simone, has been charged with one count of second degree vehicular homicide, in connection with a fatal wreck last week. The wreck occurred about 8:40 a.m. Nov. 3 at Hwy. 20 and Windermere Parkway. Carey James Abee, 52, of Dawsonville, died of injuries he suffered after his Taizhou Meiduo scooter was struck by a 2006 Isuzu box truck driven by Simone. Authorities have said Abee was traveling east on Hwy. 20 when the truck, headed west on the road, failed to yield the right of way and turned left onto Windermere Parkway. The truck drove over the scooter, hit the Windermere entrance sign and toppled over on its side. Abee, House said, was trapped under the truck up to his waist. A group of people lifted the truck and pulled Abee out from under it. House said Abee was taken to Northside Hospital-Forsyth, where he later died.
If you have been injured in a motorcycle or scooter accident, it is imperative to contact a Georgia personal injury lawyer, such as David Van Sant, immediately to ensure that a proper investigation is conducted and your rights are protected. Call today to speak with David Van Sant regarding your case.
Car-Truck Accident: A True Story
There’s nothing worse than to hear of victims who have been left holding the bill for repairs to their auto or medical expenses after having an accident with a delivery truck.
One recent example involved a senior citizen who was following a delivery truck out of her neighborhood. The driver most likely was looking for an address, and was not paying attention to the traffic moving behind him. After stopping in the middle of a residential street, the driver began to back up. He did not see the Cadillac sitting behind his truck, and as he backed up, the elderly woman driver began honking her horn.
Before the driver could stop, he had backed over the front end of the woman’s car. He quickly pulled forward, ripping a large hole in her hood, got out of the truck to see what happened, and began berating the woman for following too close.
Why Tractor Trailer Cases are Different Than Car Accidents
Also, most tractor trailers are equipped with an engine control module that stores valuable data such as the speed of the vehicle at the time of the accident. This data must be preserved, if you wait too long and the data may be lost forever. Our firm teams up with experts to analyze and interpret the data. It is also important to obtain any information related to the drivers hours of service – sometimes court orders are necessary. There are manual logs as well as GPS devices that can help you determine if a driver was driving longer than he should have been. The FMCSR (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations) limit the amount of time a driver can continuously operate an 18 wheeler. According to the United States Department of Labor, driver fatigue is a primary factor in 4.5% of fatal truck accidents and is a secondary factor in an additional 10.5% of such crashes.