Due to the large size and heavy weight of commercial trucks, a truck accident can result in catastrophic injury or loss of life. When Little Rock victims are injured in truck accidents, trucking and insurance companies can make it difficult to recover compensation for property damage and personal injuries.
Discuss Your Case With a Little Rock and Arkansas Truck Accident Attorney
If you’ve been seriously injured in a truck accident, you don’t have to take on the truck company alone. Attorney Tim Reed has the compassion, skills, and resources necessary to handle complex truck accident cases. He fights hard to protect his clients’ rights and pursues compensation from all responsible parties. Contact the Reed Firm today to schedule your free initial consultation.
Types of Truck Accidents That Can Result in Injuries
There are many different types of truck accidents that result in injuries. Attorney Tim Reed handles a wide range of truck accident cases, including those that result from the following:
- Jackknife: Jackknife accidents occur when a truck with a cab and trailer folds in on itself, moving together to create a pocket knife shape.
- Tire blowout: A sudden loss of air pressure can cause a blowout.
- Wide turn: These accidents occur when the tractor-trailer uses both lanes to complete a turn, resulting in a collision with another vehicle.
- Truck rollovers: The truck’s wheels lose contact with the road, causing the truck to land on its side or upside-down.
- Lost load: Cargo that isn’t safely secured can end up on the highway, causing other vehicles to collide with the cargo.
- T-bone: A vehicle strikes the side of a truck, and the vehicles form a “T” shape.
- Blind spots: A truck’s blind spot is larger than a passenger vehicle’s, and when a truck driver can’t see another vehicle while switching lanes, an accident can occur.
The Benefit of Working with an Experienced Little Rock Attorney
Commercial motor carriers and truck drivers must abide by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR) and Arkansas law. Truck accidents typically occur because a motor carrier or truck driver violates the law. Attorney Tim Reed understands these complex laws, which is essential to obtaining successful results for truck accident victims.
Truck drivers are often employed by a trucking company and are covered by a commercial insurance policy. After a serious truck accident, insurance claims adjusters and attorneys from the insurance or truck company may come to the scene of the accident and begin investigating. If you don’t act with the same urgency, you will place yourself at a disadvantage.
Insurance companies typically reach out to accident victims soon after the accident. They may be kind, but make no mistake. They are primarily concerned with their own interests and damage control. Their hope is to gather evidence indicating that everything’s “okay” so they can quickly and cheaply dispose of all claims. Victims are often pressured into accepting a low settlement offer soon after the accident, even when the nature of their injuries is unknown.
Little Rock attorney Tim Reed can help you with every aspect of your truck accident claim, from initiating a rapid response and investigating the accident to negotiating a settlement agreement or filing a lawsuit. He has the resources to fully litigate your claims, often working with accident reconstructionists, liability experts, and medical experts to ensure you have the evidence needed to obtain the best possible outcome.
Time is of the essence. Speaking to an attorney soon after the truck accident will help you protect yourself and your rights.
Common Causes of Truck Accidents
Truck drivers need specialized training, and those that operate with a CDL are required to receive training in accordance with the FMCSR. That education is intended to ensure that truck drivers maintain and operate trucks safely, which in turn helps to prevent truck accidents and the catastrophic injuries they cause.
Most truck accidents occur because a motor carrier or truck driver has failed to abide by the FMCSR or Arkansas law. Truck drivers are under enormous pressure to meet deadlines and receive payment, which incentivizes some truck drivers to skip pre-trip inspections, drive while fatigued, or conceal a dangerous medical condition.
Truck drivers may drive while intoxicated or simply fail to apply the specialized skill and knowledge that is required when operating a commercial motor vehicle weighing tens of thousands of pounds. When truck drivers don’t abide by their training and cause an accident, they can be held liable for the injuries they cause.
A Truck Accident Can Cause Severe Injury or Death
Large commercial vehicles, including semi-trucks, are common on Arkansas roads, including interstates like I-30 and I-40. These massive trucks can weigh twenty to thirty times more than the passenger vehicles around them. When commercial trucks collide with smaller vehicles, they can cause extensive damage, multiple vehicle pileups, catastrophic injuries, and fatalities.
When truck accidents happen on I-30 and I-40, there are often multiple victims that suffer catastrophic injuries, including:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBI)
- Severe burns
- Spinal cord injuries
- Lost limbs
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Internal organ damage
- Neck and back injuries
- Wrongful death
Wrongful Death Lawsuits
At the Reed Firm, we provide empathetic legal representation for families who’ve lost a loved one in a preventable truck accident. While nothing can bring your loved one back, pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit can help your family hold the at-fault motor carrier, truck driver, or freight broker responsible for the damages they cause. Family members can recover compensation for their loved one’s funeral and burial expenses, medical expenses, and pain and suffering. Wrongful death beneficiaries can also recover damages for their own mental anguish after losing a loved one.
Who Is Liable for Injuries Caused By Truck Accidents in Little Rock, Arkansas?
Truck accident cases may involve several parties, such as the truck driver who caused the accident and the trucking company that employed the driver. When a trucking company fails to run an effective background check or ensure its drivers are properly trained, it can be held liable for any injuries caused by its truck drivers. In some cases, a freight broker, vehicle parts manufacturer, truck loader, maintenance company, construction company, or other third party may be liable. Attorney Tim Reed will promptly investigate the facts of your case, work to preserve evidence, and determine all of the parties responsible for your injuries.
Recovering Compensation After a Truck Accident
Due to the severe nature of truck accidents, victims can face hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in damages. Attorney Tim Reed works with his clients to determine all of their past, current, and future damages so they can receive the full value of their claims.
Personal injury victims can pursue economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include medical expenses, lost wages, and loss of earning capacity for victims who are permanently injured. Property damage and other costs you pay out of pocket, such as hiring home healthcare workers and your transportation costs, are also included.
Non-economic damages include separate dollar amounts for the nature and extent of your injuries, pain and suffering, emotional distress, scarring and disfigurement, permanency of your injuries, and loss of enjoyment and quality of life.
Schedule a Free Case Evaluation For Your Little Rock or Arkansas Truck Accident Case
The weight and size of 18-wheelers can result in serious accidents involving multiple vehicles. Proving negligence in truck accident cases can be difficult. At the Little Rock-based Reed Firm, we will immediately start investigating your case to gather evidence about the cause of your accident and injuries. Attorney Tim Reed understands the devastating effects a truck accident can have on victims and their families and will work with you to pursue the compensation you need and deserve. Contact the Reed Firm today to schedule your free initial consultation.