18-Wheeler Accident Injuries: Pursuing Compensation in Texas
18-wheeler injuries can be devastating—PM Law Firm guides you through seeking compensation, filing claims, and protecting your rights. To highway drivers everywhere, an 18-wheeler is a familiar sight. Not to mention, these massive vehicles — also known as tractor-trailers — are vital to our economy. In the U.S., for example, about 70% of the goods people consume every day are shipped via these trucks.
Of course, most people who drive 18-wheelers are hardworking, trustworthy, law-abiding citizens. However, on occasion, tractor-trailer drivers act recklessly behind the wheel. They might:
- Speed
- Tailgate
- Change lanes without signaling
- Fail to stop at a red light or stop sign
- Drive while they’re sleepy
- Drive while they’re distracted (texting on the road, for instance)
All of these infractions, and others, can lead to collisions.
In fact, each year, tens of thousands of 18-wheeler accidents occur on the roadways. Almost one-third of these collisions result in an injury, and approximately 3% cause a fatality. That amounts to thousands of deaths annually.
If you’ve been injured due to the negligence or illegal action of a tractor-trailer driver, you deserve compensation. In fact, you’re entitled to full recompense for your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other resultant damages. It’s the law.
Why 18-Wheeler Accidents Cause Such Serious Injuries
An empty 18-wheeler — one with no cargo in it — usually weighs 35,000 pounds or so. And, when such a truck is full of cargo, it can weigh as much as 80,000 lbs. (Federal law prohibits tractor-trailers from weighing more than 80,000 lbs.)
Simple physics tells us that the more a vehicle weighs, the greater its potential crash energy is. In a collision, crash energy is the force that’s transferred from a vehicle to the object it strikes.
In an accident, crash energy generates heat and loud noises. And it helps determine the extent of the physical damage and bodily injuries caused by the impact.
On top of that, the faster a vehicle is traveling, the more crash energy it has. Thus, all else being equal, an 18-wheeler that’s exceeding the legal speed limit would cause worse damage in a crash than an 18-wheeler moving more slowly.
There’s also the issue of impact absorption. Because 18-wheelers are so strong and so solid, whenever they crash, they absorb relatively little of the impact. Therefore, more of that force is transferred to the other vehicle in the accident.
For all these reasons, collisions with 18-wheelers can be devastating. For sure, they can cause a wide range of grave, life-altering injuries. Among them are:
- Broken and fractured bones
- Concussions
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Whiplash
- Back injuries and debilitating back pain
- Spinal cord damage, which can be paralyzing
- Damage to internal organs such as the lungs, liver, and kidneys
- Bruises and cuts, perhaps severe
- Burns
- Internal bleeding
- Psychological issues including depression, anxiety, survivor’s guilt, and PTSD
After 18-wheeler accidents occur, survivors often require extensive medical care. Surgical operations, amputations, blood transfusions, organ transplants, rehabilitative therapy, individual or group counseling, and other forms of treatment may be necessary.
The Lifelong Impact of Catastrophic Injuries
In so many cases, people never fully recuperate after they suffer one or more catastrophic injuries. Rather, these traumas can change people’s lives in numerous ways, including the following:
- Loss of mobility — including losing the ability to walk
- Permanent facial scarring and disfigurement
- Chronic pain
- Reduced cognitive functioning and memory loss
- Lasting emotional pain and loss of confidence
- Social withdrawal
Moreover, some victims of 18-wheeler accidents need special medical attention for the rest of their lives. And ongoing medical appointments can be a serious financial burden. They can also disrupt people’s work schedules and personal lives to a significant degree.
Pursuing Compensation After an 18-Wheeler Accident in Texas
If you’re ever in a collision with an 18-wheeler, it’s vital to protect yourself legally. After all, accident laws and legal procedures are complicated. And accident survivors can unwittingly do things that undermine their legal standing.
By taking the following steps, however, you’ll have the best chance possible of prevailing at the negotiating table or in a court of law.
1. Seek Immediate Medical Attention
When an accident occurs, get to a hospital right away. If you’re unable to take yourself to a hospital, call 911 and ask for an ambulance before you do anything else.
Even if you feel fine after a collision, you may have internal injuries that must be addressed. There could be damage inside your body that you just can’t feel yet — damage that will only worsen as time passes.
Immediate medical care isn’t just crucial for your health. It’s also important to your legal case. If you don’t go to a hospital at once, the truck driver’s lawyer could argue that your accident was less severe than it really was. And a judge or jury might be persuaded by that argument. As a result, you’d fail to receive adequate compensation.
2. Contact a Truck Accident Attorney Right Away
As soon as a doctor has examined you and you’ve received the initial treatments for your injuries, call an 18 wheeler accident attorney. Do not delay.
The longer you wait to contact a truck crash attorney, the more you risk hurting your legal case. That’s because a lawyer must start questioning eyewitnesses and preserving physical evidence as soon as possible.
After a short period of time, witnesses’ memories can fade. And your accident site will probably get cleaned up. Workers will clear away debris, and they’ll remove broken signposts and other damaged objects. As a result, it could be more difficult to figure out the true cause of your crash.
3. Investigate the Cause of the Crash
An outstanding commercial truck accident attorney will lead a complex and multi-layered investigation. After all, the more evidence a truck crash lawyer has, the stronger their arguments will be.
Such an investigation would probably include these steps:
- Reviewing police reports
- Reviewing the medical reports of everyone involved
- Interviewing eyewitnesses
- Examining all of the vehicles involved
- Examining the 18-wheeler’s event data recorder (EDR)
- Studying security camera footage, if any exists, of the accident
- Taking copious photos of the accident scene, including tire marks and damaged trees, signposts, or other items
- Scrutinizing the truck driver’s safety record
- Scrutinizing the safety record of the company this truck driver works for
4. Determine Who’s Liable
Once all of the evidence has been collected and studied, your truck accident lawyer should be able to determine precisely what happened and who is at fault.
Did the tractor-trailer driver fail to stop at a stop sign, for example, or change lanes without signaling?
In some cases, one person is entirely liable for a vehicular accident. For instance, imagine a driver who was speeding, crossed a road’s median line, and struck another car head-on. Meanwhile, that second motorist had been following all the rules of the road. In this situation, the first driver would be completely at fault.
Other times, however, two or more drivers each bear legal responsibility for a crash. For example, imagine that a driver makes a sudden, unsignaled stop, and the motorist behind him crashes into his car. In this case, the first driver would be liable because he stopped his vehicle in a dangerous way.
However, also imagine that the second driver had been speeding and tailgating, and those actions made the crash worse. The second driver would also bear liability for the collision.
In some states, drivers are assigned a specific percentage after an accident. That number, which can range from 0% all the way to 100%, signifies how much someone is to blame for a vehicular crash.
Under Texas law, any driver who’s 50% or less at fault for an accident can seek damages from the other party involved in the crash.
Who determines those percentages? In most cases, insurance companies and legal teams work together to ascertain those numbers. However, if they can’t come to an agreement, a judge or jury will ultimately make the determination.
5. File a Claim and Calculate Damages
Next, your 18 wheeler accident lawyer will file your claim. To do so, the lawyer will complete and submit all necessary documents to an appropriate legal body.
This claim will include a description of your accident as well as the specific damages that the incident caused. Additionally, your commercial truck accident lawyer will specify the amount of compensatory money you’re seeking.
6. Negotiate or Litigate
Once your claim has been filed, you and your truck crash lawyer will have an important decision to make: Should you negotiate or litigate?
That is, should you sit down with the defendants and try to reach an agreement as far as how much money you’re owed? Or should you sue the other party and let a judge or jury resolve the matter?
In many cases, a commercial truck accident attorney will try to negotiate first. Then, if an agreement can’t be reached, the lawyer will take the matter to court.
Naturally, many factors will go into this decision. Indeed, on each side, there are strong pros and cons.
Generally speaking, negotiations offer privacy to everyone involved. Plus, they tend to be faster and less expensive to complete than litigation. Usually, they’re less stressful as well.
For a plaintiff, negotiations are usually less risky, too. That’s because jurors can be unpredictable. It’s possible that a jury would favor the defendant even if your truck crash lawyer presented a solid case.
On the other hand, if you have a virtually airtight case — with plenty of hard evidence backing you up — you might earn more money by suing. Likewise, if your medical bills are unusually expensive, you might get more money from a lawsuit than from a negotiation.
Let PM Law Firm Stand Beside You
If you’ve been injured in an accident with an 18-wheeler, PM Law Firm is ready to fight for you all the way.
Our attorneys are deeply knowledgeable, and they specialize in vehicular accidents. As such, they’re well-versed in federal laws, state and municipal laws, industry regulations, and insurance rules.
In addition, our lawyers have many years of experience. They know every possible maneuver and strategy that the opposing counsel might try, and they know how to counter all of those legal schemes effectively.
Our skillful lawyers can investigate accidents thoroughly and then marshal the evidence adeptly, and they can craft truly persuasive legal arguments.
Just as important, our attorneys are bold, tenacious, and courageous. And each 18 wheeler accident attorney on our team is prepared to take on any defendant. That includes the most powerful of trucking corporations.
Contact PM Law Firm Today
For more information, or to get started with a legal claim, please contact us at any time. You could fill out the contact form on our website, or you could call us at 281-968-9529.
If you’ve been in an accident caused by an 18-wheeler, you deserve the financial resources necessary to reclaim a happy, fulfilling life. Yes, we at PM Law Firm want you to get what’s rightfully yours, and we know how to make it happen.