While typical car crashes are certainly no picnic, the claims process is often straightforward: drivers exchange information, call the police, and their insurance companies work out the details.
Accidents involving commercial vehicles, however, are significantly more challenging to resolve. There are many reasons for this–from multiple liable parties to federal safety regulations and high-level corporate legal involvement.
If you have been in a crash with a commercial vehicle, it may be in your best interest to work with a commercial vehicle accident attorney serving New York.
Speaking with a lawyer can bring you the peace of mind that comes with understanding your legal rights. Buttafuoco & Associates has successfully handled these complex claims for decades. For a free consultation on your case, call 1-800-NOW-HURT.
1. Injuries are Often Severe
The most immediate difference between a commercial vehicle claim and a car crash claim is that injuries, and therefore damages, in a commercial vehicle claim tend to be significantly more severe.
According to the National Safety Commission (NSC), fatal crashes involving commercial trucks have increased over 20 percent in the last 10 years.
A semi truck weighing 80,000 pounds and traveling at high speed will cause incredible damage to a passenger vehicle, which weighs in at just 4,000 pounds. Severe injuries after this type of crash, including brain and spinal cord injuries and amputated limbs, can have disastrous lifelong consequences for victims.
Because these types of injuries require expensive and often ongoing care, proper assessment of medical and financial damages in these cases take significant time and expertise. For most victims, working with an attorney is a reliable way to ensure that your case is properly valued.
Because New York is a “no-fault” state, victims must first exhaust their personal injury protection (PIP) insurance for medical bills, lost wages, and other accident-related expenses.
In order to file a lawsuit against the commercial vehicle driver or company, Section 5102 of New York Law requires victims to have sustained a “serious injury” which includes fractures, disfigurement, or the permanent inability to use a body part.
Wrongful deaths sometimes occur after serious commercial vehicle accidents, and these require legal expertise to navigate.
2. Identifying Responsible Parties is Challenging
When dealing with a commercial vehicle crash, determining who is at fault can be one of the biggest challenges. While the commercial vehicle driver may have caused the crash due to negligence, driving while impaired, or driving while fatigued, additional parties could also be at fault.
After any serious crash, accident reconstruction experts must analyze “black box” data to determine whether the crash was caused by operator error such as excessive speed or inattentive driving. If it turns out that the driver themself was not at fault, the investigation must continue until the cause of the accident is determined.
Because of the sheer number of potentially responsible parties, investigations for crashes involving commercial vehicles tend to take considerably longer.
For example, if the trucking company failed to properly train the driver, or forced them to drive without rest to make a delivery on time, the company itself could be liable.
Likewise, if the commercial vehicle company failed to properly maintain the vehicle, they could be at fault. Or if the maintenance provider failed to identify an issue with the commercial vehicle or poorly repaired it, they, too, could be held liable. A parts manufacturer could be considered negligent if the accident resulted from defective parts.
As you can imagine, the complexities here are immense–one or more parties could be at fault, and determining this requires not only significant legal knowledge, but connections to experts who can determine the cause.
3. Federal and State Regulations are Rigorous
In crashes involving two passenger vehicles, who was at fault and why tends to be relatively straightforward. For commercial vehicles, however, this can be more complicated.
For one, commercial vehicles are beholden to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rules. Hours of Service (HOS) rules place limits on how many hours a driver can be on the road without resting. Commercial vehicles must also be inspected and maintained at specific intervals and adhere to weight and load limits, and drivers are required to have a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL).
Determining whether any of these legal requirements were violated by the driver or the company takes time.
4. Legal Battles Are Lengthier
While passenger vehicles typically carry $25,000-$100,000 in liability insurance, commercial vehicle policies sometimes exceed one million dollars. They carry higher policy limits because these accidents are far more likely to be devastating. While it may sound like additional coverage would benefit victims, the reality is that commercial vehicle claims are usually handled by high-powered corporate lawyers who will stop at nothing to prove innocence or pay out less than a victim is entitled to.
If you are the victim, having a strong legal team on your side can be essential to the success of your case. At Buttafuoco & Associates, we have decades of experience fighting for victims’ rights against corporate entities.
To find out more about how we may be able to help with your case, get in touch for a free consultation.
Call 1-800-NOW-HURT.