Truck Accidents

Texas highways are often filled with fast-moving vehicles, many of which are large semi-trucks. Unfortunately, truck accidents on busy highways are all too common.

The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety report that truck accidents kill over 5,000 people each year and injure around 150,000 more. Additionally, nearly one in four fatalities among passenger vehicle occupants in multi-car accidents involve a large truck. More on this website

When a large commercial vehicle, such as a semi-truck, collides with a smaller passenger vehicle, the results for the passenger vehicle are often devastating. The significant weight difference between a large semi-truck and a small passenger vehicle normally means that greater damage is incurred than in a typical passenger vehicle accident.

If you’ve suffered injuries in a large truck accident, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries, including payment for medical bills and lost wages as well as pain and suffering.

To speak with compassionate and caring attorneys, call our car accident lawyers toll-free or email us.

The Role Of Truck Driver Fatigue In Truck Accidents

Fatigue plays a major role in large truck accidents. Fatigued drivers are more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle accident. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration states that more than 750 people are killed and around 20,000 more are injured each year due to fatigued truck drivers.

Previous studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have also estimated that driver fatigue is a contributing factor in approximately 30 to 40 percent of large truck accidents.

Excessively long hours with minimal breaks are one of the main contributors to driver fatigue. The FMCSA notes that driver fatigue doubles between the eighth and tenth hour of driving and again between the 10th to 11th hour of driving.

Attempts To Combat Truck Driver Fatigue

The FMCSA has enacted guidelines to ensure the safety of both truckers and drivers on the road. Current law requires that large truck drivers take regular rest breaks. The rules state that large truck drivers may not operate their vehicles for more than 10 consecutive hours before taking an eight-hour rest period.

However, the FMCSA regularly proposes new rules for truck drivers. One proposed rule would require drivers to take a continuous rest break for between nine and 12 hours each day. They would also be required to take an additional two- to three-hour break in addition to the continuous rest period.

Requiring longer rest periods for truck drivers would help reduce the risk of death or serious injury from a fatigued truck driver.

Driver Concerns
A variety of previous public opinion polls show that passenger car drivers have serious concerns about truck driver fatigue. In a Lou Harris poll, 81 percent of Americans believed that fatigued drivers posed a serious safety problem on the nation’s highways.

Trucking companies are responsible for ensuring that their drivers are alert on the roadways. If trucking companies fail to use reasonable care when regulating their drivers, they can be held liable for harm caused to other drivers.

An individual who is injured in an accident involving a large truck may be able to seek compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

If you’ve been injured due to the negligence of a truck driver or trucking company, call us toll-free for a consultation with our car accident lawyers, or email us.

This blog was posted by Ford and Laurel Attorneys Laredo, Texas

Motorcycle Fatality Accidents in Texas

Every day in Texas, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, a fatal motorcycle accident takes place. This is a sobering fact indeed, but it is compounded even more by the way in which it can be reinterpreted. Somewhere in Texas every single day, there is a family that suffers the loss of a loved one due to a motorcycle accident. If your family has suffered this kind of incredibly tragic occurrence, the motorcycle accident lawyers with our law firm can help you. We can investigate the scene of the tragic accident so that you can get the truth behind what happened to your loved one, and make sure that all liable parties that played a role in causing the accident are properly determined and made to face justice for their negligent actions. When a responsible party’s negligence leads to the death of someone in an accident, the surviving family members of the deceased can initiate a wrongful death civil lawsuit against the responsible party or parties in order to obtain fair restitution for both survival damages and wrongful death damages.

In regard to a survival damages lawsuit, only one family member can try to obtain survival damages on behalf of the deceased motorcyclist. However, multiple members of the family can seek wrongful death damages to compensate for the monetary losses they might have incurred due to the death of their loved one. But seeking fair compensation is not the only reason that many wrongful death lawsuits are pursued. The pursuit of restitution is a necessary component of a wrongful death suit and serves the purpose of helping the family overcome the financial losses that have been incurred as the result of the accident. However, this kind of suit also serves the purpose of holding those parties responsible for the accident accountable, and helping to make sure their negligent actions do not cause another family to experience this kind of tragedy.

Before initiating any form of legal action, however, it is strongly recommended that a grieving family get in touch with an experienced motorcycle accident attorney so that a thorough investigation can be launched. This investigation will look into the tragic accident in order to determine those responsible for causing it. Each responsible party can be sued for the role it played in either contributing to the accident or causing the accident. The attorneys with our law firm have 20 years of experience in investigating the scenes of fatal motorcycle accidents. As a result, we know all the complexities involved with vehicle accident scenes and know when it is appropriate to dig deeper into the cause so that all of the parties responsible are identified and held accountable. By doing so, we can work together to make sure those responsible for your pain and loss are brought to justice.

Motorcycle Accidents in Texas Involving Drunk Drivers

Motorcycle accidents that involve a drunk driver, just as automobile accidents that involve drunk driving, can result in a lawsuit being filed against the negligent drinking establishment that over-served the patron who caused the accident. According to dram shop law in Texas, an establishment that serves a patron to the point that he or she exceeds a .08 blood alcohol content, or BAC, level, and that patron injures himself or herself, or someone else can be held partly liable for the drunk driving accident. For example, a plaintiff can initiate a first-party dram shop cause of action if a drunken motorcyclist hurts himself or herself by wrecking the bike. If a drunk automobile driver causes an accident, then a third-party dram shop cause of action can be pursued. Either way, if the drunk driver became intoxicated because he or she was served past the point of intoxication at a drinking establishment before causing the accident, an injury victim can seek restitution from that negligent drinking establishment. In a third-party dram shop cause of action, the injured victim can seek restitution from the drunk driver as well as the alcohol-serving establishment. These same kinds of liability issues apply to cases where a wrongful death has occurred.

Determining that a person was served past the point of intoxication at an alcohol-serving establishment prior to causing a drunk motorcycle accident, however, can be very difficult for people who have no legal experience or inexperienced lawyers. The attorneys with our law firm have two decades of experience in handling drunk driving accident cases throughout Texas. We are intimately familiar with Texas dram shop laws and we can help you hold all responsible parties accountable.

Insurance Company Tactics are Designed to Deny Your Rightful Compensation

Insurance companies are tough negotiators, even for an accomplished lawyer! They take up a lot of your time without an experienced attorney on your side. Insurance companies fiercely guard their interests and their money. They’re about what they collect, not what they pay – which is as little as necessary. If you’ve been seriously injured, their interests collide with yours. They’ll use adjusters to try to find ways to deny your claims. These adjusters may call you repeatedly, and ask innocent-sounding questions about your accident. Their inquiries may seem harmless and for your benefit. But they’re usually calculated to induce you to say something that is later used against you to deny your claim. Whatever you say to them will probably be recorded. You must be on constant guard, or your words could come back to haunt you as an excuse for their denial of your claim.

Our clients quickly learn from us the best way to deal with insurance adjusters: and that’s just don’t deal with them at all. Adjusters don’t call our clients, but rather, us. And when adjusters can’t talk to our clients, they don’t have a chance to twist their words around to use against them.

Many times, especially if they know you have a good case, an insurance company pressures and even harasses you to settle for an amount that is much less than what you’re asking: oftentimes much less. A fair settlement offer is excellent; if it truly benefits an accident victim. Accepting an unfair settlement offer can devastate your legal rights. When you accept an offer, you forever waive your right to sue the defendant. The settlement on the table is all that you will ever collect from that defendant (and his insurance company). It’s important not to accept an offer unless it’s truly fair. And the only way to determine a fair settlement from an insurance company that wants to victimize you is with the assistance of an experienced car accident attorney.

Insurance companies know that most accident victims are everyday people who, as a result of this accident, are usually strapped for cash. They have hefty medical and auto repair bills that need to be paid on time, or there goes their credit report. Perhaps they are unable to work as a result of their injuries, so their reduced income is used for monthly expenses, which means there’s little if any, leftover to pay accident-related costs. An insurance company’s apparent strategy is to entice accident victims with small amounts of fast cash that might get them back to even. What if that’s not the end of your expenses? Insurance companies are banking on you not figuring that out until they’re long-gone and off the hook. Don’t let the defendant in your case (and his insurer) get away with paying you less than you deserve.

The time after being seriously injured in a car accident is often stressful and confusing to the victims and their families. Don’t add to the stress and confusion by letting an inexperienced attorney handle your case or represent yourself when you are unqualified to look out for your or your family’s best interests. We are uniquely qualified and fully prepared to fight for and win the fairest compensation for your total damage claims. If you or someone you know was injured in a car accident, contact an attorney at our Law Offices today at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.