After a truck accident, your life may never be the same. Severe injuries could cause lifelong health issues and prevent you from pursuing the career you always dreamed of. You should not have to bear this burden alone, and you do not have to: you can sue the party who caused your accident for fair compensation.
A Houston truck accident lawyer from Domingo Garcia can help you file your case, negotiate for damages, and hold the liable party accountable for what they have done to you and your family.
Trucks Can Cause Serious Accidents in Houston
According to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TXDMV), there is a limit to how much trucks can weigh if they want to travel on state highways. These limits are determined by how many axles a truck has and by whether or not the truck owner has obtained a permit to drive in the state.
For example, a single-axle truck without a permit can weigh up to 20,000 pounds. If that same truck receives a permit, it can weigh up to 25,000. Trucks with two or more axles can weigh significantly more than this, with or without a permit.
Either way, trucks outweigh regular cars by a large margin. For this reason, truck accident victims may be more likely to sustain catastrophic or fatal injuries than those involved in a typical car accident or other types of accident.
For a free legal consultation with a truck accidents lawyer serving Houston, call (713) 349-1500
Types of Truck Accidents in Houston
According to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), there were 27,224 truck accidents in 2021. The TxDOT noted that Harris County had 5,743 commercial vehicle accidents in the same year. These commercial truck and other vehicle accidents are particularly noteworthy as, in our decades of experience, 18-wheeler accidents, semi-truck accidents, and tractor-trailer accidents tend to cause greater harm.
No two truck accidents are the same, however, and any accident has the potential to cause grievous harm. Here is a brief overview of the types of truck crashes that might result in a personal injury lawsuit:
Head-On Collisions
Head-on collisions happen when the front end of the truck collides with the front end of another vehicle. They can be especially destructive since each vehicle is headed directly at the other, sometimes at high speeds.
Side-Impact Collisions
Also called T-bone accidents, this type of collision occurs when the truck hits another vehicle from the side. This type of accident can be very dangerous to whoever is sitting on the side that gets hit.
Rear-End Accidents
In a rear-end collision, the truck hits another driver from behind. Minor rear-end collisions are sometimes called “fender-benders,” but those involving a truck can inflict life-threatening damage on another vehicle.
Spilled Cargo Accidents
Trucks transport all kinds of materials—cars, chemicals, packages, concrete, and even garbage—along our roadways. If the cargo is overloaded or loaded improperly, it may fall into the roadway, putting other drivers in danger.
Jackknife Accidents
Jackknifing can occur when a truck’s trailer (the part that carries cargo) swings towards the cab (the part where the driver sits). A jackknifed truck could end up blocking the roadway or side-swiping another vehicle that was not initially involved in the crash.
Rollover Accidents
As the name suggests, a rollover accident occurs when one of the vehicles overturns completely.
If a truck overturns, it could hit multiple other vehicles and spill its cargo onto the roadway. This cargo presents yet another hazard for drivers, especially if it is heavy, toxic, flammable, or otherwise harmful.
On the other hand, if you are hit by a truck, your odds of rolling over may be higher than in other types of accidents because the truck’s mass exerts a more powerful force on your vehicle.
Single Vehicle Accidents
Sometimes, a truck will go off the road or hit a stationary object (e.g., a building or a streetlight) without hitting another car. While this can be good for other drivers, it can still pose a hazard.
For instance, if any part of the disabled truck or its cargo lies in the roadway, other drivers could still run into it, or they could run into each other while trying to avoid the obstacle.
Houston Truck Accident Lawyer Near Me (713) 349-1500
Reasons for Truck Crashes
Like any type of vehicle, drivers of large commercial trucks may crash for multiple reasons. Unfortunately, some accidents result from careless or negligent behaviors and decisions, and these can have catastrophic and fatal consequences for multiple drivers.
Poor judgment, speeding, driving while intoxicated, and distracted driving are some of the negligent behaviors that can cause a truck accident. Truck drivers have to work on tight schedules and have to manage large vehicles on busy highways and roads, and these conditions can help contribute to truck accidents in Houston.
In 2019, 6 percent of truck drivers involved in an accident tested positive for drugs, according to the FMCSA. Distraction and impairment were other causes of truck accidents in 2019. Using a cell phone, eating, and fatigued driving were just some of the listed reasons of single- and multi-vehicle truck accidents. If a driver’s negligent behaviors caused your accident or the death of a loved one, you should not have to bear the financial, physical, and emotional consequences alone. Our team is determined to help you recover the compensation you need to heal.
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Truck Accident Injuries Can Be Severe
No matter what type of truck accident you were involved in, the results can be catastrophic. Victims can expect to:
- Sustain serious physical and psychological injuries
- Lose a great deal of money
- Sustain major damage to their vehicle, up to and including the total loss of the vehicle
Our case results include a $3.3 million truck accident settlement for our client, who experienced an accident with a concrete pump truck. How much we recover for you depends on the circumstances surrounding the crash and the nature of your injuries.
Physical Injuries
Due to their larger weight and size, trucks can inflict serious damage on any humans unfortunate enough to get in their way. The impact of a truck accident could cause myriad types of injuries:
- Spinal cord injuries
- Concussions
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Internal bleeding
- Crushed or fractured bones
- Severe muscle or nerve damage
- Severe physical pain
- Paralysis
- Amputation
- Severe disfigurement or scarring
- Other permanent impairments
Such catastrophic injuries can affect you for the rest of your life. The more serious the injury, the more money you can typically sue for.
Psychological Injuries
Truck accidents can be traumatizing for those who live through them. The act of sustaining severe injuries or watching a loved one die in an accident can also have lifelong consequences for your mental and emotional wellbeing. You may accordingly seek financial compensation for:
- Emotional trauma related to the accident or the strain of being severely injured
- New or worsened mental illness, such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder
- Reduced quality of life
- Loss of independence
- Loss of consortium, or the fact that your injuries prevent you from having the kind of relationship with your loved ones that you did before
Psychological injuries may be more difficult to quantify than other types of injuries. This does not mean your suffering is not real or that you do not deserve maximum compensation for the mental toll all of this has taken on you. A personal injury attorney from Domingo Garcia can explain how we calculate the intangible damages that stem from Texas truck accidents.
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Damages a Houston Truck Accident Lawyer Can Help You Seek
Truck accident injuries can lead to costly medical bills, and they can cause other economic losses, as well. With a trucking accident claim, you can seek compensation for the various accident-related expenses you incur. Additionally, you can seek compensation for non-economic losses.
Medical Costs
Your physical and psychological injuries can force you to spend a great deal of money on:
- Medical bills for surgery, diagnostic tests, and other immediate medical care treatments
- Long-term care for permanent or disabling injuries
- Assistance from housekeepers, babysitters, landscapers, home nurses, and others
Lost Wages and Reduced Earning Capacity
Paying off these bills may be made even more difficult by the fact that your severe injuries prevent you from:
- Advancing any further in your career
- Returning to the same position you had before
- Maintaining the health insurance and other benefits you could have used to pay for your treatment
Our Houston truck accident law firm can pursue your legal claim to compensation for lost wages, reduced earning capacity, lost benefits, and paid sick leave.
Other Accident-Related Expenses
In addition, a personal injury lawyer can also seek reimbursement for property damage. A collision with a big, heavy truck can do serious and expensive damage to your car and to any valuables you had inside it, such as:
- Jewelry
- Electronics
- Family heirlooms
Non-Economic Losses
You can also seek fair compensation for:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Mental and emotional pain and anguish
- Loss of consortium
- Physical impairment
- Disfigurement
- Inconvenience
- Loss of companionship and society
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Our legal team can help assign a monetary value to these losses.
When Truck Accidents Turn Fatal
OurHouston wrongful death lawyers can help your family if you lost a loved one in a fatal truck accident. We can pursue compensation for damages such:
- Loss of inheritance
- Funeral and burial expenses
- Loss of consortium
- Your loved one’s medical care bills
- Your loved one’s pain and suffering
- Lost wages if you took time to tend to your loved one’s fatal injuries
For 35 years, Domingo Garcia has supported truck accident victims and their families as they fight for justice after preventable, negligence-related fatal truck collisions. On one occasion, our Houston truck accident lawyers settled with the liable party for $1 million after a fatal accident. Now we want to pursue justice for you and your loved ones.
Truck Accidents, State Laws, and Federal Laws
Interstate truckers (truckers that cross state or national borders) must comply with federal regulations established by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
The FMCSA oversees commercial licensing regulations, sets limits for driver schedules, determines other safety standards for the trucking and commercial vehicle industry, and reports relevant data and statistics.
Truck drivers are required to keep track of the number of hours they drive each day. The trucker must record in a “log” how many hours driving, on-duty but not driving, off-duty, or in the sleeper berth of his truck each day. The FMCSA has an entire section that truck drivers and trucking companies must comply with relating to how many hours they can drive each day or even each week. These regulations (please provide a link for FMCSA SECTION 395) 49 CFR apply to all interstate truck drivers.
In addition to federal regulations, intrastate truck drivers must also follow state-specific guidelines since they only operate within state borders. The Texas Department of Public Safety outlines the relevant Texas statutes for commercial motor vehicles. These laws determine seatbelt use, load and weight limitations, licensing and registration, and other equipment restrictions.
With state and federal regulations, truck drivers have limits on how long they can drive before taking a break and the size of the loads they can carry. State and federal regulations outline rules for drug and alcohol intake, determine reporting frequency and processes, and maintenance schedules, among other requirements.
Liable Parties in Truck Accident Cases
Who can you sue after a truck accident? This can be a very difficult question to answer unless you hire experienced truck accident attorneys to investigate the collision and the responsible party on your behalf. For past truck accident claims, we have seen—and pursued—liable parties like the following.
The Truck Driver
In many truck or 18-wheeler accident claims, the truck driver played a critical role. There are many ways that a careless truck driver could wind up causing an accident, including:
- Using drugs or alcohol on the job, even if the drug was legal or prescribed
- Driving too fast for the roadway conditions and/or the size of the vehicle
- Not paying attention to traffic signs or to other drivers’ actions
- Distracted driving such as using their cell phone behind the wheel
- Taking insufficient rest periods, leading to driver fatigue and inattentive driving
Even if the commercial driver is at fault, you may not end up suing them personally. Instead, you could sue their employer, who usually has a larger insurance policy.
The Trucking Company
The trucking company is responsible for both its employees and its vehicles. Trucking companies must:
- Provide proper safety training to all drivers
- Make sure their drivers obtain and maintain the required commercial licenses
- Never pressure drivers to skip breaks or work longer hours than they are comfortable with
- Hire responsible individuals to load and unload the vehicles
- Ensure that all trucks are maintained by qualified mechanics on a regular basis
- Allow state or federal inspectors to examine the trucks as required by law
- Ensure that all trucks comply with state and federal safety standards, and take any trucks that do not meet those standards off the road until they can be fixed
Any violation by the trucking company or one of its drivers could be grounds for a lawsuit.
The Truck Manufacturer
Trucks are made up of many individual parts that must work well on their own and in tandem with all the other parts of the vehicle. As such, truck part manufacturers are held to high standards and are required to:
- Test both the materials and the finished product before putting it on the market
- Include sufficient information on the product label to let buyers know if there are potential hazards associated with using the product properly or improperly
- Respond promptly to any customer complaints regarding their products, including issuing recalls as necessary
Unfortunately, some manufacturers put profit over consumer safety. They may use substandard materials or delay issuing a recall if it will keep money flowing in, even if it costs roadway users their lives.
If we can find sufficient evidence showing the truck manufacturer was negligent, you can file a truck accident lawsuit for damages against them.
The Mechanic or Inspector
Commercial trucks must be maintained and inspected on a regular basis. As discussed before, if a trucking company fails to ensure this is done, they can be held liable. However, if they tried to follow the rules but were undermined by other negligent parties, you may be able to sue someone else instead of or in addition to the company.
For example, if an inspector did not look over the vehicle thoroughly enough to make an accurate report, the agency they work for could be held liable. Alternatively, if a mechanic rushed through their work and missed a critical problem with the truck, they or their company could be sued.
Domingo Garcia’s Experienced Truck Accident Lawyers Can Help
We understand how devastating and overwhelming it is to suffer an injury in a truck accident. We want you to know that you are not alone: our team can support you as you seek justice for your injuries and, if necessary, your loved one’s death.
Domingo Garcia wants to do everything possible to make things easier for you after a truck accident. Here are some of the benefits we offer to clients in your situation.
Compassionate Advice
It is not your job to know the ins and outs of state law as it applies to truck crashes. The Texas truck accident lawyers at our Houston office can:
- Inform you of your rights at every stage of the lawsuit
- Talk to you about how you can take on “big” liable parties like trucking companies
- Keep you updated about what is happening, explain the implication of each development, and advise you on how to proceed
- Address every concern you bring to us in a timely manner
Investigative Skills
To determine who you should sue after a truck accident, an experienced lawyer can look into all potentially liable parties by collecting documents from:
- The mechanics and inspectors responsible for keeping the trucks safe
- Your medical records and history
- Traffic cams or other cameras that may have caught the accident on tape
- Your collection of bills, receipts, pay stubs, and other documents related to the accident
We can also interview anyone who may have knowledge of the truck accident, the working environment at the trucking company, or the environment where the accident occurred.
Once our accident investigation is complete, you can have a much clearer idea of whether you should hold the truck driver, the trucking company, or some other party responsible for your injuries. You can also know exactly how much money the liable party owes you for the damage they did.
Tough Negotiation Skills
Whoever the liable party is, their insurance company will be the one to pay whatever damages you receive. The insurance company may or may not accept your lawsuit as is. If they choose to fight your request for damages, we might still be able to negotiate a truck accident settlement without having to go through a trial first.
For example, if the liable party in your case is the truck driver, and if we decide to pursue compensation from the commercial trucking company’s insurance company, we could:
- Arrange a meeting with that insurance company to discuss your case
- Present them with the evidence we have collected regarding the trucking company’s liability
- Protect you against the trucking company’s or the insurance carrier’s attempts to undermine your case, profess innocence, or claim your injuries were caused by another event
If necessary, we can take your personal injury claim to court. In this situation, your trucking accident lawyer from Domingo Garcia would present your case at trial and let a jury decide if you deserve compensation from the trucking company.
Financial Assistance
Our firm can also help you by accepting no attorney’s fees until after you have received compensation. This is called a contingency fee, and it links our success to yours: if we cannot get compensation for you, then we do not charge you any attorney’s fees, period.
Bilingual Assistance
If you are more comfortable speaking in Spanish, let us know, and we would be happy to accommodate you. Language should never be a barrier between you and the legal care you want. The truck accident attorneys at Domingo Garcia are dedicated to helping the Spanish-speaking community in Houston and throughout Texas.
Protecting Yourself After a Truck Accident
There are several actions you can take in the immediate aftermath of a truck accident to either protect or jeopardize your right to maximum compensation. Here are some of the best ways to preserve your rights and make it easier for us to seek justice on your behalf.
Move Away from the Accident Scene
According to Texas Transportation Code § 550.021, it is your duty to stay at the scene of an accident that results in injury or death until the proper authorities arrive. However, this does not mean you have to put yourself in danger. You are allowed to:
- Move your car out of the flow of traffic, if possible.
- Leave in an ambulance immediately if you are critically injured.
- Get far enough away that any hazardous materials the truck contains cannot harm you should they leak or explode.
See a Doctor
One of the most important things you can do—both in terms of protecting your rights and taking care of yourself—is to seek medical attention as soon as possible after the truck accident. This is because:
- Any gap between the accident and your first doctor’s appointment could be interpreted as a sign that your injury was unrelated to the accident.
- Truck accident injuries can be very serious, even if symptoms do not present themselves immediately.
- Seeking prompt assistance creates a record of how the accident and your injury are connected, especially if you tell the doctor how the injury occurred.
You can also check to make sure the truck driver is all right. If they sustained an injury or are unconscious, call 911 to get them the help they need.
Watch What You Say
Any statement you make about the accident at any time can be used against you by the insurance company. This means you should:
- Never admit or imply guilt to the truck driver, EMTs, or witnesses
- Cooperate with the police officer who responded to the scene, but keep your responses short and fact-based
- Not speculate—if you do not know something, say you do not know
- Avoid speaking to reporters or making social media posts about the accident
- Never agree to anyone’s requests for a recorded statement
- Say as little as possible until you have the chance to talk to us
One thing you can safely do is to ask the truck driver for their contact and insurance information. This makes it easier to identify them if and when you decide to sue.
Document the Scene
Use your cell phone to take as many pictures of the scene as possible. This includes documenting:
- The damage done to your car
- The damage done to the truck
- The injuries you sustained
- The general environment in which the accident occurred, especially if you notice a hazard like a broken streetlight, a large pothole, etc.
Act Promptly
According to Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003, you have two years from the date of a truck accident to file a personal injury lawsuit against the party or parties who caused the accident. Alternatively, you have two years from the date of your loved one’s passing to file a wrongful death claim.
The legal system adheres very closely to these deadlines. If you miss the deadline that applies to your case, you could be denied the justice and the compensation you deserve.
Domingo Garcia encourages anyone thinking of suing over a Texas truck accident to take action as soon as they can. Undue delays could put your case at risk.
Consult with Our Law Firm Today for Help With Your Houston Truck Accident Case
Domingo Garcia is devoted to helping Houston residents through the tough times that follow a truck accident.
Please call us for a free case review. A Houston truck accident lawyer from our team can champion your rights and fight to ensure that the liable party pays what they owe you.
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