A truck accident can bring your life crashing to a full stop. If you have recently experienced the significant pain, damage and harm of a truck accident in the Atlanta area, you understand exactly what we mean. At this vulnerable time, you and your loved ones deserve qualified legal representation from an Atlanta truck accident lawyer who can protect your rights and get the compensation you need.
We understand the negative impacts you can face after a truck accident. Our team of dedicated truck accident attorneys offers powerful legal services to help you mitigate harm you’ve suffered due to a truck operator’s negligence or reckless driving.
Shiner Law Group is ready to help you take a stand for your legal rights. For a free consultation regarding your case, call us today at (800) 364-4444.
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Were You Injured in a Truck Accident in Atlanta?
A call to expert Atlanta injury lawyers should be your first priority after medical treatment if you are hurt by a truck accident around Atlanta. Traffic collisions are not all alike. You can certainly get injured if another car runs into yours, but consider the size and weight of a semi-truck or a tractor-trailer. At up to 80,000 pounds, a big rig heavily exceeds any passenger vehicle’s weight, which averages about 4,000 pounds, according to J.D. Power:
- Small cars weigh about 2,500.
- Large cars average about 4,200.
- Pickups and SUVs span 3,500 to 6,500.
Clearly, no automobile is a match for a massive tractor-trailer, especially if the truck’s operator acts carelessly or recklessly.
Fatal Truck Accident Lawyers Serving Atlanta
Due to the weight and size differences between a commercial truck and a smaller vehicle, trucking accidents are likely to leave life-altering consequences. Our law practice has achieved substantial monetary recoveries for victims who have endured serious bodily injury or the loss of a family member in an accident.
We get results because our dedicated team knows how to expertly clear trucking litigation’s unique hurdles.
Collectively, in dollars, the financial compensation we have won for our clients exceeds tens of millions. That type of reward offers the opportunity to restart your life.
Important Truck Accident Statistics to Know
The National Safety Council reports injury data and facts about large truck accidents. In the recent report for 2020, the data revealed 4,842 large trucks were involved in fatal crashes. Unfortunately, that is a 33% increase from 2011’s total. Nationally, large trucks make up 4% of registered vehicles, but they equal 9% of the vehicles involved in fatal accidents.
Now, let’s bring this subject home to Atlanta. The Georgia Motor Trucking Association’s most recent data says the state is home to 32,000 trucking companies. Many of those are small operations, but that figure helps you see that it was only a matter of time before a big truck collided with your passenger vehicle.
Reasons to Hire an Atlanta Truck Accident Attorney After Your Accident
Evidence Can Be Manipulated: Without proper representation on your side, evidence in an Atlanta truck accident legal case may be changed through questionable means. In an attempt to avoid facing
the consequences of an accident, an unethical trucking company may alter or destroy evidence.
You may be aware truck drivers are required to write their hours behind the wheel in logbooks, and they must also maintain inspection logs. Unfortunately, these records can be easily changed after an accident if the trucking company wants to hide its negligence. At Shiner, we have a different name for the trucking industry’s logbooks. We call them lie books because they often don’t contain the truth.
To learn what really happened, our expert Atlanta truck accident attorneys can use the powerful discovery process to obtain important documents:
- Logbooks
- GPS data
- Receipts for fuel and lodging
- Emails and texts between the trucking company and the driver
- Purchase orders for repairs, maintenance or bodywork
Hiring us quickly matters. Trucking companies will repair a damaged truck and return it to service before you even have a chance to start healing. A repaired truck can hamper the reconstruction and analysis of your accident.
Evidence Can Spoliate: We’re all familiar with a commercial jet’s black box. Similar onboard data recorders also exist in the trucking industry. These devices can document:
- Pre-accident speed
- Sudden braking
- Gear-shifting
- Critical component failures
- Other revealing information
As your Atlanta truck accident law firm, we send a spoliation letter that instructs the trucking company to maintain the truck and its data recorder in their post-accident condition due to your pending case. Our letter warns the trucking company to expect court sanctions if they disregard it. We can also file restraining orders if we believe the trucking company intends to alter or destroy this crucial data.
Multiple Parties and Insurance Companies: In addition to being more forceful than car crashes, truck accidents are often followed by the frustrating complexities of dealing with multiple parties. As a result, litigation in a trucking accident case can get complicated quickly.
Circumstances and facts vary, of course. Still, it’s not unusual for a list of potential parties in a case to become longer than you could handle without qualified representation. Imagine the likely parties to litigation after a multi-vehicle, chain-reaction accident with a big rig:
- The truck’s driver
- The trucking company
- The truck’s manufacturer
- Component manufacturers
- Maintenance and repair shops
- The shipping company that hired the trucking company
Each party in a trucking accident lawsuit will have insurance, so a case involving many parties also involves many insurance companies. Fortunately, our firm meticulously identifies all available insurance policies’ sources and amounts via the discovery process.
Insider Knowledge: Our Atlanta trucking accident lawyers are well-versed in the industry’s accepted practices. Also, when we investigate a negligent party, we consult professionals with rich expertise in tractor-trailers. Tapping these resources lets us appreciate that an exhausted truck driver who T-boned an SUV might have two logbooks, for example. That practice gives drivers longer shifts, but it’s also a dangerous violation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Hours of Service Regulations.
Common Trucking Accidents in Atlanta
Some accidents involving large trucks in Atlanta are very similar to car crashes. Others are devastatingly unique.
Carriage Underride or Override: These crashes frequently have catastrophic outcomes. Underride means the passenger vehicle traveled beneath the truck’s chassis. Override indicates that the big rig drove over the smaller vehicle. These accidents crush passenger compartments or rip off the vehicle’s roof. Fatalities in these accidents are often due to decapitation. Survivors commonly face spinal cord damage. Guard devices and high-visibility markings mitigate these horrible accidents, but some trucking operations cut corners.
Tractor-Trailer Rollover: While any vehicle can flip, big rigs flip with more impact. Rolling a car over will typically cause the most harm to that car’s passengers. When a loaded tractor-trailer flips, its cab, trailer and contents can land on other vehicles. Often, these crashes result from an unsecured or poorly balanced load.
Jackknifed Big Rig: A tractor-trailer jackknifes when its driver slams on the brakes. As the cab stops, momentum swings the loaded trailer around and pushes the cab to one side, forming a massive, L-shaped vehicular threat. Jackknifes become likelier when the pavement is slick. If a jackknifed truck flips, devastating injuries can result for occupants of other vehicles.
What Causes Accidents Involving Trucks in the Atlanta Area?
Often, trucking accidents result from negligence. Examples of negligent conduct include:
- Disregard for Hours of Service Regulations by the driver or commercial carrier
- Poor and unsafe route-planning
- Driving while medically unfit
- Operating a truck under the influence of alcohol or another controlled substance
- Unfamiliarity with a large truck’s uniquely large blind spots
- Driving a tractor-trailer recklessly or at an unsafe speed
- Brake failure and anything else related to poor maintenance
- Hiring drivers without pre-employment screening
Common Atlanta Truck Accident Injuries
A collision with a truck in Atlanta can dramatically change your life’s course. These accidents are often the result of a trucking company’s indifference to important safety regulations. Ultimately, that indifference has drastic consequences:
- Disfigurement necessitating plastic surgery
- Internal organ damage
- Broken and fractured bones
- Severe whiplash injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBI)
- Spinal cord injuries (SCI)
- ACL, MCL and other serious knee injuries
- Joint injuries
- Wrongful death
Truck Accident Lawyers in Atlanta
The negative impacts of a truck accident often continue long after the collision. Due to chronic pain or prolonged mobility issues, your return to work may be significantly delayed. Meanwhile, medical bills could eat into your strained budget. Our firm’s expert team can pursue a diverse array of compensation to help you improve your situation. Examples include:
- Lost income, which covers your wages or salary while you rehab from your injuries
- Medical expenses related to your injuries, including incurred and estimated expenses for the future
- Property loss, which covers the replacement or repair cost of your vehicle or other damaged property
- Diminished earning capacity, which compensates you for a loss of future income due to partial disability
- Emotional distress, which compensates you for anxiety and other psychological harm due to injury
- Pain and suffering, awarding you compensation for the pain you felt during the accident or any pain you’ve experienced since
- Punitive damages, which is extraordinary compensation intended to punish an extremely negligent party
You deserve compensation for your situation, so talk to us right away!
Contact Shiner Law Group for a Free Consultation With an Atlanta Truck Accident Lawyer Today
If a truck accident in Atlanta injured you or caused the death of someone you love, we urge you to contact our expert legal team at Shiner Law Group. We will thoughtfully evaluate your claim and discuss potential next steps with you. Helping you obtain the compensation necessary to move past a severe injury or immense loss is our top priority, so call us today at (800) 364-4444 for your free case review.