If you’re involved in a truck accident, you can expect serious injuries and serious losses. Truck accidents are some of the most dangerous crashes on our roads, and the occupants of the other vehicles involved tend to experience the brunt of the damage. Discuss your claim with an experienced Albany truck accident attorney today.
Common Causes of Truck Accidents
Often, truck drivers are responsible for causing truck accidents, and their negligence can take wide-ranging forms.
Failure to Consider Blind Spots
Truck drivers experience serious blind spots all the way around their massive vehicles. These blind spots can stretch across two lanes, and when truckers fail to take them into careful consideration before changing lanes, they put others at serious risk.
Failure to Account for Increased Stopping Distances
Truck drivers need considerably more room on the road to slow down and come to safe stops than other motorists do. Failing to account for this need increases the risk to forward traffic. Excess speed or distraction on the part of the trucker greatly increases the risk involved.
Failure to Take the Condition of the Road into Consideration
Truckers are especially vulnerable to the condition of the road. For instance, their tall, relatively narrow profiles are more susceptible to rollovers in high winds, and they can jackknife on wet, icy, or otherwise slippery roadways.
Failure to Adjust Speed Accordingly
Excess speed plays a primary role in many traffic accidents, and when a truck is involved, the results are often deadly. Truck drivers are responsible not only for sticking to the posted speed limit but also for adjusting their speed according to the road’s condition and what’s happening on it.
Impairment, Exhaustion, and Distraction
Because truck drivers are professional drivers who are required to carry commercial licenses, they are held to more exacting safety standards that include zero tolerance when it comes to impairment – as well as distractions such as texting. Further, there are careful hours of service regulations in place to help keep drowsy truckers off our roadways.
FAQs
What compensation can I seek?
You can pursue money damages for the covered losses you experience as a result of a truck driver’s negligence in all the following categories:
- Medical bills, including related expenses that are ongoing
- Lost income, including losses related to ongoing earning ability
- Physical and emotional pain and suffering, which can outpace other damages
Can I wait to file?
New York’s statute of limitations – or time limit – for filing a lawsuit following a truck accident is a mere three years. Seeking legal counsel early on is advised.
What can I do if I can’t afford an attorney?
The good news is that most reputable truck accident attorneys work on contingency, which means they don’t get paid until and unless claims are resolved favorably.
An Experienced Albany Truck Accident Attorney Is Here to Help
The seasoned Albany truck accident attorneys at Steve Foley Law Firm dedicate their imposing practice to fiercely advocating for just compensation in complex claims like yours, and we’re here for you, too. Contact us online or call us at 716-249-2222 for more information about how we can help today.