Wheaton / Will County / Joliet Truck Company Negligence
Truck drivers are typically under an immense amount of pressure from their employers. Drivers are pressured to work over the allotted number of hours in a day, skip safety checks, overload trucks and act in other negligent ways. If a trucking company is not following both state and federal regulations and an accident has occurred, you need a lawyer to represent your interests and prove liability in an accident case. Attorneys at Zayed Law Offices are known throughout the Chicago area and throughout the nation for undertaking serious truck company negligence cases and for achieving outstanding results. Have questions? Read our Protecting Your Rights page for more information.
Trucking Company Negligence
Trucking companies have a duty to ensure that the vehicles their drivers use are safe for all motorists on the road. Additionally, companies are responsible for conducting proper background checks on drivers and making certain that drivers are properly trained to work. It is the unfortunate reality that in many situations trucking companies will act negligently in order to save money. Cutting corners because of budget and time restraints ends up hurting innocent victims, and we are here to hold the company accountable.
Attorney Adam Zayed is highly knowledgeable of truck accident and personal injury law, and respected in the community for his legal work in this area. He and our skilled legal staff take a thorough and assertive approach to representing injured victims, ensuring that your best interests are kept in the foreground at all times.
In the event of a truck accident, it can be difficult to discover all of the responsible parties unless you have experience in personal injury law. An Illinois personal injury attorney with experience in trucking negligence will be able to help you identify those responsible. Generally, a lawsuit stemming from a trucking accident may include:
- the driver
- the owner of the truck/tractor
- the owner of the freight/cargo
- the owner of the trailer
- the employer of the driver
- the trucking company employing the driver
- the truck manufacturer and
- even the company identified on the trailer of the truck.
Truck accidents can inflict untold catastrophe upon the life of an individual and his or her family. In the event of a truck accident, a personal injury attorney will be able to help victims recover for:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of earnings
- Loss of earning capacity
- Medical bills
- Future medical bills
- Disability
In the event that a truck accident takes the life of an individual, their family may pursue recovery for things like:
- Loss of care
- Loss of support
An experienced Illinois truck accident attorney will know how to navigate the often confusing laws governing the aftermath of a serious truck accident.
Although truck accident cases can be considered a category of personal injury law, they are far more complex and more aggressively defended by insurance defense lawyers. This is because of the severity of injuries in truck accidents and because commercial truck drivers and commercial trucking companies carry large insurance policies. It is of the utmost importance to hire an Illinois truck accident attorney as soon as possible after your accident in order to protect your rights and to ensure that you receive the compensation you deserve.
Another important reason to hire an Illinois trucking negligence attorney is to ensure that all potential liability is assessed to the appropriate defendants. An experienced personal injury attorney will be able to research and discover issues like whether the truck driver kept an adequate log of his driving hours and whether he drove more hours than he was allowed under trucking regulations.
The trucking industry is regulated by state laws and federal laws. If one of these laws is violated it can increase your chances of a significant recovery.
There are numerous causes of trucking accidents, some of which are:
- Aggressive driving
- Time sensitive schedules that push truck drivers beyond reasonable work expectations
- Malfunctioning tires, brakes and lights
- Failing to inspect tires, brakes and lights
- Driver fatigue
- Speeding
- Cell phone usage
- Failure to use or install blind spot mirrors
- Drunk driving
- Call the police
- Contact your insurance company to report the accident
- Don’t speak to insurance companies for the defendant
- Don’t talk to the defendant’s insurance claims adjuster
- Do not sign anything
- See a doctor
- Take photographs of any and all damage before repairs, before selling your car, or before destroying your car as applicable
- Take photographs of injuries
- File your police report
- Contact a truck accident lawyer
Below are several helpful links relating to the trucking industry and trucking accidents.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Federal Highway Administration
