After truck accidents, one of the looming questions is whether you will sue the driver or the trucking company. Many people who have never dealt with a personal injury case have little knowledge of what they should do when seeking compensation for their injuries. Therefore, they spend a lot of time on their cases and probably fail to receive their rightful compensation.
For this reason, it's crucial to involve a professional personal injury attorney to assess your situation. Please schedule an appointment with the San Diego Personal Injury Law Firm, and let's discuss your situation.
Instances When You Can Sue a Truck Driver in a Truck Accident
You can sue a truck driver for the damages incurred in a truck accident if you prove that the driver breached their duty of care. Truck drivers breach their duty of care by acting negligently or in a way that's risky to other people. Some of the negligent actions that endanger others on the road are as follows:
Driving While Intoxicated
Many truck drivers admit to using psychoactive substances while driving. These substances include cocaine, alcohol, and amphetamines. These substances can severely affect the decision, impact reaction time and vision of the driver, leading to a truck accident.
Lack of Proper Training
Some poorly trained drivers still manage to secure jobs as truck drivers despite the strict trucking regulations. Improperly trained truck drivers wouldn't know how to drive the truck, handle the load, and what to do when bad weather hits. This increases the chances of a wreck.
Aggressive Driving
Many truck drivers drive aggressively when they have a tight deadline to meet. Therefore, you will find the drivers following other vehicles too closely, changing lanes unsafely, speeding, or engaging in other forms of reckless driving that would cause an accident.
Working Beyond the Federally-Mandated Hours-of-Service Rules
Truck drivers exceed their mandated operation hours if they have a tight deadline to meet. Therefore, they will probably be too tired to react accordingly, maintain vision while driving, or make general driving decisions.
Texting or Talking While Driving
Texting or making a call while driving can be dangerous to truck drivers due to the massiveness of their trucks. This can be exceptionally dangerous when a truck driver is hauling toxic loads. The few seconds that truck drivers take their eyes off the road are enough to cause an accident.
Failure to Inspect their Vehicle
Truck drivers should regularly inspect their vehicles before they drive. Therefore, if a trucker causes an accident due to this, they will be liable for your damages.
Other factors can support your liability claim against a truck driver, apart from the above negligent actions mentioned above. These factors are as follows:
- The driver is an independent contractor who should carry their insurance and isn't an employee of any particular trucking company.
- The trucker was working for personal reasons outside the scope of their employment.
- The truck driver is the vehicle's owner, meaning that the driver and trucking company are the same people.
How to Prove Truckers Negligence in a Truck Accident
You must establish a trucker's negligence to hold them liable for your damages. The following are ways that you can prove that a trucker is responsible for your damages:
Black Box Recorders
Modern trucks have black box recorders that record the truck's speed, driver identification, fuel compensation, and braking patterns. They also record the number of hours that a truck was driving. This would be critical in identifying whether the trucker was violating FMCSA hours of service when the accident occurred. The recorder also provides data on time between the impact and shows whether the truck's airbags were deployed.
Truck Camera
Modern trucks have cameras that record everything on the road and inside the truck when in transit. You can use the truck camera to check whether the truck driver was engaging in distracting driving habits like eating and drinking, texting, or talking on a cellphone. It also shows whether the trucker was engaging in reckless driving behavior. It's recommendable to hire a personal injury attorney to take hold of the camera's data before the truck driver destroys it.
Drugs and Alcohol Screening Results
FMCSA requires truck drivers to undergo drug and alcohol screening after a truck accident. You can use the test results to establish that the truck driver was drunk or tired at the time of the accident.
Driver's Log
A truck driver should keep detailed driving logs, pre-trip and post-trip inspection, and resting hours. You can use this log to show that a truck driver was driving too long without taking a break or the vehicle had a maintenance problem that caused the accident.
NTSB Investigation Report
The National Transport Safety Board(NTSB) is responsible for investigating vehicle accidents. Their investigation report provides a wealth of information regarding the cause of the accident. Your attorney can use this information to confirm that the truck driver was liable for the truck accident.
Accident Reconstruction Experts
You and your attorney can hire an accident reconstruction expert if there's a dispute between the trucker and trucking company over the liability of the accident. Reconstruction experts use pictures, black box recorders, police recorders, and other information to determine who was liable for a truck accident.
Eye Witnesses
Third-party witnesses present at the accident scene can testify how the truck accident occurred. Eyewitnesses would be particularly helpful since neutral parties have no direct relationship with you and the truck driver.
How Co-Drivers Play a Part in Truck Driver Liability
Co-drivers can also be responsible for a truck accident, even though truck drivers play a significant part in causing accidents. They can face similar liability to truck drivers in certain situations. Here are ways that co-drivers negligence can lead to a truck accident.
Ignoring Dangerous Conditions
Co-drivers should look out for dangerous conditions that lead to truck accidents. For instance, if they observe that a trucker is fatigued, intoxicated, ill, or distracted and doesn't take a step to correct the situation, they can be partially or entirely held liable for the accident.
Distracting the Driver
Co-drivers can cause a truck accident if they engage in horseplay, playing loud music, arguing with the driver, or other distracting behaviors. They can also distract truckers by showing them something on their phone.
Encouraging Violation of Service Hours
Under FMCSA trucking regulations, truckers should drive for a specific period in a workweek or day. Therefore, if a co-driver encourages a trucker to work beyond this timeline, this could be considered negligent actions that can cause an accident. This means that the co-driver will be responsible for violation of service hours, just like the truck driver.
Failure to Complete the Log Books
Truckers and their co-workers should complete their logbooks under Federal trucking regulations. Therefore, if a co-driver alters or fails to fill the log, they might be held responsible for the accident.
Inexperience in Driving
Some co-drivers don't qualify enough to work in the trucking industry. If an experienced co-driver drives a big rig and causes an injury, the victim might claim against this driver. The trucking company can also be held responsible for the accident for hiring an inexperienced co-driver.
Instances When You Can Sue a Trucking Company in a Truck Accident
Trucking companies can also be held responsible for the damages incurred in a truck accident. You can hold a trucking company liable for your injuries if their negligence resulted in the accident. Here are ways that trucking companies are held responsible for a truck accident.
Laxity in their Hiring
Trucking companies should perform due diligence while hiring to ensure that their truck drivers are qualified, safe, and well-trained. The only way to avoid hiring unqualified truck drivers is by conducting a background check. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration(FMCSA) requires trucking companies to conduct a full investigation into every driver that they are about to hire. They must inquire about the driver's records in every state where an individual held a driver's license in the last three years. They must also look into the driver's safety records in their previous employment positions and their drug and alcohol test results.
Failure to conduct these investigations will not reveal red flags that would increase the possibility of a truck accident. This makes the company liable for the damages incurred in the accident.
Breaking Hours of Service laws
The FMCSA has established regulations to control the number of hours a truck driver should spend behind the wheel. However, these regulations can lengthen delivery times, cutting down the company's profit. Therefore, some trucking companies force their drivers to continue working through rest and sleep breaks. Some also go to the extent of encouraging them to change records in their logbooks to hide their violations. All these put the company liable for the damages incurred in a truck accident.
Poor Maintenance
Almost a quarter of all trucks experience some equipment breakdown. All truck parts can fail without notice, but tires, electrical systems, tires, and brakes can be problematic. Trucking companies should regularly maintain their vehicles by replacing worn-out tires or malfunctioning components. They should also retire old vehicles. Failure to do so would have them liable for accidents that result from these issues.
Failure to Properly Educate and Train Truck Drivers
Trucking companies should educate their drivers after hiring them, according to the FMCSA scope of training. They should enact policies that require a high level of competence and care from the drivers. If a company tries to cut corners with this training, it might face legal repercussions due to its negligence.
Improper Management of Drivers
Trucking companies should keep dangerous drivers off the road. Therefore, if a company fails to remove or discipline a truck driver who has demonstrated unsafe driving behavior, it means that they know that they are putting other road users at risk. Therefore, they become responsible for any accident caused by these drivers.
Negligent Loading
Trucks should meet certain weight limitations. Trucking companies should also properly secure their loads according to the federal cargo securement rules to keep them stable and balanced while on the road. All these should be done under the supervision of the trucking company. Failure to do so might swerve the truck, jackknife the rig, or cause all sorts of hazards. This might hold the trucking company accountable for the damages that result if it causes an accident.
How Vicarious Liability Makes a Trucking Firm liable for Your Damages
Vicarious liability is a legal theory used to hold a trucking firm liable for a trucker's negligence if there's no separate legal action against the trucking firm. Under this theory, the trucking company is liable for its truck drivers. You should demonstrate the following when holding a trucking company vicariously liable for the truck driver’s negligence:
- The truck driver was working under the direct instructions and charge of the company.
- The trucking firm had direct authority over the driver's action.
- The truck driver’s actions were under the scope of their employment.
Some situations are straightforward when determining if a trucker was working within their employment scope, especially when a driver hauled a load to a particular destination. In other situations, making this kind of determination is not as clear as you think. That’s why you should look at the following when determining if vicarious liability applies to the accident you’re involved in:
- Does the trucking firm apply rules related to the right to control the truck driver's actions?
- Were the trucker actions on behalf of the trucking firm or for themselves when the accident occurred?
With these questions at hand, you will be able to determine whether you'll be holding the trucking company vicariously liable for the accident or not. However, you cannot hold the trucking company vicariously responsible for the accident if the driver was running a personal errand of the clock.
Some of the factors that define working within the scope of his employment are:
- The overall intention of the driver.
- The nature, time, and place where the conduct took place.
- What trucking company hired the employee to do.
- What the employer should expect the driver to do.
- How much freedom the trucking company has granted to its drivers.
- The amount of time that the driver dedicated to their activity.
Situations like this can be exceptionally complicated. Therefore, you should work with an experienced legal team to get to the bottom of things and prove the trucking company's liability and receive fair compensation.
Comparative Negligence in Truck Accidents and How it Determines Liability in a Truck Accident
Truck accident victims assume that the truck driver or trucking company is entirely liable for their injuries. However, some truck accidents have multiple defendants depending on the nature of the accident. That's why California laws allow these victims to seek compensation from multiple defendants through a legal process known as the comparative negligence rule. Under this rule, a victim can hold several defendants liable for the injuries incurred from a collision based on their percentage contribution to the accident.
For instance, a tired driver can share the responsibility of a truck accident with the manufacturer for installing faulty tires on the rig. The victim can sue the driver or the driver's employer (through vicarious liability) in this situation. Victims can also sue the manufacturer for the negligence that caused the accident. Though it's unclear how much each party will pay, the manufacturer might have to pay more money since its action carries more weight in causing the accident than the other parties.
There's a considerable drawback in determining fault and responsibility when multiple parties are involved. Therefore, the court will most likely push your case to a trial since it's more or less likely to have a settlement.
Comparative Negligence where Accident Victim Negligence is Involved
A truck accident victim can also share responsibility with the truck driver in a compensation claim, apart from having a shared responsibility between different parties. Remember, every road user, whether you're a pedestrian, motorist, bicyclist, or passenger, must use reasonable care to protect their safety and the safety of others.
Therefore, if plaintiffs don't maintain their duty of care, they might be deemed negligent and faulty of their injuries. Examples of plaintiff's conduct that are negligent include:
- As a driver, speeding.
- As a pedestrian, making sudden or unexpected movements.
- As a passenger, riding with a drunk, reckless, or sleepy driver.
- As a motorist, driving a vehicle with defective parts.
Please note, if a defendant (truck driver or trucking company) manages to prove that your injuries resulted from your negligence, you might lose all your intended compensation. That's why it's crucial to retain a professional attorney to increase your chances of total payment.
Find a San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me
Determining whether a truck driver or trucking company is responsible for your injuries can be complicated. You can easily make errors that can either partially compensate or lose your total compensation. At the San Diego Personal Injury Law Firm, we aim at providing the best legal services to truck accident victims. Our qualified team of attorneys will work through your case to ensure a thorough and speedy investigation of our case. Call us today at 619-478-4059 and start your road to compensation.