Collisions involving large commercial trucks are among the most complex personal injury and wrongful death claims. These cases often force innocent victims to pursue some of the nation’s largest insurance carriers and law firms for the compensation they deserve in the wake of a serious or fatal traffic collision.
For this reason we have two of the top, board-certified trucking lawyers in the United States working with us to bring justice in trucking cases to our region.
Local Service - National Results
The number of serious collisions involving tractor trailers and other large commercial trucks has continued to increase in recent years for a variety of reasons:
- Ongoing supply chain shortages continue to exacerbate a trucker shortage. This puts truckers on the road longer and continues a trend of replacing veteran retiring truck drivers with new drivers, who are often quickly trained and deployed by some of the nation’s largest carrier operators.
- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has removed a number of age and training restrictions, and otherwise loosened rules designed to protect the motoring public from novice or unsafe truckers.
- The Internet economy continues to put more and more large delivery vehicles into our neighborhoods, where streets were not designed to deal with such traffic.
The result is that serious and fatal collisions involving large commercial trucks are on the rise nationwide.
Truck Accident Injury Claims
To successfully pursue a comprehensive claim for damages, your Sioux Falls truck accident injury lawyer must have the knowledge, experience and resources to pursue these claims against some of the nation’s largest trucking companies and their insurance carriers and defense attorneys. While proving liability, negligence, and damages, is always the goal in any personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit, each is significantly complicated in a claim involving a large commercial carrier.
- Liability: Trucking companies understand liability is the leading operational threat and take many steps to limit liability, including renting and leasing tractors, trailers and equipment, hiring drivers as independent contractors, hiring independent maintenance contractors, and operating under various limited liability companies and shell corporations that hold few assets. Consequently, your chosen Sioux Falls truck accident attorney must identify and pursue all liable parties and their associated insurance carriers.
- Negligence: Truck drivers and commercial carriers are subject to a host of state and federal regulations, including Hours-of-Service rules which mandate allowable drive-time and rest breaks, a federal distracted driving law, and many other rules governing truck maintenance and other safety requirements. Additionally on-board data recorders, GPS data, and cell phone data may all provide insight into factors of accident causation and negligence. Among the most common causes of trucking collisions are alcohol and drug use, driver fatigue, driver medical condition, distraction and inattention, inadequate surveillance, poor driving decisions, and equipment or maintenance issues.
- Damages: Collisions involving large trucks most commonly result in serious or fatal injuries to passenger vehicle occupants. Your truck accident injury lawyer in Sioux Falls must determine the full extent of both economic and non-economic damages, including pain and suffering, disability and the likelihood and economic value of future medical complications and/or work restrictions.
Hoy Law represents trucking accident clients in Sioux Falls, the surrounding area, and throughout the entire state of South Dakota.
If you or a loved one has been injured, call Hoy Law to speak with an experienced Sioux Falls personal injury lawyer today. Call 605-250-1864 for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your rights.
