Truck Accidents

LEE KELSO

Did you know that every sixteen minutes a person is either injured or killed in an accident involving an eighteen-wheeler, tractor trailer, or semi-truck? A typical fully-loaded large commercial truck can weigh eighty-thousand pounds or more, while a typical passenger automobile weighs only about three-thousand pounds. While semi-trucks make up just three-percent of the vehicles on the road, they are involved in twelve-percent of fatal accidents on the road. Joining us today to discuss legal claims arising from truck accidents is David Farnbauch, attorney with the Sweeney Law Firm. Thanks for taking sometime with us today to advise.

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Pleasure to be here today.

LEE KELSO

David you and your law firm have handled more than your share of truck cases over the past few years. What are some of the most common causes of these truck accidents?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well I think one of the most common causes of truck accidents is driver fatigue, often over the road truck drivers will be driving for many hours at the time of the accident, they are tired and they are fatigued that results in an accident.

LEE KELSO

When a truck driver causes a personal injury on a highway, what are some of the potential parties that might be held responsible other than the truck driver himself? 

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well truck accident cases are particularly complex because one of the things that we have to do initially is find out whose involved in that truck being out on the road. Often there will be an owner of the actual truck itself. There will be another owner of the tractor. They'll be a legal entity that will be responsible for the shipment of the cargo that's involved in the accident. Thus, there is any number of parties that may be involved in the accident as defendants in a truck accident case. 

LEE KELSO

David in your experience, what is it that makes a legal case against a truck driver more challenging or complex in cases that involve two cars that collide on a roadway?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well I think that there are a number of things that make these cases more complex. First of all, most of the time that we are dealing with a truck accident we are dealing with a more significant and often a more catastrophic injury. When a seventy-thousand pound semi collides with a motor-vehicle normally there are serious injuries that are involved, so that increases the complexity of the claim. Second of all, these cases involve extensive investigation. Often the whereabouts or the activities of a truck driver for up to a week before the event. So we have to obtain all of the driver logs and evidence of where that truck driver was. Normally there is an accident where reconstruction is involved to try to quantify what speed the truck was traveling and where the vehicles came together, so normally there would be accident reconstruction experts that are involved in these cases, so these cases can be very complex. 

LEE KELSO

Can you take our viewers through some of the steps you and your law firm takes when a client comes to you after an accident involving a semi-tractor trailer?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well one of the first things we do if we are hired shortly after an accident is to get a letter to the trucking company and ask them to preserve the evidence or preserve the truck and the parts and pieces of the truck immediately after an accident, so that evidence can be analyzed by investigators and accident reconstruction people to try to piece together how the accident happened. The other thing that we try to do is immediately secure as I mentioned before the driver logs. When truck drivers are driving a load on the highways, they are required to keep records of their whereabouts. What time they start the trip, how many stops they made and all the information has to be logged in an employees log book. So we try to immediately get possession of a copy of the driver's log book.

LEE KELSO

If one of our viewers is seriously injured in an accident involving a tractor trailer, what advice do you offer that person or their family?

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Well the most important advice that I can give particularly a truck accident is the need to call a lawyer who has experience doing truck injury cases immediately after the accident. Trucking companies immediately dispatch investigators and accident reconstruction people to the scene often within hours of when an accident occurs. So they are able to secure the evidence, secure witness statements right away. In order to present a case it's important for the injured party to get a hold of a lawyer right away so that your own attorney can get out and secure witness statements and secure the evidence right after an accident as well.

LEE KELSO

Thanks for spending some time with us today David sharing you experience in these striking cases. 

DAVID FARNBAUCH

Thanks for having me.