Pittsburgh Truck Accident Lawyers Put You Back on the Road

Trucking companies are required by law to carry liability insurance to cover for damages of a minimum $750,000.

There were 6,905 crashes involving large trucks in Pennsylvania in 2020, a year which saw less traffic due to the Covid-19 restrictions. 22 people were killed and thousands were injured, according to the latest Pennsylvania Department of Transportation report. If you or a loved one were recently involved in such a crash, do yourself a favor and contact the best Pittsburgh truck accident lawyers. Here is why. 

Truck crashes are less frequent than car accidents, but the consequences can be devastating. A passenger car cannot resist the impact with a large truck weighing 20 times as much. The occupants of the car are often left with terrible, life-changing injuries. When you suffer a traumatic brain injury, back or spine damage, or break several bones, you’ll be faced with eye-watering medical bills that far exceed your insurance. And you won’t be able to work for many months, if you ever recover that is. 

The only people that can help you get the kind of money you need are dedicated Pennsylvania truck accident lawyers who know the laws and how the system works. The insurance system, to be more exact. 

Let’s give you an idea of what you should expect following a truck crash. There you are in your hospital bed waiting for good news from your doctors, when you get a surprise call. On the other end there’s someone representing the trucking company’s insurer. All anxious to know how are you feeling. 

Rule number one: Don’t give them any information about your health and especially about the accident. 

Rule number two: Get yourself a good lawyer right away. If the insurance company is making inquiries they must know something about the cause of the accident and they’ve already gone into defense mode, trying to protect their interests.

You need to move fast so your lawyer can get a chance to examine all the relevant documents before they mysteriously vanish. The first thing your lawyer will do is send out spoliation letters asking the parties involved to preserve all the documents concerning the accident.

For instance, a seasoned truck accident lawyer will want to study the data contained in the digital device all commercial vehicles need to have installed. This device is like the black box on a plane and it records information concerning the speed of the truck or the number of hours the driver had been on the road. Such information can be very useful as you could sue the trucking company if they failed to monitor the driver’s activity or, even worse, encouraged them to break federal road safety regulations. Driver fatigue is, after all, one of the most frequent causes of truck crashes. 

You also need an independent expert to look into the state of the truck at the time of the accident. Maybe it only seemed like the driver was speeding recklessly when in fact he was struggling with the brake system which had stopped working. If there was a technical malfunction, the trucking company can be held accountable and your lawyer will certainly want to go for that. Trucking companies are required by law to carry liability insurance to cover for damages of a minimum $750,000. That’s plenty of money for you to get the damages you’re entitled to.