Accidents involving trucks aren’t funny. When a truck collision occurs, it is rare to walk away unscathed. As a result, you’ll almost certainly require legal counsel. This is the finest strategy for safeguarding your interests. This may be the last thing on your mind if you are harmed or your vehicle is damaged, but you must shift your perspective. It is the right thing to do and should be done to arm yourself with legal counsel.
We will provide you with the right ideas to think about if you haven’t already. Knowing what to do morally is never a simple decision. Fortunately, you can get the appropriate directions today thanks to the internet and kind people like us.
As we already stated, it may be impossible to know exactly what to do when an accident occurs. For this reason, you’ll find these six legal hints for handling the fallout from a truck accident quite helpful. Knowing what to do in a circumstance that involves trucks, injuries, and is regarded as a major accident puts you on the road to recovery more quickly than you could have imagined. Check out what we have by continuing to read.
1. Call The Police
Calling 911 for assistance should be your first move following a collision with a huge vehicle. The police and emergency personnel will be dispatched to the accident location when you dial 911. Tell the officers what you remember happening in the moments just before the crash. Get a copy of the police report without fail. Although police reports are typically not admissible as evidence, they often contain important details that can be helpful when your crash is being investigated.
A knowledgeable commercial truck accident lawyer like Christensen Law can examine the report and collaborate with specialists and investigators to establish guilt. To shift responsibility for the accident from the truck driver to you, the trucking business’s insurance company will probably use aggressive defensive strategies. If this happens, a competent lawyer can use the police record as the foundation for a case that establishes the truck driver, a third party, and the trucking company as obviously liable, allowing you to receive just compensation for your losses.
2. Contact A Lawyer
After a truck accident, the driver must notify their employer about the collision and submit to post-accident drug testing. Truck drivers who fail to report accidents or submit to drug testing risk having their licenses suspended or revoked and being fined. The company’s insurance provider will likely send investigators to the accident scene as soon as the driver contacts their employer to begin developing a defense.
An insurance company representative can contact you and ask for your statement or for you to sign a medical release. Without first consulting an attorney, you shouldn’t consent to provide a statement or sign any documents from the trucking company’s insurance provider. An attorney can handle the correspondence on your behalf and can assist in keeping you from making crucial mistakes that could hurt your case.
3. Transact Information
It is crucial to gather information from the driver of the truck and any other drivers of vehicles who were in the collision. With a few important changes or differences, you’ll be asking the driver of an off-road vehicle for some of the same information that you would ask of a passenger car driver:
- a description of the truck driver.
- Whose address it is.
- Including phone number and email, contact information
- The vehicle’s registration plate.
- Driver’s license number
Examine the driver’s attire and inquire if it appears that they are wearing a logo that isn’t that of the organization they are driving for. It is safer to be safe than sorry, even if most truck drivers won’t lie to you.
4. Document The Site
As soon as you can after the collision, use your smartphone to take pictures of any damage to your car. As soon as possible after the collision, you should also snap pictures of where each vehicle is physically located. Photos might be useful in court if you file a personal injury claim as well as in helping your insurance adjuster evaluate how much you should be compensated for car damage. Images of your car before the collision also provide a clear contrast to show the full degree of the damage incurred in the collision.
5. Get Medical Attention
After a crash, this is a top priority. It’s impossible to predict what kind of medical care you’ll require because you don’t yet know if you have serious injuries. Going to a doctor to diagnose your ailment is referred to as seeking medical attention. Multiple injuries that may not be immediately obvious can result from a truck accident. The smallest effects of truck accidents are bodily harm, such as scrapes and lacerations, but they aren’t the only ones that manifest.
In addition to any minor injuries you may already have, you could sustain catastrophic injuries, internal hemorrhage, neck injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and a host of other serious ailments. Get yourself checked out as soon as you can, even if you don’t feel any discomfort right away following the trucking accident. In the long run, it might spare you grief and suffering.
6. Look for Witnesses
Assuming you were not seriously hurt at the time of the accident, you should survey the surrounding area and obtain testimonies from anyone who may have witnessed what happened. Make careful to get the contact information of everyone who claims to have seen it and is prepared to help you.
Also, make sure to let the officer know about these witnesses when they arrive at the site. It will strengthen your case if the police have records of these witnesses.
Conclusion
As long as you keep these pointers in mind following a collision, you’ll be actively defending your legal right to compensation for the harms and losses you endured due to another driver’s carelessness or recklessness on the road. Even when you weren’t at fault for the accident, insurance companies will use every tactic to minimize or outright reject your claim, so you must stand up for your rights and pursue the compensation you’re entitled to.
