Getting What Is Rightfully Yours

Three Things Lawyers Will Look At When You've Been In An Accident With A Truck

7 April 2016 by Penny Fisher

If you've been in a car accident where the other driver was in a semi or box truck, your case and everything that happened right before the accident are going to be picked apart by lawyers, doctors, and police. Trucking accidents are a special breed because of the huge size and weight of the trucks, so determining what happened is not always as straightforward as it can be with a car vs. car accident. That means that your behavior -- even if the truck driver may have been the one at fault -- will be analyzed, and you could find yourself saddled with some of the blame. Here are three things that lawyers and others will look at after an accident.

Space in Front

It's not always possible to give trucks a lot of space, especially if you live in a major city with constant traffic jams. But you do have to give the trucks as much space as possible. They don't have the fast stopping power of regular cars; if you cut in front of a truck and then have to brake suddenly because of other traffic, the truck may end up running into you.  

What that would mean for your case is that even if the truck driver rear-ended you, the other party's lawyer could show that you moved in front of the truck without leaving a lot of room, and thus left the truck driver no choice but to hit you when you stopped suddenly. You could end up being blamed for the whole accident.

Passing on the Right or Left

Even if there's a legal traffic lane and you're not speeding, you don't want to stay on the side of a truck if you can help it. Whether you are passing on the left or on the right -- technically never a good idea, but sometimes necessary depending on the situation -- the truck has a large number of blind spots.

Lawyers will want to know how fast you were going, if you hung next to the side of the truck without passing, and whether you were in a blind spot. For example, say you were hit by a truck moving into your lane with no turn signals. If you were passing on the left and sped up so that you could get past the truck and not be in a blind spot, and you weren't in a blind spot, the truck driver would likely be found at fault. If you were passing on the left, dawdling, and not really moving away from the truck, you could be at least partially at fault if you kept your car in the truck's blind spot. Of course, the courts will look at each case differently, but you can see how your behavior could potentially influence your case.

Turn Signals

Lawyers will also look for those aforementioned turn signals. For example, many trucks have to make wide right turns from an inside lane because of how large the truck is. That means the truck would have its turn signal on in what looks like the wrong lane. If you thought the turn signal was a mistake and tried to pass the truck on the right, and the truck hit you then, you could be deemed at fault. The court likely isn't going to care if you truly thought the truck's signals were a mistake.

If you have been in an accident with a truck, contact a trucking accident attorney immediately. You need someone with experience to look at your case to counter anything the truck driver's lawyer might come up with in court.

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