Three Reasons You Need A Personal Injury Attorney With Truck Accident Experience

Posted on: 20 October 2016

If you have been in an accident with a semi-truck and have sustained damage to your car and/or sustained injuries, you should consult with a personal injury attorney. But you should speak to one who has experience with truck accidents. There are a several reasons for this. The following are three of them.

The brakes of large trucks are different

Many times, the cause of an accident will be due to a problem with the brakes of the truck. Larger semi-trucks have air brakes. It is important to understand how these brakes work so it can be determined if there may have been a brake failure. A police report is often not enough. An attorney with experience with truck accidents will be able to arrive at a logical conclusion about the accident from the data in a police report as well as witness accounts. It may be a problem with component failure, a maintenance issue, or perhaps a simple case of a truck driver braking too late. It takes a longer amount of time to bring a large truck to a full stop.

Semi-trucks can jackknife

Another issue with braking with a semi-truck is jackknifing. This is when the truck comes to a quick stop, but the trailer portion moves to the left or right and creates the look of an open jackknife. It is possible that there is a braking issue when this happens, but it is often the trucker's fault for either speeding or braking late. In either case, an experienced attorney can help you with this. Keep in mind that when a semi-truck jackknifes, it is possible for a vehicle to get hit by the trailer even when the vehicle is not in the same lane as the semi-truck.

Other damages not normally associated with vehicles

This includes the truck's load coming loose and hitting your car. This can happen when a load is on a flat bed. The items can come loose during an accident, and depending upon the nature of the load, it can cause extensive damages and injuries. Gas tanks of a semi-truck can also be a problem. Because they are located outside of the truck, they are more vulnerable to damage in an accident. These tanks carry more fuel than a car, so when they begin to leak, there is a greater chance it will come in contact with enough heat to ignite the fuel.

In general, the damages to a vehicle and the injuries to the driver and passengers are more severe than those involving only cars. It is important that you consult with a personal injury attorney that has experience with all aspects of a vehicle accident involving a semi-truck so you will receive all of the compensation you are entitled to. Contact a firm like Snyder & Wenner, P.C. for more info.

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