317.582.0000TRAGIC TRUCK-CAUSED PERSONAL INJURIES CONTINUE TO BE IN THE NEWS
Only last week in our Ramey & Hailey blog, we reported on four crashes at bus stops that killed and injured children, the latest in hundreds of school transportation-related crashes reported by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.
In just the past month and half, deadly accidents involving trucks have taken the lives of pedestrians, both adults and children.
In Dallas, a dump truck ran over and killed a 52-year old mother who was crossing the street on the crosswalk.
- In Little Rock, Arkansas, an 11-year-old was hit by a pickup truck while crossing the street with several other children.
- In Wentzville, Missouri, a two-year-old girl was struck and killed by an ice cream truck.
- In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a mother and two children were hit by a truck and her 2-year-old, whom the mom was pushing in a stroller, was killed.
Highway deaths have been rising in recent years, according to a report released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Factors that appear to be playing a role include higher speed limits and distracted driving, but the “IIHS report points towards the rapidly growing number of SUVs on the road, suggesting that their design could make them more deadly in a vehicle-pedestrian crash than regular cars.”
Stands to reason – in any collision of a big and a small object, the small one is going to sustain the greater damage. Even in a collision of a semi truck with a passenger vehicle, the driver and passengers in the smaller vehicle will typically sustain the worst injuries.
The big question in any case where a pedestrian or a passenger is injured or killed is whether the driver (or either of the drivers in the case of a two-vehicle crash) – was negligent. In a crash involving two vehicles, some of the damages may be covered by insurance. But, when insurance isn’t enough to compensate for the losses suffered, our firm is there to see our clients get the recovery they deserve through the legal system.
Truck accidents, you see, aren’t handled the same way as collisions involving passenger vehicles. When a semi truck is involved, there are five different parties that might be held liable for negligence:
- the truck driver
- the trucking company
- the truck manufacturer
- the company that loaded the truck
- the company responsible for maintaining the truck
- the governmental entity that owns the vehicle. (In the Dallas crash, the truck was a city owned dump truck. In motor vehicle accidents involving an official vehicle, it is possible to sue the city itself for damages.)
When our Indiana personal injury attorneys at Ramey & Hailey are engaged to represent either the family members of pedestrian or car passengers killed or injured in a semi truck accident, we work to obtain compensation for any or all of the following:
- medical expenses
- lost wages
- pain and suffering
- funeral and burial expenses
- loss of spousal support
- loss of parental guidance (the Dallas woman was mother of two and married)
The bottom line is that injuries from a truck accident tend to be much more severe than those from crashes involving two passenger cars or even crashes involving a passenger car and a pedestrian. The medical bills tend to be much higher, and months and even years of missed income can result.
The trucker might be employed by a large, multistate commercial trucking company or even an international conglomerate represented by a large legal team experienced in protecting the company from liability.
At Ramey & Hailey, we’ve learned over the years that truck accident victims not only need legal help, they are going to need a whole different level of help!
