Quirk Accident & Injury Attorneys, APC, fights for the rights of victims injured in rear-end truck accidents caused by careless truck drivers. Our skilled truck accident lawyers offer a free case consultation to all injured victims. Contact our office to schedule a confidential case review as soon as possible. There’s also no obligation to you or your family for this meeting. It’s a great opportunity to find out how to hold truck drivers and their employers 100% responsible for your injury hardships.
Do I Need a Lawyer After Getting Rear-Ended by a Big Rig?
If an accident involving a semi-truck or delivery van only results in vehicle damage and/or very minor injuries, you can usually handle your accident claim yourself. But if your accident was caused by a careless truck driver and a more serious injury resulted, like a broken bone, a neck or back injury, or head trauma, you should speak to a lawyer about your case.
A collision caused by a reckless truck driver could leave the driver’s commercial truck insurance involved. The driver’s employer may also have to provide insurance coverage and support. Insurance adjusters and lawyers for trucking companies will fight you over who was to blame and how serious your injury is. You can use the help to make sure a truck insurance company doesn’t get away with providing you with zero support or far less than you need to make a full recovery. With a lawyer’s assistance, you can often earn much more in an injury settlement than you would have on your own.
Rear-End Truck Accidents Dangers in Thousand Oaks
Unfortunately, a rear-end collision involving a big rig or van rarely ends with just a fender bender. Smaller cars and SUVs can be crushed. Victims can end up trapped underneath a truck that sits higher than most other vehicles. Injured occupants may need to wait until they can be cut from their vehicles so they can receive medical attention.
These accidents happen every year along busy routes like Highway 23 and Wilbur Road. According to California’s Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS) reports that Thousands Oaks was the scene of at least 15 truck accidents involving injury in 2023, leaving at least 25 victims injured. That was a jump from 2022 statistics when there were 10 serious truck accidents documented, leading to 15 injured victims.
Many of these accidents involve rear-end collisions because while it takes heavy trucks a long time to get up to speed, it also takes them a long time to slow down. Drivers must pay attention to lights changing red, obstacles in the road, and traffic jams to have a chance to hit the brakes in time to prevent devastating rear-end crashes.
These are just a few of the common human-error related causes of rear-end truck accidents:
- Distracted Truck Drivers: Truck Drivers looking at cell phones or radio dials and not watching traffic lights or a traffic slowdown ahead. With their heavy loads, they might not have the space to brake to avoid a devastating rear-end impact.
- Construction Rear-End Accidents: Construction zones on major thoroughfares like Highway 101 can bring traffic to a standstill suddenly. Delivery drivers not paying attention can fail to stop in time to steer clear of a crushing impact.
- Speeding Truck Drivers: Truck drivers can be going way too fast for the loads they carry. This gives the driver even less time to react to an obstacle ahead and less of a window to hit the brakes to avoid a crash.
- Dropping Payloads: Many trucks on the highway will be from local farms and orchards. Unsecured produce and other items can end up on the road when drivers start to veer or make quick turns. These items can result in drivers in cars and SUVs taking dangerous maneuvers to avoid a crash, thus causing other collisions or a run into a ditch. Truck drivers and farm owners should be held financially accountable.
How Can a Lawyer Help Me After a Truck Accident?
California personal injury laws allow victims to file insurance claims and lawsuits against the insurers for truck drivers and against the businesses sending them out on the road. But these businesses and commercial truck insurance companies will fight back against having to take the blame. They may blame you, or claim your injury isn’t all that bad. This leaves you to pay for all or a large percentage of your medical care and to make up for the income lost while you can’t work.
Your lawyer safeguards your claim against these tactics. Your Thousand Oaks Truck Accident Lawyer fully investigates what happened to you and also looks into the safety record of the driver and the company. Your lawyer gathers all the evidence and then files a claim that insurance companies will have a hard time brushing aside. Then your attorney demands the maximum in compensation for you and your family.
Finding Support for Thousand Oaks Truck Accident Victims?
After a crash caused by a careless truck driver, your attorney submits an injury claim on your behalf. It should include a full list of the hardships you and your family have endured since the collision.
Everything included in the claim is eligible to earn compensation. But anything left off could end up as a bill your family would have to cover.
Your lawyer lists every damage you’ve suffered and backs up every claim with receipts, invoices, and hard evidence. These and other factors will determine the size of your car truck settlement check:
- Totals for current medical bills and estimates on future healthcare costs
- Lifetime support estimates for any permanent disability
- Support for the pain victims endure in crashes and through recovery
- Support for the emotional trauma caused by a major truck accident
- Support for a loss of enjoyment of life
- Support for a loss of consortium (loss of intimacy with a partner)
- Totals on the paychecks and benefits victims lost while missing work hours
- Money for car repairs or replacement
- Wrongful death benefits for families who lose a loved one in a truck accident
Some truck accidents carry enough force to cause the tragic loss of life. California permits the families left behind to file wrongful death claims against truck insurance companies and seek justice and support for what happened. Close relatives should receive help with paying funeral costs and covering any medical expenses left behind. The family must also count on help in the future when the income the deceased may have provided is no longer available.
A Thousand Oaks Fatal Truck Accident Lawyer can file wrongful death claims on behalf of all family members. A lawyer would make sure a truck driver and trucking company were held accountable and ensure the family was protected from financial harm in the future.
Contact a Thousand Oaks Rear-End Truck Accident Lawyer
Schedule a free case review with our Thousand Oaks Truck Accident Lawyers here at Quirk Accident & Injury Attorneys, APC. We can talk about what happened, how it happened, and how it has affected you or your loved one. After that, we will go over all of the legal options available to you and your family.
There’s no obligation for your case consultation and it’s completely confidential. You should also rest assured that you won’t have to worry about having the money to pay us if you need our help. We don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement a truck insurance company must pay you.