Newport News Truck Accident Lawyers

Big Rig Accidents Call for Big Representation

Kalfus & Nachman PC and the team of truck accident lawyers in Newport News have a reputation for going big when working on accident claims while still giving our clients the attention that only a small firm can deliver.

While we work diligently on your case and allow you to focus on your health, we will also be going head-to-head with large trucking companies and even larger insurance corporations. After you or someone you love has been seriously injured in a truck accident, there is really no other name in Virginia that you should choose to represent you!

Schedule a no-cost case evaluation by dialing (855) 880-8163 now.

Why Do Truck Accidents Happen

Truck accidents are a constant issue on America’s highways. Based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data, a severe truck accident that causes death or a permanent injury occurs about four times every hour or approximately 100 times a day. This statistic does not even include minor truck accidents that cause more vehicular damage than physical injury.

Why are there so many truck accidents, though? What are the causes of so many tractor-trailer crashes? It might not come as a surprise, but many truck accidents can be traced back not to the negligence of the motorist in the smaller vehicle but instead to the mistakes of the truck driver and their employer, the parent trucking company.

Four of the worst yet most common causes of truck accidents are:

• Truck driver fatigue: Many truck drivers can be scheduled to work up to 14 hours a day and 70 days a week. Naturally, such long shifts lead to truck driver exhaustion, which puts everyone in danger. Fatigue will cause a trucker to have reduced reaction times, poor vehicle control, and blurred vision, assuming they do not simply fall asleep behind the wheel.
• Drug impairment: When a truck driver is fatigued, they can be tempted to use prescription medicines and over-the-counter substances to keep themselves awake. Unfortunately, the side effects of these drugs include general malaise and exaggerated exhaustion once the medicine wears off.
• Incorrectly loaded cargo: The cargo in or on the trailer of a commercial truck can drastically affect how the whole vehicle handles in transit. If the freight is not loaded correctly, it can cause braking and tipping hazards, as well as a risk of loose objects falling into the road behind the truck.
• Truck part defects: Every part of a big rig needs to be in top condition before it rolls onto the highway. Regular maintenance is usually required to check for any part issues that might cause a crash if they go unnoticed.

Trucking Company Liability After a Crash

Typically, the trucking company is the party that answers a truck accident claim, not the individual truck driver. This liability assignment is somewhat new, though. In the past, trucking companies could hire truckers are independent contractors and sidestep any liability after a truck accident because they were not “technically” the employers of the trucker who caused the crash.

Now, rules set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) allow trucking companies to be held liable for the negligence of their truckers – whether they are employees or independent contractors – through the legal concept of respondeat superior.

Proof of liability is still crucial for a truck accident claim, though. You can be certain that the responding trucking company will try to defeat your argument using any method they can manage. If you want your claim to have a stronger chance of being successful, then you should allow our Newport News truck accident attorneys to manage it, gather evidence, and construct your argument to take into settlement negotiations or litigation.

Useful evidence to use a truck accident claim includes:

• Dashcam footage
• Truck driver’s shift logs
• Trucking company’s hiring practices
• Eyewitness statements
• First responder reports
• Medical records

How We Can Investigate Your Accident

Trucking companies and their insurers fight tenaciously to defeat trucking accident claims brought against them by injured drivers in smaller vehicles because losing would hurt their wallets and reputations. To give them an honest fight in settlement negotiations or litigation, you should come prepared with a thoroughly investigated claim. Our attorneys have been going head-to-head with major insurance companies since 1979, so we know many ways to improve your claim through careful investigations and relevant sources of evidence.

Accessing important documents such as the following can help:

• Hours of service records: We will want to know if the truck driver had been on the road for an unreasonable amount of time before your crash, which would suggest they were suffering from fatigue while driving.
• Trucker’s driving history: Does the truck driver have a history of speeding, intoxication, crashes, etc.? If so, then the trucking company could be liable for allowing an unsafe trucker to haul their freight.
• Cargo manifests: Bills of lading and cargo manifests can reveal that a trailer was overloaded. Overweight trailers increase the risk of the truck tipping over or slamming into the back of stopped traffic due to brake failures.
• Maintenance logs: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations require commercial trucks to be maintained on regular schedules. If a repair or inspection was missed, then it could increase the trucker’s liability in a crash.
• Event data recorder files: Some trucks are equipped with event data recorders (EDR) that track the vehicle’s speed, throttle position, brake use, steering angle, and more. It is much like a plane’s black box, and it can be the source of powerful evidence for the claimant to utilize.

It is crucial that we gain access to these documents as soon as possible. Trucking companies can often erase or destroy records after a few weeks without legal consequence, which means the best evidence for your claim could disappear. If you retain our legal services soon after your truck accident, then we can send a letter to the trucking company to preserve all relevant records.

Always Ready to Fight for Our Clients

Our Newport News truck accident lawyers of Kalfus & Nachman PC know that trucking and insurance companies are always eager to fight back against any injury claim brought against them. Lucky for our clients, we love to fight back. When faced with a challenge, our team rises to the occasion because it is both our passion and the right thing to do for the people in our communities.

See the difference our experienced law office can do for your truck accident case. Call (855) 880-8163 or contact online.