Posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2022 at 5:17 pm
When you’ve been injured in an accident with a commercial truck, you likely find yourself in pain and shock. It’s even worse if the accident wasn’t your fault. Many potentially liable parties exist because so many people and companies are involved in getting a commercial truck onto the road.
In a truck accident, multiple parties may be held liable, including the truck driver, the trucking company, and the company responsible for maintaining the truck. If a defect in the truck or its parts played a role in the accident, the manufacturer of the defective equipment might also be held liable. Additionally, if a third party, such as another driver, contributed to the accident, they may be liable. Ultimately, the specific circumstances of the accident will determine who can be held liable.
Identifying All Liable Parties
Most people don’t have much experience with the legal system or even the insurance claims process. After you’ve been injured in a crash with a truck, it can be confusing to figure out what to do first.
Your best bet is to hire an experienced truck accident attorney. Your attorney will know how to identify the parties responsible for your accident and how to pursue compensation from those parties. Liability is not as simple as “the truck driver was driving. It’s their fault.” Several other factors must be evaluated to determine liability.
Employer Liability for Truck Accidents
Usually, truck drivers are in the employ of a company. When they are involved in an accident while working, their employer may be liable if the truck driver’s negligence caused a crash. The driver may have exceeded their allowed Hours of Service. The employer could be responsible if the driver drove more hours than required because they wanted to make more money or because their employer pushed them to do so to make more deliveries in less time.
The employer could also be responsible if they hired inexperienced or unqualified drivers or failed to check references that might have yielded poor driving records. Employers are meant to provide adequate training for drivers on the specific trucks they use, as required. Suppose the driver was negligent while working for the employer. In that case, they acted as the employer’s agent, and the trucking company could be found liable for the injured party’s accident-related losses.
Maintenance Company Liability
Trucking companies must frequently and adequately see to the maintenance of their fleet. Sometimes, trucking companies take care of this routine maintenance in-house, but many companies contract this work to maintenance companies. If a truck accident was caused by a recent repair or by a part or system that should have received maintenance attention but was overlooked, the maintenance company could be liable for the injuries and losses.
Truck Manufacturers’ Liability for Accidents
When a manufacturer produces a truck and a trucking company buys it, the company expects the truck to operate as intended. Truck manufacturers have various layers of quality control, but sometimes a defective part falls through the cracks. If a faulty part or system on the truck causes an accident, the manufacturer of the specific part or the truck could be liable.
Third-Party Liability
If another driver caused the crash that involved the truck and the injured party’s vehicle, that person could be held liable for the resulting costs. They could be liable if the person pulled out in front of the truck and caused a pile-up or jackknife that impacted other vehicles or took another action that caused a crash.
Government Entities’ Failure to Maintain the Roads
Government agencies and municipalities must maintain streets and intersections properly. If, for example, the city failed to post signs at a dangerous turn or clean up debris that would result in a pile-up, the municipality could be liable for accidents that result. Other failures may involve:
- Unmarked detours
- Train track barriers
- Fallen electrical lines
- Broken streetlights
Contact Truck Accident Lawyers to Hold All Parties Liable
Thus, manufacturers and municipalities could be at fault for truck accidents. Your lawyer would conduct a thorough investigation, aided by police reports, witness testimony, and other evidence, to determine which parties were ultimately responsible.
If you were injured in a truck accident that wasn’t your fault, get help untangling the web of at-fault parties and their respective insurers. For decades, the Lakewood truck accident attorneys of The Law Offices of Briggs & Briggs have done that, recovering multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements for injured victims throughout Washington. Call (253) 588-6696 today for a free case evaluation.
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