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Cave Creek is a relatively safe place to drive, but once you leave the town, you are driving in one of the riskiest metropolitan areas in the U.S. According to one study, Phoenix ranks sixth on the list of most dangerous cities to drive. In 2022, over 71% of Arizona’s crashes happened in Maricopa County.
Arizona had over 14,750 heavy truck crashes in 2022. These crashes killed over 150 motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. They also caused over 3,500 injuries. The financial and human costs to these accident victims were immeasurable.
Under Arizona law, you can pursue financial compensation when a trucking company or one of its drivers negligently injures you.
The Cave Creek truck accident lawyers at Torgenson Law have over 20 years of combined legal experience fighting trucking companies, insurance companies, and sureties on behalf of accident victims. Contact us to learn how we can help with your personal injury case.
The liability for truck accidents arises from negligence law. To prove a truck accident claim, your Cave Creek truck accident attorneys must prove four elements.
The duty of care applies to every road user. Truck drivers, like all motorists, must exercise reasonable care when driving. Drivers must exercise the caution and prudence of an ordinary person in the same situation. They must also avoid risks that unreasonably expose other road users to injury or death.
Trucking companies also owe a duty of care to operate their businesses with reasonable prudence and care. As a result, they must satisfy their duty of care in managing their drivers and trucks and ensuring they are fit to operate on Cave Creek’s roads.
Trucking companies breach the duty of care by exposing road users to unreasonable risks. Your lawyer can prove this breach of duty in a few ways. First, your lawyer can show the truck driver or trucking company violated a safety law.
For example, a truck driver who runs a red light creates liability for their employer for the resulting crash.
Second, we can prove that the truck driver or trucking company did something unreasonably dangerous, even if it was legal.
For example, a trucking company might have reliable information that a driver is using drugs or alcohol. If it fails to administer a drug or alcohol test or discuss the situation with the driver, it has probably breached its duty of care.
This element prevents accident victims from seeking compensation when they have not suffered any physical or mental injuries. If you’ve suffered an injury in your crash, you will have economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages encompass the financial effects of your crash injuries. Non-economic damages cover all the ways your injuries eroded your quality of life.
Causation is the factual and legal link between the other party’s breach and your damages. The breach must logically and factually fall within the sequence of events that ended with your injury.
The breach must also constitute an act or omission that could reasonably and foreseeably result in an injury. The truck driver and trucking company do not need to foresee the accident or injuries you suffered.
Instead, a claims adjuster or jury must be persuaded that a reasonably prudent person in the same situation would have known there was a reasonable likelihood that the action or omission could injure someone.
Truck accidents are more complicated than car accidents for a few reasons. First, trucks can weigh up to 80,000 pounds without obtaining additional permits.
When 40 tons hits your vehicle, it can cause severe injuries. The diagnosis, treatment, and therapy you need can present complex issues, particularly when we need doctors to predict future needs and functional losses.
Second, trucking companies need hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance or surety bonds. As a result, many companies have several insurers and sureties that must step up after an accident. Sorting out which of these companies will pay your claim can present complex issues.
Third, trucking companies must comply with federal and state trucking regulations. They must also document their compliance.
For example, they must maintain hours of service records, maintenance and repair records, and drug and alcohol test results. Sometimes, we need to gather records from the trucking companies to determine what happened and who bears responsibility.
In many situations, trucking companies, insurance companies, and sureties are reluctant to release these documents. We may need to file a lawsuit and request them during the discovery phase before we can see the full picture.
Torgenson Law has been fighting on behalf of truck crash victims for over 10 years. Our knowledgeable and experienced attorneys can sort through the complexities of your truck accident case and develop a legal strategy to pursue fair compensation for your injuries.
Every truck collision involves different injuries and affects victims’ lives in unique ways. You can seek compensation for your economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses represent the financial toll of your injuries, including:
We will document your economic losses using your financial records. Paystubs, doctor’s bills, and credit card statements can help us prove how much your injuries cost.
Non-economic losses represent the diminishment in your quality of life due to your injuries. These losses do not have a price tag. Instead, they try to capture all the negative ways your life changed after your injuries. Examples of non-economic losses include:
The claims adjuster or jury will select a fair value for your non-economic losses based on the severity and duration of your injuries. Severe injuries, like brain damage or amputation, will cause greater non-economic losses. Likewise, permanent injuries will have a bigger impact on your life than temporary injuries.
The fault for a truck accident is determined by applying negligence law to the facts of your case. The trucking company can bear the fault for an accident in two primary ways.
First, the trucking company is vicariously liable for the negligence of its employees. Thus, the liability for a driver’s negligence falls on their employer. Similarly, the liability for a trucking company employee who repaired the brakes or loaded the trailer will fall on the employer.
The doctrine of vicarious liability applies to the actions of individuals in the company, but the company can also be liable for its own negligent actions. This liability can arise from the company’s policies and practices, including:
In short, you can pursue a claim against a trucking company if it acted negligently in any of its operations, and we can make a causal connection between the negligence and your injuries.
For example, suppose that a company has a policy of encouraging drivers to violate the hours of service rules by driving for more hours than permitted under federal law. If your truck crash happened when a fatigued driver lost control of their truck, you may have a claim against the trucking company.
Trucking companies will be the primary party responsible for trucking accidents. Even when a crash results from negligent driving, trucking companies are vicariously liable for the acts of their employees.
Thus, truck drivers who are employees of a trucking company will not be personally responsible for crashes they cause through negligent driving. Instead, the liability will fall on their employers.
Conversely, truck drivers who act as independent contractors will incur liability for the owner-operator’s business.
These two options are not necessarily exclusive. The trucking company may share liability for the crash with an independent contractor, but we must show some connection between the trucking company and the cause of the crash.
Many trucking companies have in-house mechanics responsible for maintenance and repair, but many others outsource these responsibilities to independent repair shops. If a repair shop negligently maintains or repairs the company’s trucks, it may bear some or all liability for the resulting crashes.
Drivers and trucking companies are responsible for checking their cargo to ensure it has been loaded and secured correctly.
Specifically, the weight of a load must be distributed correctly to prevent an imbalance that could make the trailer difficult to control. The cargo must also be secured so it does not shift during transport.
If a shipper loaded a trailer incorrectly, they may share liability for any ensuing crash. Even though the driver and carrier must check the load, the shipper must still exercise reasonable care when loading the cargo.
Although liability usually falls on trucking companies, their insurers and sureties will pay compensation to the victims. Under federal law, trucking companies must carry at least $750,000 in insurance and surety bonds to pay for deaths, injuries, property damage, and environmental damage caused by their trucks.
Companies that carry oil or hazardous materials must carry up to $5 million in insurance and surety bonds.
An insurance policy is a contract between a policyholder and an insurer. When the policyholder incurs a liability due to a covered event, the insurer agrees to pay the damages up to the preset policy limit.
A surety bond is similar to an insurance policy, but after a surety pays damages to victims, the policyholder must reimburse it.
If you incur $200,000 in losses due to a truck crash, the trucking company might have $100,000 in insurance and $650,000 in surety bonds to pay you. The trucking company will not need to repay any amounts paid by the insurer, but it will need to repay the sureties.
Like all states, Arizona has a statute of limitations that sets a deadline to file a lawsuit. However, there are scenarios where the statute of limitations may differ. As a result, you should speak to a lawyer as soon as possible after you get injured or a loved one dies in a truck crash.
Truck accidents happen for many reasons. Due to their size and the skill required to operate them, they are more sensitive to mechanical breakdowns and road conditions. They are also harder to control and maneuver than smaller vehicles. There are several common causes of truck crashes.
Speeding includes exceeding the speed limit and traveling too fast for road or weather conditions and is a leading cause of truck crashes. It increases the risk that the driver will lose control of the truck. Speeding trucks are harder to stop and can roll over on curves or turns.
The energy of a crash also increases with speed. As a result, speeding trucks will often cause more severe injuries in a collision than trucks traveling at the speed limit.
Roughly 10% of large truck crashes happen due to equipment failures. Large trucks are complex machines, and any failure can cause drivers to lose control. Common mechanical problems that can disable a truck include:
Equipment failures can also lead to other problems that cause crashes. For example, broken cargo tie-downs may allow the load to shift, causing the truck to drop its load on the road or roll over.
Truck drivers face the same temptations as other drivers to multitask while driving. But any activity that takes the driver’s hands, eyes, or mind off driving can lead to an accident. Activities that interfere with safe driving include:
Truck drivers also routinely travel to unfamiliar locations. They can become distracted trying to find their way to their destination.
The massive forces generated in truck collisions are transferred to your body. These forces can cause severe injuries.
Your bones can fracture as your body bends and twists during a collision. Bones can also break from an impact on your seat belt, steering wheel, dashboard, or door.
Broken bones may require surgery if the bone fragments are displaced after fracturing. Once your doctor realigns the pieces of bone, you may need anywhere from six weeks to over a year to heal.
A brain injury from a truck crash can cause a range of physical, cognitive, and emotional symptoms. You might experience clumsiness, headache, and confusion after a minor concussion. Serious brain injuries can cause permanent brain damage, coma, or death.
Your spinal cord carries almost all the signals between your brain and body. A severed spinal cord will cause total and permanent paralysis below the level of the injury. A compressed spinal cord can cause pain, weakness, numbness, tingling, and loss of coordination below the injury.
Truck crashes in Cave Creek can cause catastrophic injuries. Huge trucking companies and their insurers and sureties can compound your problems by delaying and denying your injury claim.
The Cave Creek truck accident attorneys at Torgenson Law have decades of experience fighting for accident victims. The firm provides loyal and honest representation to every client. Contact us to learn how we can help you with your truck accident claim.
