Truck accidents can happen for many of the same reasons as regular auto accidents, but operating a truck safely is much more complicated than driving a car. The slightest error or problem with the truck can quickly lead to an unrecoverable situation and a devastating big rig accident. Many factors can lead to a truck accident. Determining the cause of the accident is an important part of determining who was responsible for your accident so you can get the compensation you need and deserve.

Common Causes of Truck Accidents

Semi truck accidents are often the result of one or a combination of the following:

• Driver fatigue
• Poor weather conditions
• Poorly maintained truck
• Defective truck
• Improperly loaded truck
• Defective roadway
• Speeding
• Intoxication
• Unrealistic schedules
• Recklessness of other drivers

Driver Fatigue

Driver fatigue is a factor in about 40% of all trucking accidents. It can be the primary cause of an accident, such as when a truck driver falls asleep at the wheel. It can also contribute to an accident when other factors are involved due to reduced response time or impaired judgment. An alert driver has a better chance of reacting quickly and appropriately to emergencies such as a tire blowout or being cut off by another driver, and may be able to avoid an accident.

Defective or Poorly Maintained Truck

A mechanical problem with a big rig can easily cause an unavoidable and catastrophic accident. Defective parts or a poorly maintained truck can both lead to equipment failure including brake failure, tire blowout, and more.

Improperly Loaded Truck

Proper truck loading means a balanced load that is well secured and within the weight limit that the truck can safely carry. An unbalanced load can make the truck impossible to handle. A load that is not secured properly can shift, even if it stays contained inside the truck, causing the truck to go out of control and rollover. Too much weight can cause mechanical problems, or difficulty handling and braking the truck.

You pay your premiums every month in the hopes that you never need to make a claim. Hopefully the other driver has insurance, too. Whether you are trying to collect on your own policy or the policy of the other driver who caused your accident, you may face many hurdles when dealing with the insurance company. An experienced auto accident attorney can help you collect the compensation that you need and deserve.

Why Insurance Companies Try Not To Pay

Insurance companies cannot profit if they have to pay out for everyone who purchases a policy. Insurance is a gamble on your part and the insurance company’s part. The insurance company will do everything they can to minimize how much they have to pay out in claims.

Denying Your Claim

One way that the insurance company may try not to pay is by outright denial of your claim. This is especially common in low impact accidents causing soft tissue injuries. When there is little or no damage to the vehicles involved in the crash, it is easier to persuade a jury that your injuries could not be severe.

Delaying Your Claim

Another tactic that the insurance company may use is to delay your claim. By delaying your claim the odds that your injuries will improve before the case goes to court increase, meaning that you will appear less sympathetic to the jury.

Delaying your claim can also wear you down. You need the money they owe you in order to get on with your life, repair your vehicle, pay medical bills, and often to pay other bills that accumulate while you are injured and out of work.

Underpaying Your Claim

The insurance company may offer you far less than you deserve. It may do this very early in the process, knowing that you do not yet realize how much the accident will actually cost and hoping that you will just take the money and let them off the hook.

It may wait until after it has delayed your claim to the point that you are desperate for any kind of payment and fear that turning down even a pittance will result in getting no compensation at all.

Defective Equipment

Seat belts, airbags, and child restraints are supposed to prevent injuries and death in auto accidents. Most people use them because they are required by law, even if they do not believe that they will actually protect them. Unfortunately, when these safety devices are defective they not only fail to offer protection, they can cause serious and fatal injuries in accidents where injuries would not have occurred at all.

Defective Seat Belts

Seat belts can be defective or malfunction in many ways including:

• Excess slack caused by retractor failure or window shade device
• Unintentional unlatching caused by faulty internal mechanism in the buckle or a protruding release button
• Automatic shoulder straps resulting in all of the force going to the neck and head
• Door mounted seat belts causing ejection injuries
• When a seat belt fails it can make it appear as if you were not wearing your seat belt at all, potentially hurting your case.

Defective Airbags

Defective airbags can cause very serious injuries, including:

• Eye injuries
• Eye socket injuries
• Brain injury
• Chemical burns
• Death

When an airbag deploys unnecessarily it can cause an accident. Airbag malfunctions can include:

• Failure to deploy
• Deploying when there is no accident
• Deploying with too much force
• Improperly filtered gases
• Defective Child Safety Seats

A defective car seat or child safety seat can injure or kill your child even if you are not involved in a crash. Some common car seat defects include:

• Inadequate or confusing instructions leading to improper installation
• Separation of seat from base causing the seat to launch
• Area where seat belt attaches to car seat bending or breaking causing seat to launch
• Shoulder straps that come loose or unclip during an accident
• Inadequate padding
• Poor shell design
• Inadequate support allowing the child to slide down too far in the seat
• Buckle failure
• Harness failure
• Handle failure injuring child when car seat is used as a carrier

When a defective roadway causes an auto accident, it can appear that you or the other driver was at fault. Determining the cause of your accident is very important so that you can receive the compensation that you deserve, and in some cases to absolve you from blame for the accident. Unfortunately, you cannot rely on the investigation conducted by law enforcement or insurance companies to reveal an underlying cause such as a roadway defect. An experienced auto accident lawyer recognizes the signs of this type of accident and will conduct a thorough investigation.

Common Roadway Defects

Some examples of roadway defects that can cause an accident include:

• Malfunctioning traffic signal
• Lack of traffic signal or stop sign
• Inadequate or malfunctioning warning signs for potentially dangerous conditions such as construction zones or merging traffic
• Shoulder drop-off
• Inadequate notification of shoulder drop-off or soft shoulder
• Debris or object in road that have not been removed in a timely fashion
• Potholes and other road damage
• Excessive oil and/or gravel
• Poor road design
• Inadequate line striping and other lane division problems
• Known dangerous intersection that has not been modified
• Defective street light

Investigating and Proving Roadway Defects

Sometimes, when you have been involved in an accident caused by a defective roadway, you know what happened. In other cases, it only becomes apparent due to conflicting witness statements, and other less direct evidence.

Even if you and others were aware of the defect when the accident occurred, investigation must be conducted quickly, before the evidence is removed or covered up.

Although you would think that the official in charge of maintaining the roads would promptly correct hazards, some defects have a long recorded history of causing accidents that can be used to support your case. This is common with dangerous intersections, and poorly designed roadways.

In the long run, proving that your accident was caused by a defective roadway may do more than help you and your case. It can save lives.

Vehicle defects cause auto accident injuries in two ways. A defect can cause an accident, or it can cause injuries to be more severe in the event of an accident. Auto manufacturers, dealerships, parts manufacturers, and repair shops are typically the responsible parties when a defective vehicle is a factor in your auto accident. Other drivers may still be found partly responsible for your injuries, depending on the cause of the accident.

Defects That Can Cause Accidents

There many types of defects that can cause a car wreck. They may cause a single vehicle accident, a collision involving two or more vehicles, or even a pedestrian accident. Defects that can cause an accident include:

• Faulty tires
• Defective brake systems
• Defective suspension
• Faulty acceleration systems
• Defective design causing rollover
• Sensor defects causing the vehicle to respond and behave inappropriately
• A recent example of a defect that can cause an accident is the Toyota recall in which a problem with the floor mat and the gas pedal resulted in spontaneous or unwanted acceleration.

Crashworthiness Defects

Crashworthiness refers to a vehicles ability to protect occupants from injury in the event of an accident. A crashworthiness defect does not cause an accident, but it can cause injuries or make injuries more severe in the event of an accident. Examples include:

• Defective seat belts or airbags
• Poor roof crush resistance
• Faulty or poorly designed fuel delivery systems causing fuel-fed fires
• Defective door latches

Of course, some defects have the potential to cause an accident or make injuries worse in the event of an accident. For instance, some fuel system problems can cause a fire that leads to an accident or cause a fire in the event of an accident.

When a defective vehicle causes and accident, it is not always obvious and it can make it appear as though the accident was actually your fault. An experienced auto accident lawyer can determine if a defective vehicle was to blame or partly to blame for your accident, so that you can get the compensation that you need and deserve.

Seat belts, airbags, and child restraints are supposed to prevent injuries and death in auto accidents. Most people use them because they are required by law, even if they do not believe that they will actually protect them. Unfortunately, when these safety devices are defective they not only fail to offer protection, they can cause serious and fatal injuries in accidents where injuries would not have occurred at all.

Defective Seat Belts

Seat belts can be defective or malfunction in many ways including:

Excess slack caused by retractor failure or window shade device
Unintentional unlatching caused by faulty internal mechanism in the buckle or a protruding release button
Automatic shoulder straps resulting in all of the force going to the neck and head
Door mounted seat belts causing ejection injuries
When a seat belt fails it can make it appear as if you were not wearing your seat belt at all, potentially hurting your case.

Defective Airbags

Defective airbags can cause very serious injuries, including:

• Eye injuries
• Eye socket injuries
• Brain injury
• Chemical burns
• Death

When an airbag deploys unnecessarily it can cause an accident. Airbag malfunctions can include:

• Failure to deploy
• Deploying when there is no accident
• Deploying with too much force
• Improperly filtered gases

Defective Child Safety Seats

A defective car seat or child safety seat can injure or kill your child even if you are not involved in a crash. Some common car seat defects include:

• Inadequate or confusing instructions leading to improper installation
• Separation of seat from base causing the seat to launch
• Area where seat belt attaches to car seat bending or breaking causing seat to launch
• Shoulder straps that come loose or unclip during an accident
• Inadequate padding
• Poor shell design
• Inadequate support allowing the child to slide down too far in the seat
• Buckle failure
• Harness failure
• Handle failure injuring child when car seat is used as a carrier