Did an improperly maintained truck cause your accident?
A collision with a semi-truck often causes serious or life-threatening injuries and can completely total your vehicle. Truck accidents remain a serious problem on New York’s busy roads and highways.
There are many causes of truck accidents, many of which you probably hear about often. Driver fatigue, distracted driving, driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and speeding are common causes of truck accidents.
Trucks must also be properly and regularly maintained to keep them safe while on the road. Truck drivers have many duties and responsibilities as part of their job, and one of those is making sure their truck is always in proper working condition.
The pre-trip inspection
Truckers must always complete a pre-trip inspection before even taking their truck out onto the road. They may fail to complete this inspection if they are in a hurry or simply forget. If they are on a tight schedule, which most truckers are, they might rush through the inspection and miss something important.
A pre-trip inspection includes checking things such as tires, mirrors, cabin temperature and the windshield. The lights must be checked to make sure they all work properly, and a fire extinguisher and emergency kit should be available.
Each trucking company likely has its own specific checklist for pre-trip inspections. If the inspection shows something wrong with the truck, the driver must complete a driver vehicle inspection report. The purpose of this report is to not receive a violation during an audit.
The inspection is legally required
Doing the pre-trip inspection not only keeps the trucker and everyone else on the road safe and reduces the chance of an accident, but it also is the law. Truckers have a legal duty to take their truck on the road only if it is in safe operating condition.
If you are in an accident with a truck, but the driver appeared to be driving safely and not distracted or fatigued, the problem may lie with the truck itself.
Driving with an improperly maintained truck is negligent driving. Even if the truck initially appears to be in good working condition, a driver who did not do a pre-trip inspection could be found negligent.
What is negligence?
Negligence is failing to comply with a legal duty to drive safely and in a reasonable manner, with that failure causing an accident. Your damages after a truck accident are likely to be astronomical and include high medical bills, lost wages and potentially long-term pain and suffering.
A personal injury action for negligence could help you recover compensation after a truck accident, but it is important to understand how to prove negligence.