Any on-road mishap can lead to serious outcomes, but when there is a commercial truck or 18-wheeler involved, the consequences are often more severe. Unfortunately, such accidents happen frequently in Ontario, and not many people know what to do next. As with any traffic accident, you are expected to call 911, inform the police, and seek medical care. Once all that is done, you must consider calling an Ontario truck accident attorney. Engaging an attorney is a choice, but considering that truck accidents are vastly different from accidents involving passenger vehicles, it is necessary to have legal expertise. In this post, we are discussing why such accidents require more care concerning claims.
You could suffer complicated injuries
Commercial trucks can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, and because most of these vehicles are loaded to capacity, the impact of the accident can be extremely shocking. More often than not, people injured in truck accidents suffer life-altering injuries, while many end up losing their lives. There is not much you can expect from the insurance company, even though commercial trucks have higher insurance premiums. The only way you can put up a strong battle is when you have a lawyer to represent you.
Investigating truck accidents is not easy
When two passenger vehicles get involved in a crash, there are usually two outcomes – either one party was at fault, or both parties share the blame. There are not many dots that need to be connected, and that helps in finding the causal factors. That’s not the case with truck accidents, which often have to be investigated by experts. Personal injury lawyers who take up truck accident lawsuits typically need to work with accident reconstruction experts to find more details.
Finding fault can be extremely confusing
Was the truck driver drunk or exhausted? What if the truck was loaded beyond the limit? Was the vehicle appropriately serviced? What if the vehicle had a manufacturing defect? Did the trucking company hire someone with no experience in driving trucks? Many such complicated questions crop up after a truck accident, and therefore, it can be hard to determine who was at fault. Victims also fail to understand that the trucking industry is highly regulated, and therefore, aspects that don’t usually come up in passenger vehicle mishaps often affect the outcomes of truck accident claims.
Because things are so overwhelming, it is best to engage an attorney soon after getting injured in a truck accident.