On average, a fully loaded commercial heavy truck weighs about 40 tons, around 25 times the weight of an ordinary car. You can only imagine the kind of damage it does to the passengers of a regular motor vehicle during a collision.
Those unlucky enough to be involved in an accident with an 18-wheeler truck often suffer from minor to serious injuries, as well as emotional trauma caused not just by the accident itself, but the financial constraints that come from recovery and having to take time away from work. In addition, funerals have to be arranged for those who passed away from the accident.
All this puts an incredible amount of strain your physical, emotional, and mental well-being, making it difficult to recover and resume your daily life.
We at Barrus Injury Lawyers know just how difficult the road to health and recovery is for individuals injured because of trucking accidents. This is why our truck accident lawyers and 18 wheeler accident attorneys are committed to helping ease the burden off our clients’ shoulders, taking care of the complex legal processes involved in making a claim for personal injury and wrongful death, getting you the financial relief needed for full recovery.
Here are some factors to consider when gathering evidence to build your case.
Understand that More than One Party May Be Liable for the Accident
Knowing the parties at fault during your accident is critical to knowing who to pursue in your case. This is important, as accidents involving 18-wheller trucks are complex, with several factors involved behind the crash. If there are multiple parties involved, insurance companies will have to work with your legal counsel to distribute equal parts of the blame. It will be tricky, but with a competent lawyer, you’ll have an easier time.
The parties liable for your injuries and loss likely won’t do anything to compensate you for what happened. Only when you take the necessary steps and file a lawsuit, all while making sure every aspect of your claim is backed with evidence, can you expect to receive the compensation you’re legally entitled to.
However, providing proof is easier said than done, as it means putting a monetary value to all your injuries, trauma, and losses. There aren’t exactly any rules on putting a figure to your injuries and grief, but we still recommend playing it safe and avoiding making over-inflated claims.
This is where the services of a skilled San Antonio 18-wheeler accident lawyer will prove useful, as only someone who understands the law can put a number to injuries and fatalities resulting from truck accidents.
But even without a lawyer, it’s possible to do a preliminary investigation of the accident. You can identify parties who could be liable for the accident. These can include cargo loaders, route planners, and the trucking companies themselves.
However, if you’re recovering from injuries incurred during the accident, it’s highly unlikely you’ll have the time to do all that on your own. Again, a skilled San Antonio truck accident lawyer will prove invaluable in this situation; otherwise, you could miss an opportunity to maximize your compensation from all responsible parties.
And do note that your opponents will also conduct their own investigations, and given their resources, theirs just might be more thorough than yours. The last thing you want is for them to shift the blame to you, which is possible. We’ve seen insurance companies get away without paying deserving injured parties anything.
Turn to the Experts
The legal team at Barrus Injury Lawyers has several years of combined experience dealing with San Antonio heavy truck accidents. This has given us in-depth knowledge on how to find, secure, document, and present solid evidence to back your personal injury or wrongful death claims. We know the best course of action to take when investigating an accident involving you and a heavy truck, and that includes getting the necessary photos and measurements of the scene in order to establish liability. For example, the specific distances between impact points and skid marks are critical to proving whether the truck driver or the injured party applied their brakes.
Small pieces of evidence such as fragments of rubber tire can be important to establishing liability, and our lawyers know how and where to get the forensic teams to investigate the scene and pin down just who was liable for the accident. We can take care of collecting reports from first responders, witnesses to the crash scene, and any videos and photographs that might have recorded the accidence. We can also analyze and if necessary, impound vehicles involved in the accident to get the necessary evidence in the case.
Swiftness and Accuracy is Key to Collecting Evidence
Acting quickly is critical to securing and preserving any evidence found at the scene of the accident and from any vehicles involved. You don’t settle for just finding any evidence. It needs to be relevant and acceptable in the court of law, preserved, and strong enough to convince a jury to support your claims. After an accident, every second that passes risks the chance of your case changing. As time passes, authorities must work quickly to clear the accident scene and get traffic flowing, something that can alter, and even destroy evidence. And with all the chaos happening, an opportunity can present itself for liable drivers to tamper with, or remove critical evidence.
Act now. Contact Barrus Injury Lawyers to get the assistance of skilled and experience accident lawyers to win your case. Call our legal team at (210) 593-8709 to set a free, no-obligation consultation, or click here to set up a free consultation<./a>.
Our San Antonio personal injury law firm has experience with a wide variety of cases, if you need a car accident lawyer, motorcycle accident lawyer, bus accident lawyer, dog bite lawyer, wrongful death lawyer, medical malpractice lawyer, or a slip and fall lawyer, contact us today.
