What Makes Trucking Accident Cases Different from Car Accident Cases?
If you have been involved in a collision with a commercial truck, you might assume the legal process is similar to a car accident claim. It is not. Trucking accident cases are fundamentally different in their complexity, the number of parties involved, the regulations that apply, and the stakes involved. Understanding these differences is critical to protecting your rights.
The Severity of Injuries
A fully loaded tractor-trailer can weigh up to 80,000 pounds, compared to roughly 3,500 pounds for an average passenger vehicle. This massive weight disparity means trucking accidents disproportionately result in catastrophic injuries or death. Traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord damage, amputations, severe burns, and multiple fractures are far more common in truck collisions than in car-on-car accidents. The severity of these injuries means the damages, and therefore the stakes of litigation, are significantly higher.
Multiple Liable Parties
In a typical car accident, you are usually dealing with one other driver and their insurance company. A trucking accident can involve the truck driver, the trucking company that employed or contracted them, the company that loaded the cargo, the manufacturer of the truck or a defective component, the maintenance company responsible for servicing the truck, and the broker who arranged the shipment. Each of these parties will have separate insurance policies and legal representation, all working to minimize their own exposure.
Federal and State Regulations
The trucking industry is heavily regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). These regulations cover hours of service (limiting how long drivers can operate without rest), driver qualifications and licensing requirements, vehicle inspection, maintenance, and repair standards, drug and alcohol testing, cargo securement requirements, and electronic logging device (ELD) requirements. Violations of these regulations can be powerful evidence of negligence, but identifying and proving those violations requires an attorney who understands the regulatory framework.
The Evidence Challenge
Critical evidence in trucking cases can disappear quickly if not preserved. Electronic logging devices record hours-of-service data that can be overwritten. Event data recorders (the truck’s “black box”) capture speed, braking, and other data in the seconds before a crash, but this data has limited storage capacity. Driver logs, dispatch records, maintenance records, and drug test results are all maintained by the trucking company, and these records and documents can be lost, destroyed, or become unavailable over time if steps are not taken promptly to preserve them.
Why You Need Specialized Representation
These cases require an attorney who has the resources to hire accident reconstruction experts, trucking industry consultants, and medical specialists, the knowledge to identify every potentially liable party and every applicable regulation, the experience to manage complex, multi-party litigation, and the willingness to take cases to trial. Attorney Tobin Lanzetta handles large, multi-party trucking and transportation cases and has recovered over $200 million in total results, including a $13.82 million verdict involving a public transit vehicle.
Lanzetta Law is a national trial firm with offices in Los Angeles and Santa Fe, serving clients throughout California, New Mexico, and nationwide. If you have been injured in a trucking accident, contact us for a free consultation.
Disclaimer: The information on this page is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. Nothing on this website creates an attorney-client relationship between you and Lanzetta Law. Every case is unique, and past results do not guarantee future outcomes. If you have questions about your specific situation, please contact an attorney for a personalized consultation.