Commercial trucks present unique dangers on the road not found in other vehicles. Their large size can lead to more severe injuries in accidents than other vehicles may cause. This heightened risk of serious injury can expose truck drivers and their employers to significant liability if they are found to have been negligent in causing an accident.
A New Jersey man was recently injured in a truck accident. The man was driving a box truck when he failed to stop for merging traffic. He swerved his truck into another truck, causing his vehicle to go off the road. The man’s leg was severely injured below the knee in the accident. Multiple emergency authorities were required to extract the man from the truck and a fast-acting state trooper helped stop the bleeding and possibly saved the man’s life. The man’s leg was later amputated after he was flown to a nearby hospital.
When an accident occurs involving a commercial truck, the same rules regarding liability apply as in other accidents. If the truck driver or another driver is found to have been negligent in their actions, they may be subject to liability for any damages that are incurred. To prove that a party was negligent, an injured victim must establish that certain elements were present at the time of the accident. The victim must show that the defendant owed them a duty to use proper care in their actions, failed to meet that duty, an accident occurred from that breach and the victim was injured as a result.
Many actions may evidence negligence on the part of a defendant, but commercial trucks create unique circumstances that present additional opportunities for drivers to be negligent. Trucks may jackknife due to hard turning or braking. Additionally, trucks need more room to make turns due to their large size, often requiring them to take up multiple lanes or turn from one lane to another. Although neither action is always considered negligent, a court may hold the truck driver liable if the circumstances are sufficient to establish negligence on their part.
