Seaford Truck Accident Lawyer

To find out how to recover full and fair compensation for your truck accident, get in touch with a Seaford truck crash lawyer at our firm.

Few things on the road are more terrifying than accidents involving semi-trucks. These vehicles are huge and powerful, capable of crushing most other vehicles at even moderate speeds. If the accident occurs on a freeway, the damage can be unimaginable.

You hospital bills and lost income are just the beginning of a long and expensive recovery process. Fortunately, a Seaford truck accident lawyer can help you reach a settlement deal or fight the negligent party in court. Our team at Barros, McNamara, Malkiewicz & Taylor has the experience and resources to maximize your compensation.

Causes of 18-Wheeler Accidents in Seaford

Tractor-trailer accidents can be due to the common reasons for any motor vehicle collision, but there are some reasons that are more specific to these accidents. To determine the cause of your truck accident, your truck accident lawyer in Seaford will examine the scene of the crash, the vehicles involved, maintenance histories, and the trucker’s past.

We have to identify the cause or causes in order to identify the at-fault party or parties. We can’t file a personal injury claim without someone to point to as responsible for the whole thing.

The following are some common reasons why Seaford truck wrecks occur:

  • Overly ambitious delivery schedules encourage truckers to speed, abstain from sleep, or use stimulants. We’ll scrutinize the truck driver’s records and figure out how long he or she was driving without sleep.
  • Distracted, drowsy, drunk, or drugged drivers are dangerous, especially in semi-trucks.
  • Unsecured or unbalanced cargo could cause a loss of control, or the cargo could land in the road or hit your car. These mistakes cause accidents, injuries, and deaths every year. Even something as small as ice sliding off the top of the trailer can cause serious damage.
  • Malfunctioning equipment and parts or defects in vital equipment like brakes and engines can cause serious truck accidents.
  • Mechanic, maintenance, or installer negligence can easily cause a commercial truck wreck.
  • Hazardous and dangerous road conditions, including potholes, deep dropoff shoulders, uneven lanes, and poor road markers, often cause trucking collisions.
  • Roadside construction zones and construction company negligence can lead to inadequate driving instructions, equipment left in the roadway, or bright spotlights pointed into oncoming traffic, which can cause a truck to crash into you.
  • Another vehicle could have caused the truck to swerve into you.

Fault in Seaford Truck Accidents

The commercial trucking industry is extremely complicated, so figuring out which party is at fault is sometimes difficult, but it’s crucial in a personal injury case. We have to determine where the fault lies to file any claim at all—let alone win. The fault could lie with the trucker, the government, or a construction company, among other parties.

The following are some common at-fault parties in Seaford trucking accidents:

  • Truck drivers or owners
  • Trucking companies
  • Cargo loaders
  • Part manufacturers or distributors
  • Mechanics and installers
  • Construction companies
  • Government road authorities
  • The driver of another involved vehicle

Many times, an accident is the fault of more than one person, business, or government entity. Identifying all of them will help your claim and hold the right people accountable, providing justice for all victims, including yourself.

Truck Accidents and the Injuries They Cause

Because accidents involving large trucks are so destructive, the injuries they inflict are generally far more severe than those in a standard car accident. Cars are often crushed in these accidents, and the people inside are often seriously injured. We’ll correspond with your doctors to verify all of your injuries so each one is accounted for in your claim for compensation.

The following are some injuries common to semi-truck wrecks in Seaford:

  • Head and face injuries involving traumatic brain injuries or disfigurement
  • Neck, back, and spinal trauma involving paralysis or chronic pain
  • Broken bones
  • Severed limbs
  • Organ damage
  • Internal bleeding
  • Severe burns
  • Emotional trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder

Seaford Truck Crash Compensation

Assessing the value of your accident, injuries, and damages is relatively straightforward when dealing with economic losses like hospital bills and lost income, but it’s much harder to put a dollar amount on your ability to walk or adequately express emotions. A qualified Seaford 18-wheeler crash lawyer can estimate the value of each of your damages, including the non-economic ones.

You could receive compensation for the following damages, among others:

  • Immediate and ongoing wage losses and medical expenses
  • Disability accommodations made to your home, car, and workplace
  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of companionship, consortium, and care
  • Damage to your vehicle
  • Punitive damages
  • Wrongful death

Insurance Company Tactics

Dealing with insurance adjusters and defense attorneys is exhausting and time-consuming, especially for those who have been seriously injured in a truck crash. The other side will do everything it can to avoid paying out anything at all.

Trucking company insurers want to save their bottom line at the expense of your health and your family’s financial wellbeing. Insurance adjusters will twist your statements to police or insurance companies as much as they can to condemn you. Fortunately, a Seaford semi-truck crash lawyer can make sure you don’t fall victim to these dishonest tactics.

Understanding Shared Negligence

One Delaware policy the other side will almost always try to take advantage of is modified comparative negligence. This is a rule that allows you to file a lawsuit even if you’re partially at fault—up to 50 percent at fault—but your compensation will be reduced by the same percentage.

Under this rule, placing blame on you helps lower the profit losses for the insurer or trucking company because it keeps you from your full and fair compensation. If you were to win, for example, $1 million but were judged to be 30 percent at fault for your Seaford truck accident, then you would only be granted $700,000—30 percent less than the total award.

Statute of Limitations

Cases involving massive trucking companies can take longer than others. They have huge amounts of money, skilled investigators, and clever attorneys that can slow the process down or leave you with little compensation when it’s all over.

Your bills don’t stop just because you’re in the hospital or stuck at home recuperating, so time is important. You need to hurry to beat Delaware’s two-year statute of limitations. Missing this deadline would render your claim invalid, but a qualified lawyer can make sure everything is filed correctly and on time.

Connect with a Seaford Semi-Truck Accident Attorney

To overcome all these obstacles and get the most compensation possible, you may need to consult with a lawyer who knows the local legal players and is experienced with your type of situation. We can help you get what your family needs to remain financially stable.

Our team of qualified attorneys at Barros, McNamara, Malkiewicz & Taylor has in-depth experience with truck accident cases, and we can apply that experience to your case. To schedule a free, no-obligation case consultation with a Seaford truck accident lawyer, call us at 302-734-8400 or fill out the online contact form at the bottom of this page.