Florida Truck Accident Lawyer for Semi and Commercial Truck Collisions

According to a recent report, over 4,000 people lost their lives in truck accidents in 2020. Most of the victims are small vehicle occupants. The rest are pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists.

In addition, more than 100,000 people are severely or catastrophically injured from collisions with tractor trailers, 18-wheelers, and other large trucks.

Serious accidents involving large commercial trucks increase despite federal legislation requiring fewer hours on the road for drivers and mandating more frequent rest periods.

Truck accident victims can quickly run up enormous bills for medical care and therapy while also suffering long-term disabilities that significantly reduce their earning capacity.

That’s why you should hire a Florida truck accident lawyer. An experienced lawyer knows how to help you collect the financial compensation you need to get your life back on track.

Call Denmon Pearlman at 800-800-4300 for a free consultation with a Florida Truck Accident Lawyer to explore your legal options. We won’t charge anything unless we win!

What Causes Truck Accidents?

Driving a large truck is not easy, whether it’s barreling down the highway or making its way through bumper-to-bumper city traffic.

That’s why federal and state laws require training and licensing for all commercial drivers. Unfortunately, many trucking companies don’t follow the rules. These are the most common driver errors caused by trucking accidents:

Some truck accidents are caused by the negligence of passenger car drivers. They often underestimate the difficulty for trucks to suddenly stop or change direction.

Other truck accidents are caused by the negligence of trucking companies that cut corners on safety to put more money in their pockets. For example:

To collect the large sum of money necessary to compensate catastrophically injured victims of truck accidents, you should thoroughly investigate every aspect of the accident to determine all the factors that contributed to the crash.

When you hire an experienced Florida truck accident attorney, they’ll leave no stone unturned and hold all the negligent parties accountable.

Types of Truck Crashes

Truck accidents can be complicated, so it’s essential to understand who’s responsible for an accident and what injuries are likely for a particular type of crash. These are the most common types of truck accident scenarios:

Rear-End Collisions

Rear accidents occur when a truck follows the vehicle in front of them too closely and can’t stop in time. The heavy impact rear-end collision can cause severe neck injuries, back injuries, and other physical injuries.

Jackknife Crashes

Jackknife crashes occur when a truck driver forcefully applies the brakes, causing the axle to lock up and the trailer to skid into a position 90 degrees from the tractor, with the driver losing control of the vehicle. When this happens on the highway, multiple impacts, fires, and explosions are likely.

Rollover Accidents

Rollover accidents can be extremely deadly, especially for unrestrained vehicle occupants and truck drivers. They are often caused by the following factors:

Head-on Collisions

Head-on collisions cause a large percentage of fatalities and fatal injuries due to the heaviness of the impact and the momentum when two vehicles hit head-on.

Runaway Truck Accidents

Runaway truck accidents usually occur when a truck is driving on a downward slope, and the driver loses the ability to stop or control the speed due to a faulty brake.

It’s important to understand the physics that causes truck accidents and injuries. That way, you can collect the most considerable amount of money for damages.

An experienced Florida truck accident lawyer can help you articulate this scenario to strengthen your case.

Different Truck Accident Cases We Handle

If you’re wondering whether we can take your truck accident case, we have helped many clients who had these types of truck accident cases:

Semi-Truck Accidents

Commercial truck drivers who lack training can cause semi-truck accidents due to poor judgment.

Commercial Truck Accidents

Commercial vehicles are designed to haul heavy loads. As a result, they are prone to commercial vehicle accidents due to loss of control at high speeds.

Tractor Trailer Accidents

18-wheelers carrying heavy loads at high speeds are prone to fatal truck accidents such as jackknife collisions and rollovers.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to give us a call. Our truck accident lawyers turn to their years of experience to determine the best course of action for your specific case.

Steps to Take Following a Truck Accident in Florida

With regard to any automobile accident, you should call 911 for help immediately. As you’re waiting for an ambulance and the police to arrive, here are the next steps you should take for your safety and create your truck accident claim:

Seek Medical Care

Don’t refuse medical care from paramedics and first responders at the accident scene. Getting checked at a hospital for potential injuries is crucial because some wounds aren’t noticeable until days or even weeks after the accident. Furthermore, getting medical treatment reduces the chance of insurance providers rejecting your personal injury claim.

Get Information From the Truck Driver

Don’t leave the accident scene until you get the truck driver’s contact information, license number, vehicle registration, and insurance information. It’s also important to get the name of the truck company and gather information about the cargo.

Collect Evidence From the Scene

Collecting evidence from the accident scene is crucial for your personal injury claim. Even though it might not be entirely possible for you to collect evidence when you’re injured, do your best the gather the following information:

What Damages Can Victims Collect?

Truck accident victims are entitled to collect economic and non-economic damages and sometimes punitive damages. Economic damages are compensation for the calculable costs and losses that result from an accident, including the following:

In addition to these quantifiable costs, it’s also possible to make a claim against the responsible parties for the intangible experience of your injuries, including pain and suffering, mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of consortium, and disfigurement.

In rare cases, punitive damages may be awarded if the defendant’s actions were intentional and egregious such as intentionally sending a driver out in a truck with faulty brakes.

When you hire an experienced Florida truck accident lawyer, you significantly increase your chances of collecting the money you need to get your life back.

Common Truck Accident Injuries

Due to the heavyweight and heft of large commercial vehicles such as tractor-trailers and 18-wheelers, the injuries sustained by occupants of passenger cars, pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists can be severe. These are the most common types of injuries from truck accidents:

Head Injuries

Rollovers, jackknife accidents, and head-on collisions with large trucks often cause traumatic brain injuries (TMIs) that impair physical and mental functioning.

Back and Neck Injuries

High-impact collisions with trucks can cause spinal cord injuries (SCIs) that result in paralysis from the area of the injury downward, such as paraplegia or quadriplegia. Injuries this severe often lead to permanent disability.

Fractures

Broken bones and bone fractures often require multiple surgeries to repair and require inserting appliances to hold the bones and joints in place.

Amputations

Traumatic amputations are when a limb is severed as a direct result of an accident. It’s possible to reattach the limb as long as it’s in good condition and the procedure is done promptly. Surgical amputation is when the limb is so badly damaged that it must be removed. In either case, prosthetics can often restore a great deal of function. We know how painful it could be. We have a team of expert amputation injury lawyers to help you get the justice you deserve.

Lacerations

Deep and jagged cuts can cause permanent disfigurement and require expensive plastic surgery.

Internal Injuries

Internal injuries sometimes require immediate surgery at a Level 1 trauma center.

Burns

Severe burns from fires and explosions during a crash require immediate treatment, such as skin grafts, plastic surgery, and other long-term follow-up care.

It’s not always possible to know how serious an injury is immediately after an accident. That’s why it’s crucial to seek medical attention right after a crash. A medical professional will run C-scans and MRIs to check for potentially life-threatening internal injuries or head injuries that aren’t always symptomatic.

Your top priority right after an accident is your health and the health of those around you. Once you’ve been treated, it’s best to hire an experienced Florida personal injury lawyer to hold the responsible parties accountable.

How Collecting Compensation Aids Recovery

As of 2010, health insurance companies can’t cap maximum or yearly benefits for the following essential services:

This was a tremendous improvement from the previous laws, which allowed insurance companies to cap most services. However, there are still notable omissions and gray areas that can leave injury victims stranded due to disputes over whether care or procedures are medically necessary. Such procedures include:

Most insurance policies don’t cover long-term residential care or home health care, leaving families to pay enormous out-of-pocket costs for care. Even for covered services, the cost of co-pays and deductibles can bankrupt a family that’s also lost income due to a disabled breadwinner.

Catastrophic injury victims benefit from state-of-the-art care, which isn’t always available within the HMO networks of most health insurance policies. In addition, seeking out the top specialists in the field is not feasible for most victims that rely on their health insurance to treat injuries such as amputations, paralysis, and traumatic brain injuries.

That’s why it’s important to hire an experienced Florida truck accident lawyer as soon as possible to achieve a fair settlement that will allow you to get the best possible care.

Statute of Limitations for Florida Truck Accident Cases

In Florida, you have four years from the time of the truck accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. If someone died due to a truck accident, you have two years from the time of death to file a wrongful death claim.

Why You Need a Florida Commercial Truck Accident Lawyer

The road to recovery can be long and difficult if you or somebody you love has been involved in a truck accident. But with the help of an experienced Florida truck accident lawyer, you have the best chance of regaining your physical and mental health.

Starting with a thorough and professional investigation into the cause of the truck accident, we commit to the hard work of finding all responsible parties and gathering evidence to prove their wrongdoing. Instead of worrying about the paperwork piling up on your desk, you can hand it over to your attorney for processing.

As soon as you work with our legal team, you can rest assured and begin focusing on healing. Call Denmon Pearlman Law Firm to schedule an appointment for a free consultation with a Florida truck accident lawyer. We have offices in Tampa, New Port Richey, St. Petersburg, and Brooksville.

Frequently Asked Questions