The result of two objects coming together, one of which is your car and the other of which is something that weighs tens of thousands of pounds, is not going to be a good result. And you don’t have to be a physicist or a scientist to understand that if a tractor-trailer hits you in your little car or your SUV or your minivan, you and your family are going to be seriously hurt or killed.
There are a whole set of complicated federal regulations and you need an attorney that knows the federal regulatory system inside and out, and knows how to develop a tractor-trailer case. Federal Laws regulate how many hours they are allowed to drive so many truckers keep two sets of logbooks. One set is the driving time that they get paid for. The other logbook is the driving time they show the state troopers, or they show the federal regulators, or they show the truck stop operator.
The equipment, the rig, how often it has to be inspected, how it has to be maintained – those are all things that are regulated by the federal government. Often, we will do a case and we will come to find out the load was improperly put on the truck, the brakes were not maintained properly and failed, all kinds of other things.
There are also regulations concerning how the trucks are to be labeled, the type of signs that are supposed to be on them so you can see them at night. That’s all regulated as well. And last, but not least, it’s important to know that the regulations affect the way a driver is trained and the type of investigation that must be conducted before you hire a truck driver. And it’s not enough just to say, “Do you have a truck driver’s license?” look at it and say, “Okay, you’re hired.” They have to administer tests, perform background checks and most good companies will actually do alcohol and drug screening.
Gathering evidence is crucial. Most of those trucks have black boxes, and those black boxes record exactly what happened in the accident that hurt you and your family. If you don’t have a lawyer who gets to that black box and make sure it doesn’t disappear or destroyed, what do you think’s going to happen a few weeks down the road?
Finding out what the condition of that driver was, the condition of that truck was, you know, there’s even regulations about how those trucks are allowed to operate depending upon the type of weather.
If you’ve been injured in an accident, contact the Segal Law Firm at 855-344-9100.