The commercial freight industry is booming in Texas, making it a critical link in the nation’s supply chain. However, immense commercial trucks looming over smaller vehicles on Texas roadways present a significant danger to motorists. A fully loaded commercial truck outweighs an average car by about 76,000 pounds.
If you or a close family member suffered injuries in a truck accident in Laredo, you need experienced, compassionate legal representation with a strong commitment to advocating for injury victims. Call the Laredo personal injury lawyers at Wawi Tijerina Law today so we can take prompt action on your behalf. Contact us at (956) 489-1300 to get started today.
Why Choose Us as Your Truck Accident Lawyers in Laredo?
For over two decades, the Law Office of Wawi Tijerina has been devoted to recovering compensation for injury victims, including against large trucking companies and their powerful insurers. We offer the following advantages to your truck accident claim in Laredo:
- Free consultations and no fees until after we settle or win your case
- We welcome Spanish-speaking clients regardless of their migrant status
- Founding attorney, Wawi Tijerina, has been a dedicated public servant for underserved communities and understands the hardship an accident has on families
- We take the time to get to know our clients through open communication, enabling us to make a truly compelling claim for their full compensation as we personally witness the impacts of the truck accident on their lives
- Our track record of success in Texas commercial truck accident claims puts the powerful voice of renowned client-advocate, Wawi Tijerina, behind your case
Sadly, Texas has the highest number of commercial truck accident deaths in the United States, outdistancing the second-highest truck accident state, California, by nearly double. With Wawi Tijerina Law on your side, you are NOT alone against truck companies and their insurance providers who are ready to protect their profits at your expense.
Common Causes of Truck Accidents in Texas
Not only do large commercial trucks outweigh and outsize average family vehicles, but they also have extended blind spots, make wide turns, and require long stopping times. Complex mechanical and electrical systems must function at their optimal best to ensure the safety of others on the road, and drivers must remain alert and vigilant. Common causes of truck accidents in Laredo and throughout Texas include the following:
- Distracted driving
- Unsafe lane changes
- Failure to yield the right of way
- Improper merging
- Tailgating
- Drowsy driving
- Tire blowouts
- Unbalanced loads
- Mechanical failures
- Intoxication
Trucks and their trailers are unwieldy and difficult to maneuver. All entities involved in the maintenance, loading, and operating of a large commercial truck owe a duty of care to take all reasonable measures to prevent causing an accident and injury to others on the road. When one of them makes a mistake, ignores a problem, or takes unnecessary risks and the result is an accident with injuries and damages to the victim, the responsible party is liable for the victim’s damages.
How Do FMCSA Regulations Impact a Truck Accident Claim In Texas?
Freight-carrying trucks cross state lines and even national borders, requiring federal regulations to apply to all commercial carrier vehicles. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has many regulations in place to maximize safety in all aspects of the trucking industry, including the following:
- Weight limits
- Driver qualifications and training requirements
- Limits on hours of service
- Mandatory breaks
- Required logging of driving hours
- Requirements for regular truck inspections
- Regulations for routine maintenance and prompt repairs
- Regulations for securing loads and the types of equipment used to secure various types of cargo
- Regulations for alcohol and drug testing at hiring and at random for hired drivers
- Standards for parts and equipment
- Training for transporting hazardous materials
The FMCSA enforces regulations through inspections, reviews, investigations, and penalties for violations.
All entities involved in the trucking industry must adhere to FMCSA regulations. Cutting corners, intentionally violating regulations, or negligence in applying regulatory standards leaves the negligent party liable for damages.
Types of Laredo Truck Accidents That Cause Injury to Others
Because of the immense height and weight of commercial trucks and the extended length of the trailer, a commercial truck accident in Texas is a disastrous scene on any roadway, often blocking multiple lanes or causing destruction to the surrounding area. Common types of truck accidents in Laredo include the following:
- Tire blowouts
- T-bone collisions
- Rear-end collisions
- Head-on collisions
- Sideswipes
- Jackknife accidents (the truck and trailer come out of alignment, crashing in the shape of a partly open jackknife)
- Roadway departures
- Multi-car pileups
- Tip-overs and rollovers
- Cargo spill accidents
- Underride accidents (a car lodges below a truck’s trailer)
- Override accidents (The truck collides with a car and drives up and over it)
Some of the worst truck accident disasters in Texas can cause chemical or fuel spills, fires, and explosions that can impact entire communities.
Injuries in Texas Truck Accidents In Laredo
Most truck accident injuries occur to the occupants of other vehicles, not the truck driver. According to the National Safety Council, about 70% of truck accident fatalities occur to motorists in smaller vehicles such as motorcycles — an expert motorcycle accident attorney in Laredo can give legal assistance in this case. Common injuries in Texas truck accident claims include:
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Fractures
- Neck injuries
- Back injuries
- Shoulder injuries
- Knee injuries
- Chest/thoracic injuries
- Internal organ damage
- Spinal cord damage
- Facial trauma
- Burns
- Crush injuries
- Traumatic amputations
- Soft-tissue injuries, bruises, and lacerations
Some truck accidents cause wrongful death, particularly deadly truck underride and override accidents, jackknife accidents, rollovers, and chain reaction truck accidents — this is why it is important to call a Laredo wrongful death attorney.
Why Determining Liability In Truck Accidents Is Challenging
The trucking industry is complex, requiring every involved entity to take all precautions to ensure the safe operation of the truck. When serious injuries occur in a truck accident, a thorough investigation is necessary to determine how the accident happened, who was at fault, and what entity is liable for damages. Depending on the results of the investigation, the liable party could be one of the following:
- The driver if they are an independent contractor
- The trucking company
- A truck maintenance company
- The manufacturer of a defective truck part
- A negligent freight loading company
- A third-party driver
- A negligent road maintenance or roadway designing agency
In some cases, multiple parties could share liability. A truck accident victim can recover compensation from claims against any entity that contributed to the accident injuries.
Steps to Take After a Truck Accident in Laredo
Truck accidents are terrifying scenes, and sometimes injuries are so severe that an injury victim can do nothing other than wait for help to arrive. But if you’re able to use your phone without causing further injury—or have an uninjured person use it for you—it becomes a critical tool to document evidence of liability. After a commercial truck accident in Texas, do the following:
- First, call 911 to report the accident and give reasonable aid and comfort to injury victims
- Then, take photos of the damaged truck and damage to your vehicle
- Photograph the truck’s ID number
- Take photos of the accident scene including anything related to the accident such as an intersection, signal light, and skid marks
- Photograph any visible injuries
- Add the contact information of the truck driver and trucking company
- Add the contact information of any eyewitnesses to the accident
Always go to the hospital immediately after an accident and tell the doctor about every symptom, even if it’s mild. Ask for a detailed medical report and a copy of the police report. Then, reach out to the Laredo truck accident lawyers at Wawi Tijerina Law before dealing with the insurance company.
If your symptoms are severe due to a something serious such as head trauma, contact a brain injury attorney in Laredo to pursue compensation for your suffering.
What Is the Process of a Texas Truck Accident Claim?
After a truck accident, injury victims often face a lengthy recovery process. It may feel overwhelming to face a complex legal process while managing doctors’ appointments, medical procedures, and sometimes physical and occupational therapy to reach the maximum medical improvement for your injury. Fortunately, by hiring a truck accident attorney, your attorney navigates the claim process on your behalf by doing the following:
- Handling all communication with the trucking and insurance companies
- Conducting an investigation into the accident to determine the cause, the negligence involved, the liable party, and the appropriate insurance company
- Consulting with mechanical experts, crash forensics, and accident reconstruction specialists
- Documenting compelling evidence of liability to present to the insurance company
- Carefully calculating your economic damages and anticipated future damages related to the injury
- Assigning a monetary amount to your non-economic damages, like pain and suffering
- Presenting your findings to the appropriate insurance company in a demand package
- Negotiating with the insurance company to arrive at the highest possible settlement for your damages
- Arriving at a settlement amount (the most common outcome)
Most claims end in an ample settlement for the damages, but your Laredo truck attorney prepares every case as though for court so they are fully trial-ready should the case require litigation if the insurance company denies, delays, or undervalues your claim.
What Is the Statute of Limitations for Texas Truck Accident Claims?
If the insurance company wrongfully denies the claim or doesn’t offer an acceptable settlement to cover the damages, the case may proceed to court for a judge and jury to decide. Your attorney must file your lawsuit petition within the state’s statute of limitations. Texas allows up to two years from the accident date for accident victims to file a claim for their damages.
There are only limited exceptions to the two-year statute of limitations, such as for cases of delayed discovery of an injury, an injury victim’s incapacitation for a significant period after the accident, or when a minor suffers an injury. When a child is injured in a Texas truck accident, they have up to two years from their 18th birthday to file a lawsuit.
What Can I Recover In a Texas Truck Accident Claim?
Truck accidents cause painful injuries and costly damages. Most Texas truck accident claims result in compensation for damages such as the following:
- Property damage to a vehicle
- Medical expenses
- Future medical care costs related to the injury
- Lost wages
- Future income loss
- Diminished future earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Other non-economic damages that apply in some cases such as traumatic limb loss, disfigurement, PTSD, and loss of enjoyment of life compensation
Compensation for non-economic damages cannot erase the pain and suffering of truck accident injuries, but it provides a sense of justice and accountability for injury victims.
What If I Was Partly at Fault for a Truck Accident In Texas?
Texas has fault-based insurance laws holding the driver or other entity at fault for an accident liable for damages to injury victims. This is a modified comparative negligence system. Under Texas Sec. 33.001, the law states the following:
“The trier of fact, as to each cause of action asserted, shall determine the percentage of responsibility, stated in whole numbers, for the following persons with respect to each person’s causing or contributing to cause in any way the harm for which recovery of damages is sought, whether by negligent act or omission, by any defective or unreasonably dangerous product, by other conduct or activity that violates an applicable legal standard, or by … each claimant; each defendant; each settling person; and each responsible third party.”
Under this law, each driver involved in a Laredo truck accident, as well as any other party that contributed to the accident, such as a negligent truck maintenance company, is assigned a percentage of fault according to their actions and how they contributed to the accident. In Texas, an injury victim may still recover a portion of their damages even if they contributed to the cause of the accident as long as they were not more than 50% at fault. Then, the insurance company subtracts the injury victim’s percentage of fault from the amount they pay out on the claim.
How Does Modified Comparative Negligence Work?
Modified comparative negligence allows you to file a claim as long as you didn’t contribute more than 50% to the cause of the accident. For example, if a truck driver makes an unsafe lane change and causes an accident, but their insurance adjuster finds that you didn’t have your headlights on and it was raining, they could assign you 40% of the fault for the accident. If your damages total $100,000, you could still recover $60,000.
Although this law benefits you if you contributed to the cause of the accident, it sometimes incentivizes insurance companies to assign an undue portion of fault to injury victims to reduce the amount of a payout and protect their profits.
A proactive Laredo truck accident lawyer from Wawi Tijerina Law protects against these and other insurance company tactics to maximize the amount you recover in your claim.
Call The Laredo Truck Accident Lawyers at Wawi Tijerina Law
After the trauma of a truck accident, you shouldn’t have to handle the distress of dealing with insurance companies that may try to undervalue your claim, dispute your doctor’s recommended medical care, or assign you an undue portion of fault for the accident so they can reduce the amount they have to pay out on your claim. Contact the Laredo truck accident lawyers at Wawi Tijerina Law for representation from an attorney with knowledge, dedication, and experience. Call or text us today at (956) 489-1300 to learn more about your options.