The Benefits of Hiring a Truck Accident Lawyer

In 2022, over 120,000 large trucks were involved in injury crashes in the United States. At The Law Offices of L. Morgan Martin, P.A., the specialized attention we give each case allows us to achieve exceptional results for our clients. If you have been injured in an accident with a commercial truck, our Conway trucking crash injury lawyers are not afraid to provide aggressive representation against the truck driver, trucking company, and any other parties involved.

Proving Liability

A truck accident lawyer will gather the necessary evidence to prove that the truck driver was negligent, causing your accident and injuries. Negligence can be broken down into four components:

• Duty of care: Truck drivers (like all road users) have a duty to follow traffic regulations to ensure the safety of others. Commercial drivers also have to adhere to federal motor carrier regulations.
• Breach of duty: A truck driver violates this duty of care when failing to abide by state or federal laws, either through an act or omission.
• Causation: You must show that the truck driver’s actions set into motion a chain of events causing your accident (cause-in-fact) and that your injuries were a foreseeable consequence (legal cause).
• Damages: To collect compensation as a result of the truck driver’s negligence, you must have suffered actual harm. These will include your injuries and other measurable losses (lost wages, medical expenses, pain and suffering, etc.)

Knowledge of Trucking Regulations

Truck drivers must adhere to the regulations issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), including the following:

• Manufacturing requirements for commercial vehicles (positioning of headlamps and taillights, illumination of controls and indicators, and vehicle dimensions)
• Regulations on transportation of hazardous materials
• Hours of service regulations, regarding the number of hours drivers are allowed to be on duty, mandatory rest periods, and exceptions to the permitted hours. Driver status categories include on-duty (performing job-related tasks, but not driving), driving, off-duty, and sleeper berth (rest time). These regulations are put in place to avoid trucker fatigue.

Being well-versed in federal regulations, a truck accident lawyer will know what evidence to look for while conducting an investigation of the accident.

Knowledge of Electronic Logging Devices

Most commercial trucks are equipped with electronic logging devices (ELD) to record the vehicle status at any given time. An ELD is computerized hardware that attaches to a truck’s engine, recording when the engine is on or off, the number of miles driven, and whether the vehicle is in motion.

Under the ELD Rule, the Department of Transportation (DOT) requires the following commercial vehicles to install an ELD:

• Vehicles that have a gross weight of more than 10,001 pounds
• Vehicles that are designed to transport at least 16 passengers, not for compensation
• Vehicles that are designed to transport at least nine passengers for compensation
• Commercial motorists who are legally required to keep records of duty status (RODS)
• A truck transporting hazardous materials in a large enough quantity that it requires placards (warning signs)

Since an ELD will show the number of hours and location data of the vehicle every 60 minutes, this data can be extremely useful in proving liability. ELD data may indicate if a trucker drove past the maximum hours allowed under the HOS regulations. This can make a major difference, allowing you to recover maximum compensation on your truck accident claim.

Speak with Our Conway Trucking Crash Injury Lawyers Today

A truck accident can result in devastating injuries, forcing you to spend thousands of dollars in medical expenses, all while forgoing valuable income. If you have been in a truck accident, the attorneys at the Law Offices of L. Morgan Martin, P.A., are ready to fight for the compensation that you deserve. To arrange your complimentary meeting with a Conway trucking crash injury lawyer, contact us online or by phone today.