Are you nervous when driving in the Hattiesburg or Greenville areas and you find yourself surrounded by semi-trucks? If so, you’re not alone. Many passenger vehicle drivers feel uneasy when passing, being passed by, or being boxed in by big rigs. There’s good reason to feel this way, too. It doesn’t take much contact for these massive trucks to cause a serious motor vehicle accident that leaves devastation in its wake.
Far too often, victims of these truck accidents are left with serious injuries. While they struggle to recover their physical health and return to their normal day-to-day life, they are often left trying to figure out how to make ends meet. This is because the medical expenses related to these wrecks can quickly mount, and victims are usually unable to work for a significant period of time, leading to lost wages. In some instances they are even left disabled and unable to work for the foreseeable future.
Although a personal injury lawsuit can help alleviate these financial losses and provide a sense of closure, many people think that the full extent of their damages is unrecoverable. This isn’t true.
While an individual trucker may not have the financial resources to pay for all of a truck accident victim’s medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering, his or her employer might. Under the laws of vicarious liability, a trucker’s employer may be held liable for damages stemming from a truck accident caused by a trucker’s negligence. In order to prevail on one of these claims, a truck accident victim must show:
- that the trucker was on the clock
- he or she was performing his or her job duties, and
- the trucker’s negligence caused, or at least significantly contributed, to the crash in question
These factors can be more challenging to prove than anticipated, which can quickly become overwhelming if you don’t know what to do in the aftermath of a truck accident. To start, you need to focus on gathering as much information as possible, whether from police reports, accident reports, employment records, trucking logs, or witness accounts. Then, once you have that information, you can focus on developing the best strategy moving forward, which may include taking legal action.
However, don’t let the time and effort of the process scare you into inaction. Instead, surround yourself with those who support you in your endeavor to recover what was wrongfully taken from you.
