Truck Driver Businesses and Accident Liability

There are thousands of trucks on the roads of the United States these days that transport millions of items ranging from clothing to food to electronics to paper materials. If the number of trucks on the roads were to decrease incredibly the country’s economy would be in an obvious decline. Truck accidents occur every day of the week, accounting for three percent of all traffic accidents on the roads of the country. Truck accidents are responsible for 5,000 deaths and 130,000 injuries each year and they are so dangerous because trucks are 40 times heavier than passenger cars. Running a truck driver business is a difficult venture to partake in, especially when a driver gets into an accident.

Truck Company Liability

When a truck accident occurs, liability can be placed on the trucking company if the court involved in the case so deems that the company has been found to be at fault for the accident. For a trucking company to be found liable in a truck accident case the plaintiff’s attorney will need to prove the following:

1. The defendant (trucking company) owed the plaintiff a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent injury under the circumstances while on the roads.
2. The defendant failed to exercise reasonable care by breaching the duty owed to the plaintiff.
3. The defendant’s failure to apply reasonable care caused the plaintiff’s injury.

Truck Company Accident Insurance

Truck companies are federally required by law to have driver liability insurance. If the company is found without this insurance, they can be punished with fines and other penalties, including the shutting down of the company after an investigation. Trucking companies are required to have insurance for every driver that they hire to drive a truck, no matter how far the trip will last.

Truck Company Accident Defenses

After an attorney has been hired to represent a trucking company, the attorney will then determine which defense to use for the trucking company once litigation begins. The same defenses used for truck drivers can be used for trucking companies. The two most popular defenses include comparative fault and assumption of risk. Comparative fault is when the plaintiff is found to have the same fault or more fault than the defendant does and assumption of risk occurs when the plaintiff subjectively knows a risk involved with an activity and then knowingly performs that activity.

Determining Fault in a Big Rig Accident

Determining the fault in a trucking accident is difficult to accomplish because there are so many people that can be deemed at fault. There are the truck driver, the other driver, the trucking company, the owner of the truck, the truck manufacturer, the brake manufacturer, the inspection company and many more entities.