Bozeman Truck Accident Lawyer

Truck accidents are more severe than regular car accidents. The increase in consumerism has made the movement of goods and therefore trucks more prevalent on the road. Due to their bigger size and heavier cargo, they can be much more damaging and can potentially cause more serious injuries or even catastrophic damages than accidents caused by smaller vehicles. A victim in a truck accident can suffer severe physical, emotional, and financial injuries.

The gravity of severe truck accidents can lead some insurers/opposing parties to refute any payment of recovery. Insurers may try to lowball you or lawyers may try to intimidate you into taking an unfair settlement. At Beck, Amsden & Staples, our Bozeman truck accident attorneys will not back down from the threats of anyone. We will fight for you every step of the way. Contact us today for your free consultation.

The Frequency of Truck Accidents

Truck accidents are surprisingly more of a common incident than popular culture might have you believe. From 2009 to 2020, there has been an increase of fifty-two (52%) of truck accidents in the United States. This amounts to an increase of 439,206 large trucks that were involved in vehicle crashes. Of all vehicular accidents where at least one individual died, seventy-four percent (74%) involved a large truck. In 2020, there were 4,965 fatalities that included large trucks.

Common Causes of Truck Accidents

Truck accidents can cause a normal car crash into a potentially fatal accident. Common causes of truck accidents include:

Fatigue
Distracted driving
Driving aggressively
Cargo overloading or improper loading
Driving under the influence of drugs/alcohol
Speeding
Lack of proper training
Brake failure

Common Types of Truck Accidents

Given the length and size of truck accidents, they can occur in a couple of different unique ways. Here are some of the more common types of truck accidents:

Wide Turn Accidents: Trucks need a large extra space when they make a right turn. A smaller vehicle that a truck driver does not see in his or her blind spot could cause a truck accident to occur.
Truck Rollovers: Truck rollovers are some of the scariest accidents and can end up blocking multiple lanes.
Tire Blowouts: TIre air pressure is vital to trucks. While a blown tire is scary no matter what vehicle, tire blowouts can be devastating given the weight of the vehicle.
Blind Spots: Blind spots can occur when a truck driver changes lanes on either his or her right or left side.
Jackknife: A jackknife accident occurs when a truck breaks too soon and skids to form a 90-degree angle between the carriage and the cab. These can cause massive pile-ups and devastating personal injuries.

Elements of Bozeman Track Accident Claims

Truck accidents fall under the area of law known as negligence. In a negligence claim, the plaintiff is required to prove a few elements:

Duty – Duty of care means that any party must exercise measures to protect other people from harm. For example, a truck driver must exercise utmost caution in driving so as to prevent any accident from occurring.
Breach – If an accident occurred due to negligence from one party, this means that the duty of care has been breached.
Damages – Finally, the most crucial component of damage claims is proving damages. You must prove, for example, that your injuries resulted from the accident. The car damages must have come from the truck accident and not something prior to it.

Comparative Negligence

A potential bar to claim in some states is if your negligence as the victim led to the accident occurring. However, in Montana, the state follows a doctrine known as “comparative negligence”. This applies to Bozeman as well. In a state that follows comparative negligence, a victim can get into an accident so long as the fault of the victim is evaluated to be less than the negligence of other parties. The potential recovery may decrease if the victim partakes in negligence, but the key point is that it is not a complete bar to recovery.

Recovering Compensation

If you are able to successfully prove the elements of a negligence claim in a truck accident, you then must prove that the injuries you incurred are able to provide compensation. This is why insurers are highly attuned to the idea of fault as the party at fault is required to cover the injuries that are due compensation. Claims typically fall into three buckets: Economic damages, non-economic damages, and punitive damages (a form of non-economic damage).

Economic Damages – These are compensatory damages that are meant to compensate you for quantifiable losses such as:

Medical bills – Doctor’s appointments, prescription pills, ambulance fees, surgery, hospital bills
Lost income – You can be compensated for all the times you missed work due to the injury. If your disability causes permanent incapacity to work, you can be compensated for the future salary you can no longer earn.
Property damage – Damaged cars, phones, heirlooms, etc.
Other out-of-pocket expenses – Housekeeping services while you are immobile, gasoline fees, installation of wheelchair ramps, etc.

Non-Economic Damages – These are compensatory damages that are compensation for non-quantifiable losses such as:

Loss of quality of life
Loss of consortium – This is filed by a spouse who has lost their partner due to the accident
Loss of society – This is filed by a family member or friend who lost their loved one after the accident
Physical pain and suffering
Emotional Trauma
Depression and anxiety
Punitive damages – Punitive damages are only awarded in the most extreme of cases. They are usually awarded to you by the court if the at-fault party is found to have acted with malice when they caused the incident.

Call our Bozeman Truck Accident Lawyers Today

If you or a loved one has been involved in a truck accident, the chances are high that your life will be forever altered. Taking legal action may be your best option to prevent you or your loved one from being forever hampered by the incurred injuries. At Beck, Amsden & Staples, we take these claims seriously as we know the impact they can have on your life. Don’t let anyone force you into settling for less than what you deserve. Call our Bozeman truck accident lawyers today for your free consultation.